The Public Accounts Committee looked again at the supply of PPE and heard from companies that routinely supplied the NHS and the social care sector but who didn't get a look in from the Government in March 2020. We also learnt that there is nearly 10,000 shipping containers worth of PPE on our docks unused. See here to read a transcript of the meeting.
Today I publish my Annual Report as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee.
This report is published 12 months in which Whitehall has been tasked with addressing the most significant strategic issues the UK has been presented with in several generations.
Read the report in full by clicking the pdf link below.
Read my Monthly Report for May 2021 here.
Homes should be homes – not speculative investment opportunities for finance vehicles or absentee landlords who have no interest in it being a home.
The Government needs to step up and fix the housing market.
I restarted my Hackney doorstep surgeries this week where inadequate and overcrowded housing continues to dominate as a top issue. I’ll keep pressing the Government to build more decent and properly affordable homes.
Thank you Sustainable Hackney for an interesting discussion with lots of expert insight.
I'll keep pressing the Government to spell out the detail behind the path to Net Zero.
If levelling up means anything, it should not mean levelling down or keeping people in Hackney squeezed into inappropriate and overcrowded accommodation.
See me press the Prime Minister to build more good-quality, properly affordable housing in Hackney and in London.
See my full speech here.
See this excellent video from St Mungos's on how we can be #HomelessWise
There's two easy ways you can help people sleeping rough:
1). Smile
2). Contact Streetlink (website here)
The Government set out its legislative agenda in the Queen's Speech this week. I spoke in the debate that followed and challenged the Government for, again, failing to fix the long-term issues it keeps avoiding.
Copyright: Sean Pollock
Two COVID-19 variants of concern (one first identified in India and the other first identified in South Africa) have been found in parts of Shoreditch and Dalston.
If you live or work in these parts and are over the age of 16, please get a COVID-19 PCR test even if you do not have any symptoms.
The affected areas are parts of Shoreditch (around Old Street and Great Eastern Street) and parts of Dalston town centre, (around Dalston Lane and Kingsland High Street). Find out if you live in an affected area by clicking here.