I am delighted to be part of the consultative group that will be working with Jan Royall to develop Labour’s policy review on politics and young people.

Here’s the press release:

Labour today announced details of its review of what makes politics count for young people in a new effort to reconnect with a vital section of the British public.

Labour’s policy review, announced by party leader Ed Miliband, will focus on reaching out the public, reconnecting the Labour party with the lives of people with whom the party lost touch.

Central to that, and central to Labour’s vision of a new politics, is greater engagement with young people, leading to greater involvement of young people in Britain’s politics and Britain’s democracy.

Young people aged 18-25 showed the biggest increase in participation of any age group in last year’s general election, reversing the trend of recent elections and clearly showing that, contrary to a number of forecasts, young people are interested in politics and are engaged in politics and the political process.

Jan Royall, Labour’s Leader in the House of Lords, said:

“Many young people are interested in politics. Last year’s election showed that. Politics and politicians must respond to that – and Labour’s review will lead the way.

“We want to see greater involvement of young people in politics. But to achieve that, politics and politicians must change. Too often, politics and politicians are seen as removed and remote from people’s lives – especially from the lives of young people.

“Young people might be passionate about issues, and actively involved in a whole range of projects which aim to bring about change – but many feel alienated from traditional politics and traditional political structures.

“That alienation is not helped by policy measures which undermine provision for young people. For example: while no-one would support violent protest, young people were understandably furious in the recent row over tuition fees, and it’s clear that many young people are determined to make their views count in the ballot b ox at the next possible opportunity.

“And while an issue like tuition fees is important, a central focus in our review will be to look at making politics work better for young people in all walks of life, from all parts of the country, and with a wide range of personal, family and broader ambitions.”

Baroness Royall will lead Labour’s review of what makes politics count for young people. The review will look at a range of key issues, including:

- How young people perceive politics – both their perception of politicians and their perception of political issues

- Why the widespread interest of young people in politics – including single-issue politics and political groups – translates less well into an interest in political parties

- What young people want from politics, from political parties and from politicians

- How politics, politicians and political parties can make politics more relevant to young people

- How far new technologies and modern media can help bridge the gap between young people and politics

As well as a range of innovations and events to talk with young people themselves, Jan Royall will chair a consultative group of these vital issues. The group will include:

Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang – Co-Chair of the Teen 2015 Political Literacy campaign

Dean Carlin – Chair of Labour Students

Maurice Glasman – Labour Peer and Academic

Rich Jones – CEO, Joshua Project

Eluned Morgan, Labour Peer

Callum Munro – Labour Party NEC Youth Rep

Tulip Siddiq – Camden Councillor

Suzy Stride – Tutor & Retention Worker, City Gateway

Chelsea Walsh – Sixth Form student and member of the UK Youth Parliament

Here’s an article I wrote recently which was published on the Liberal Conspiracy website:

I very rarely cry. It’s just not me. But attending the ‘We Love Highgate Library’ day and being greeted by children standing in the cold with banners proclaiming their love for their local library made me feel a bit teary.

But that wasn’t where it ended. Julian Barnes dramatically declared that he would go down on one knee to stop me from making cuts. Roger Lloyd Pack made a passionate plea about the library. I tried to explain the funding fallout but couldn’t finish my now well-rehearsed spiel before Danny Scheinmann interrupted to present me with a copy of his book ‘Random Acts of Heroic Love’. ‘I’ve inscribed it for you Councillor Siddiq’ he said. With a heavy heart, I opened the book which stated ‘Always do the right thing’ in a lopsided scrawl.

What is the right thing? Don’t all elected representatives want to do the right thing? Are we always equipped with tools to do the right thing?

On the way home I wondered if the three times shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize author, the Only Fools and Horses actor and the hundreds of little children knew the scale of the dilemma this situation presented for me and my Labour colleagues.

After I was elected last year and put in the cabinet in Camden, I was told immediately that there was a £80 – £100 million funding shortfall in the council budget due to cuts from national government. I was instructed to model a 20 – 25% cut over the next three years across my culture budget of 14 million pounds. This included the libraries budget where 13 libraries cost me £8 million. Over the next three years, I had to take out £2 million but continue to provide an efficient library service.

The initial recommendation from the officers was to go from 13 libraries in Camden down to 4. I rejected that proposal immediately. It wasn’t an option to cLose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercise down 9 libraries – age of austerity or not. Libraries are the cornerstones of our community – people I have met have told me how their library helped them educate themselves, provided them with a quiet space to do their homework, access books they’d not otherwise be able to afford. All this made me determined to protect our libraries as much as possible. In the first financial year, I managed to take out £400,000 by making backroom efficiencies such as cutting management costs, reducing stock purchases and lowering transport costs.

After much deliberation, I decided to launch a consultation to gather the views of library users themselves. Never mind the politicians and officers sitting in dark rooms in the Town Hall. If we’re all in this together, we need to make collective decisions. The survey in the consultation has had nearly 3000 responses in three weeks. Of course people are hostile to the consultation – most don’t believe the libraries fund should be touched. It’s not ‘the right thing to do’. But what is the right thing to do? If we lessen the cuts to libraries, we’ll need to increase cuts to the education unit, to the adult social care budget or to the childcare budget in order to make up the deficit.

However, Labour councillors like me will not take the easy option when making cuts. Yes we’re in tough economic times and local library provision will change but we will make the best use of our limited resources.

Alongside ideas like charging for wi-fi and increasing fines on late book returns, I’m thinking more creatively about generating revenue. I’ve done a property assessment of the libraries to see if we have any land that can be outsourced to coffee shops. One of our libraries has an exhibition area which I’m hoping to derive income from. I’ve also looked at sharing management costs with neighbouring boroughs. Furthermore, I’m examining the actions of other boroughs and it looks like one local authority has transferred their libraries to a social enterprise which has reduced its costs. While this is not wholly appropriate for Camden’s libraries, it is an option that the borough has used for its sports centres.

Another option I’m exploring is that of a community asset transfer. The idea is to empower Camden’s communities by transferring the management and /or the ownership of a library (i.e. a publically owned asset) to a community group. There’s one particular group of library users who are keen on this idea. Although this is very much a work in progress and no decisions will be made until the consultation is completed, I am exploring potential models with the interested library users.

The options range between allowing the asset i.e. the library to be transferred on a short lease so that the library is given to the community organisation on a lease for a fixed period of years or at an annual rent. This means the community organisation will manage and staff the asset but Camden could still share the maintenance costs with the community organisation.

However, another option is that the library is transferred to a community organisation on a long lease. In this instance, the community organisation buys a lease of more than 22 years on the asset and pays the council a low annual ground rent. In this arrangement, the lessee will take on all the responsibilities of a freehold owner. In practical terms, this will mean that the community organisation will have security of ownership of the library and the community organisation can apply for grant funding that we, as a council, would not be eligible for. There might be an option of selling a long leasehold to a community organisation below market value which would make this model feasible.

However, even these “big society” solutions do not amount to a panacea. Coalition ministers think councils can just offload libraries, community centres and even schools onto communities and let them get on with it, but building a stronger society means working in partnership with local people to protect services.

As a Labour council, it is our responsibility to ensure that a community organisation taking over an asset is provided with training. Frontloading these cuts will get in the way of local councillors who are trying ‘to do the right thing’. I believe in transferring the power from local authorities to the community but I don’t believe in simply transferring the burden. I wish our libraries; our older people’s services and our children’s centres could be saved by a “random act of heroic love”. Last week the opposition parties ‘alternative budgets’ comprised sacking union reps and diverting funds away from school repairs. In the face of the Conservative-Lib Dem cuts, the Labour way forward is to get as cLose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercise as we can to doing the right thing. To me, this is through consultation, creative thinking and tireless examination of all available options to deliver for the people who elected me.

In response to Councillor Don Williams’ letter in the local papers, I have responded and clarified the level of funding that is being cut from Camden’s overall budget.

You can read my letter here:

Dear Editor

It is no secret that local councillors are making extremely difficult decisions on the future of services in Camden. The pressure on local government budgets from national government is immense and unprecedented. However, it is simply not acceptable for opposition councillors to mislead constituents about the funding shortfall.

Councillor Don Williams claims in his letter last week that 25% of library funding is being cut over the next three years whereas the overall reduction in government funding is 10% of Camden’s spending. This is, in a word, inaccurate. The overall reduction to Camden’s spending is not 10%. Over the 4 years of the spending review period, central government support to local government is estimated to fall by at least 26%.

It is erroneous to compare the figure for reductions in library service over the next 3 years to the figure for government grants for one year.

Councillor Williams is fully aware that we are currently pursuing the kinds of innovative solutions he has listed, including encouraging volunteering. He is also aware that we have already taken out £400,000 from the library service through efficiencies such as reduced back office, shared procurement for stock etc.

In these tough economic times, our aim should be to pull together regardless of political affiliation and work collectively for our constituents. This should not be a time to indulge in (deceptive) political point scoring.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Tulip Siddiq
Cabinet member for culture

You will all be aware that the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government has cut local government funding. As a result, there is less money for local services such as libraries.

I believe that libraries are the cornerstones of our community and everyone in Camden realises their value.

I also believe it is crucial that the public have a say in how their library service changes and develops.

We have therefore launched a libraries consultation to find out your views.

Please fill out the survey at your local library or online here:

http://camden.xarg.co.uk/surveys/respond?survey_id=469001

Your opinion matters greatly to us, as we want you to help us make the best decisions possible in difficult circumstances.

As you may know, I’ve been active in my horror at the scope and scale of the future Tory/Lib Dem cuts, and I was one of 130 labour councillors who signed a letter today to The Times on the subject.

If you didn’t get hold of a copy of the paper, here’s the letter I signed:

Dear Sir,

We welcome the discussion that has been opened following yesterday’s letter by the Liberal Democrat councillors regarding the Tory-Lib Dem Government’s funding cuts to local authorities. It is important that as local councillors we stand together for our communities who will suffer as the result of the severe and frontloaded cuts to local authorities. We are therefore appealing through your columns for cross party co-operation in response to this urgent matter.

The Prime Minister David Cameron himself acknowledged in a speech in 2009 that “local government is officially the most efficient part of the public sector”. As councillors and elected Mayors we will work to continue to drive down the costs of delivering quality public services. However, we feel that Secretary of State Eric Pickles has been disingenuous about the impact his cuts will have on our ability to provide services. The design and depth of the cuts to local authority budgets will undoubtedly hurt local economies and damage frontline services.

Because of the costly long term impacts these cuts will have to our communities and our local economies we believe it is important that we keep the discussion with the Government open. We therefore invite Liberal Democrat councillors to join us in writing to their fellow Liberal Democrat, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, to ask him to ask the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles to look again at the unfairness of the Tory-Lib Dem Government’s cuts.

Our residents all across the country are relying on councillors of all parties to work together in the interests of the public and be their voice during tough times.