It was an honour to nominate Barley Massey, founder and owner of Hackney business 'Fabrications', for the All-Party Corporate Responsibility Group’s ‘2019 Responsible Business Champions’ award. Today I welcomed her in Parliament at the awards reception and thanked her for her business' 20 year dedication to championing sustainability in Hackney.
As a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on cycling, I know the real mental and physical health benefits that regular cycling can bring. Not only is regular cycling better for our health, it is also better for the environment.
It's estimated that around one million women cycle in the UK compared to three times as many men. Cycling UK want to double that number of female cyclists and get a million more women cycling.
Join me in taking their cycling pledge for the month of July:
It was a real pleasure hosting a productive meeting between the FA and Hackney Wick FC.
On the agenda was inclusion, investment, and better facilities for grassroots community football.
It was also a welcome reminder of the important role that sports plays in our communities – everything from building community spirit to keeping us fit and healthy (both physically and mentally).
The £11.7 billion of taxpayers’ money committed under the Government’s ‘Help to Buy: Equity Loan’ scheme is the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government’s (MHCLG) largest housing initiative by value. Yet it has done nothing to counter homelessness in Hackney or fix Hackney’s broken housing market.
I am happy to announce that I have launched a competition with the BBC for young people in Hackney to help design a future EastEnders set.
Entries can be by either drawing (minimum A4 paper) or making a 3-D model of a shop, house, or location that will help make the EastEnders set reflect the modern, up to date East End.
Trains are still skipping Hackney stations and I am still on the case.
I have already written to the Deputy Mayor for Transport, Heidi Alexander, to ask her what systems are in place to make sure Hackney isn’t always skipped if trains are running late. I will update you when I receive a reply.
If you’d like a direct update, or if you have any examples of London Overground skipping Hackney stops, please email me at meg.hillier.mp@parliament.uk with ‘London Overground’ in the subject line.
On Friday 17 May I hosted a second public meeting in London Fields with The Arch Company, the new owners of the railway arches and representatives from Guardians of the Arches.
The meeting provided an opportunity for local business owners to directly raise their concerns.
The owners informed us that the results from their Tenant’s Charter will be released in June, and I am working closely with the Guardians of the Arches to ensure that that the owners stand by their promise of having a ‘tenants’ first’ approach and that they listen to local business owners.
The London Assembly Health Committee published a report highlighting the inequalities in organ donation rates between white and black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.
Though organ donation shortages are relevant to all backgrounds, it is particularly acute for people with BAME heritage who are more likely to need an organ transplant, but less likely to get one. In the survey conducted for the report, the London Assembly Health Committee found that only 1% of BAME respondents were registered as organ donors.
Last winter, I had the privilege of selecting Hackney’s winning joke to compete in the final of the VoiceBox competition. VoiceBox is a UK-wide joke-telling competition run by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. It helps build young people’s confidence whilst raising awareness of the life-long importance of communication skills.
Today saw the final take place in Parliament. It was a real pleasure to see the talent on display from children across the UK. British comedy is in safe hands.
In the wake of last year’s River Lea oil spill, Sue Hayman (Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment) and I jointly hosted local campaigners, the Environmental Agency (EA), and the Canal & River Trust (CRT) at a roundtable meeting in Parliament
I am pleased that the EA has launched a ‘key messages’ service. You can now sign up to receive email notifications of significant and major environmental incidents in the Lower River Lea area.