Please join with me calling upon the Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to come to Croydon and meet with residents to explain why Croydon Council is being so badly funded when the area has some of the worst poverty that London has to offer and other richer areas surrounding us are being funded far more generously.

Croydon 2011 went up in flames

 – the youth rioted and we all said “never again”

Did our MPs forget?

They urgently need a reminder…..

Two out of three of Croydon MP’s voted for our borough to face local Government funding cuts of £44 million, whilst also voting for Surrey to the South to get £24 million of funding to offset the pain of the cuts.

Surrey is a lot richer than Croydon, what is happening?

 Croydon is also one of the boroughs in the UK with some of the lowest reserves according to Local Government Financial Statistics England No.25 2015. We are surrounded by boroughs with higher levels of reserves, therefore less need, but who have been given more generous financial settlements than Croydon.

In 2011 we Croydon residents cleared up the mess after the riots and have gone on since working hard to build a cohesive community, where everyone feels safe. Volunteering costs time and money and needs resources to be sustainable.

The socio-economic data for Croydon understates the scale of the social and economic inequalities that we face and that are getting worse.

·        Caps on rents in central London have forced many poor households out to Croydon;

·        The cost of sheltered housing for vulnerable groups means that parts of Croydon have very high levels of units for those who are alcohol or drug dependent schizophrenics; also for elderly residents moved out from inner London boroughs; we also have high numbers of children in Care who arrive here as unaccompanied minors. Where these units are owned by other boroughs they do not seem to appear on our data, but we deal with the issues that they bring…..

·        Croydon already has a high level of dependents compared to surrounding boroughs; most notably we have the highest number of children of any London borough. 23.1% of our population are 16 or under. 12% of the population are over 65 years of age.

·        25.2% of children in Croydon live in poverty; compared to 20.6% of children in England.

·        Key Stage 2 results for Croydon are among some of the worst in the Country, which is in stark contrast to the surrounding boroughs, but it is a very good indicator of levels of the impact of deprivation in Croydon…

·        The homelessness rate in Croydon is 5.1 per 1,000 compared to 2.3 per 1,000 households for England.

·        Households in temporary accommodation are 16.2 per 1,000 households compared to 2.6 per 1,000 households in England.

·        Households in bed and breakfast accommodation are 0.95 per 1,000 households compared to 0.19 per 1,000 households for England.

·        First-time entrants to the youth justice system is 555 per 100,000 10 – 17 year olds, compared to 441 per 100,000 for England.

·        Youth re-offending rates in Croydon are running at 46.6% compared to 35.4% for England.

·        Looked after children per 10,000 of the child population is 82 in Croydon compared to 60 in England overall.

·        Unaccompanied asylum seeking children per 10,000 of the child population is a staggering 34 compared to an England average of 1.6 per 10,000. 

·        There is a significant difference in life expectancy across the Borough for those living in areas of most deprivation of 9.1 years for men and 7.7 years for women.

There were good reasons behind civil unrest in Croydon in 2011. Inequality and deprivation breed social unrest. Politicians are here not just to grab power for themselves, but to represent all the people in their area and to create a socially cohesive society where people do not have to fear for their safety.

Cash-starving Croydon risks destabilising civil society – it is the death of a thousand cuts. After World War 2 politicians understood that we were in austerity together and that it was essential for social cohesion to hold the Country together as one Nation.

Please sign the petition to call for Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Secretary of State for Communities and local government to come to Croydon and meet with residents to explain why Croydon Council is being so badly funded.