Havering Council Meeting, 23rd July 2025 (Part One)

Councillors quiz cabinet members at Question Time (QT)¹. Environmental questions dominated, with 8 out of 15. Two critical issues weren’t asked: (1) Green Belt development, and (2) Air pollution.² There was however, a motion about the Launders Lane disaster.³

QT is critical and only 35 minutes were used of the 45 available. This suggests that the 15 questions limit should be scrapped. QT should end when the 45 minutes are complete. This would bring it into line with Parliament’s PMQ.⁴

Discussion

Barry Mugglestone’s interesting style buries questions in a blizzard of legislation references. For supplementary questions he says either councillors or members of the public haven’t kept him informed, so it’s their fault there’s a problem. David Taylor’s question about tree feathering narrowing the pavement outside Mawney school (Q10, 43minutes) was a classic example. He said he’d prioritise this in 2026. Result!

Philip Ruck (31) asked about cabinet members avoiding scrutiny committees. Ray Morgon conceded the point and, in effect, said they’d been ordered to attend. Based on answers by Chris Wilkins (35 and 45), Graham Williamson (53) and Natasha Summers (26) attendance might not mean enlightenment.

Finally, Viddy Persaud (39) raised the important question of the premature collection of Council Tax. Ray Morgon conceded this administrative error, apologised and moved on. It is impossible to avoid the thought that some people might have been thrust into a temporary overdraft. This is costly. Viddy didn’t pursue that point.

Best Question: Philip Ruck

Notes

1 Council Questions 23 July 2025.pdf All times come from this webcast Annotator Player

2 Gallows Corner is shut and perfect for a *Before-After* analysis.

3 Motion C proposed a debate about this issue. Motions.pdf Surprisingly it didn’t demand the reinstatement of the Statutory Nuisance Notice.

4 The weekly Prime Ministers Questions

Havering’s Overview and Scrutiny Board, 3rd July 2025

Introduction

Item 6, concerned sick leave, agency staff and its financial implications.¹ Sick leave levels, “[Have] fallen further to 9.9 days at 30th April 2025.” Appendix 2says this amounts to 20,807 days per year. National statistics say, “There was also a fall in days lost per worker, to 4.4 in 2024…”² Havering’s council is 125% above the national average at a cost of £2m p.a.

Stress, depression and mental health costs the council £610K and Muscular-skeletal costs £506K, both annually.³ These are the two biggest categories.

Councillors are a poor example for staff.⁴ In the six months to 5^th July 2025, 55 councillors were scheduled to attend a total of 460 meetings. They attended 386 – a 16% absentee rate.

The council is rotting from the head down.⁵

Discussion

There were important contributions from David Taylor (1:55).⁶ He said that agency staff were healthier. At (2: 04) he said ‘Millennials’ were very sickly. His best point was (2:19) when he posited causes of muscular-skeletal sick leave (£506K). He suggested one cause might be ‘Working from home’ with poor working conditions. Jane Keane pondered ‘tolerated’ sick leave as a reason for sick leave. She then discussed domestic abuse and sick leave. Other contributions were made by Matt Stanton, Dilip Patel and Martin Goode.

Officers made few substantive replies to councillors with too many ‘getting back’ with emails later.

Conclusion

The committee is a joke. There was 41% councillor absenteeism at this meeting. This ruins institutional memory. The contribution of Phillippa Crowder (2:29) demonstrated the power of that memory. It also destroys any development of forensic debating skills. Scrutiny should be uncompromising but this committee is cosy and nice.

Innovative strategies for bringing Havering’s statistics in line with national levels don’t exist.⁷ Questions about dismissals for poor staff attendance weren’t asked. Likewise, challenging failed strategies was obviously infra dig.

Councillors are complicit in accepting Havering’s sick leave culture.

Notes

1 HR 1 – Report.pdf

2 HR 2 – Appendix 1 and 2 OS Report – Data Dashboard.pdf See also Sickness absence in the UK labour market – Office for National Statistics Havering is trying to achieve 8 days of sick leave, which is, apparently a stretch target.

3 loc.cit Appendix 2b

4 Havering Councillors’ Attendance: 1st August 2023 – 24th January 2024 – Politics in Havering

5 Absentees: cllrs Ruck (he was present via Zoom which counts as an absence), Garrard, Godwin, Vincent and Anderson: 5 out of 12 (41%)

6 Annotator Player Timings refer to this webcast

7 Worse than that: the target set is 8 days sick leave, 3.6 days above the national level.

Café Society: Hornchurch

Hornchurch is dominated by national and international brands. They offer bland conformity, loyalty points and saturation advertising to get customers. And they are very successful. Fortunately, independents provide a treasured alternative.

Independents rely on knowing their customers and creating unique, welcoming environments. Staff are encouraged to know their customers and aren’t shy about telling them their name. Not with name tags but with a smile.

Le Moulin is a café owned by Hélène who is, appropriately enough, French. It is conveniently situated in central Hornchurch, long established and very successful. Its success isn’t because of ‘bland conformity, loyalty points and advertising’. Le Moulin relies on being excellent at what it does. And what does it do?

Obviously it’s a café serving hot and cold drinks but there is an extensive range of patisserie. Patisserie which isn’t mass produced and packaged in a factory. Nor are the cakes manufactured to fit in with a marketing strategy based on price.

There is an extensive offering of cold snacks, sandwiches and small plates of cooked food. These are very popular as are the different breads which are available.

Le Moulin caters for individual events like birthdays with bespoke cakes. And special occasions in the café are celebrated with High Tea. Independents work very hard at meeting the needs of their customers

The only downside to Le Moulin’s success is that it is often necessary to book a table to avoid disappointment. But! What a lovely thing it is that a café in Hornchurch is small and successful.

French’s Café in North Street is absolutely terrific for breakfast and traditional English cooked food. Like all independents, they move with the times working hard at providing a great experience for their customers. Competition is remorseless and they are agile enough to know their customers and their changing tastes.

A tale of two boroughs: Havering and Westminster’s Council Tax

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945)

Council tax was created by a panics-stricken Conservative government after the Poll Tax riots. Eight bands were created and were meant to be reviewed every five years. George Osborne’s fiscal extremism was the coup de grace for local finance.It destroyed any sense of reality for councillors who have resorted to borrowing to pay current expenditure. The local authority credit cardhas, as it were, been maxed out. Osborne and expanding duties made bankruptcy inevitable with a mountain of debt for future generations. But, as Orwell would have said: not all councils are equal.

The 2025-6 council tax for Westminster is astonishing. Band ‘D’ is the mid-point in the council tax system and they have set the charge at £1,019. 17 miles to the east, and on a different fiscal planet, Havering’s band ‘D’ charge is £2,313.55. This is above band ‘H’ in Westminster.¹

As might be expected, Westminster house prices are very high.² The first house available on Rightmove costs £2.6m. (The second house listed is £80m.) Being immensely rich means Westminster has many more band ‘H’ houses than Havering.³ Many more is a galactic under-statement. Romford constituency has 40 band ‘H’ houses, Hornchurch and Upminster has 320 and Westminster……..15,530!

Obviously their revenue base is huge. Westminster’s band ‘H’ council tax is £2,038. For Havering it is £4,627, which is too low.⁴

Havering has been wrecked by (a) national politicians and their cowardice, (b) Conservative extremism, (c) ever expanding duties for adult services and homelessness and (d) local delusions.

Notes

1 Westminster council tax bands & costs 2025/26

2 Properties For Sale in Westminster | Rightmove

3 d:\Users\Chris\Downloads\CTSOP2_1_adhoc_2015_2024 (1).zip 4 Council Tax bands and bills | London Borough of Havering

4 Council Tax bands and bills | London Borough of Havering

The Contaminated Land at Launders Lane, Rainham

“…..I am concerned that the LA [local authority] appear to have been very confused about the correct legal approach to this site through the decision-making process.”¹

Background

Havering Residents’ Association (HRA) aren’t leaders. Dithering and avoiding decision-making is a toxic legacy from their petty-minded Residents’ Associations days. Prior to this judgement they were tested by the Institutional Racism report and ULEZ. They failed on both occasions.

Havering’s Institutional Racism report was suppressed until the campaigning Romford Recorder emerged triumphant in court. Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ propositions were mocked in a campaign tinged with racism. No-one in the HRA leadership team understood that ULEZ was a public healthpolicy.

HRA never apologised for suppressing the Institutional Racism report or opposing ULEZ.²

Arnold’s Field, Launders Lane

Deputy-Leader Gillian Ford is HRA’s spokesperson. She said, “…the site belongs to them [the landowner] and it is their responsibility to make it safe – the ball is in their court and as they well know, we are ready to work with them to solve the problem.”³

Designating land as contaminated means the council controls the situation. Landowners of contaminated land are instructed to remediate their land.⁴ Gillian doesn’t understand that the council can turbo-charge action. The landowner wouldn’t be remediating the land voluntarily; they’d be under a legal obligation.

It is impossible to believe that anyone could look at a site which had 64 fires in a few months,⁵ and not think it was contaminated.

The council decided that the land was the lesser category ‘statutory nuisance’.⁶ This was refuted by the campaigners’ legal team, “The fires arising on this [sic] are clearly caused by the land being in a contaminated state, so it is not accepted that this is a nuisance under the EPA.⁷

The judge was forensically precise in her determination. “…. the LA [local authority] appear to have been very confused about the correct legal approach to this site….”⁸ This is a damning judicial rebuke. Continuous spontaneous combustion couldn’t be anything other than a consequence of toxic contamination.

The designation of Arnold’s Field as a contaminated site should be urgently expedited after years of procrastination.

Notes

1 Clear the Air in Havering, R (On the Application Of) v London Borough of Havering [2025] EWHC 1492 (Admin) (17 June 2025) para 105

2 See Havering’s Institutional Racism Report – Politics in Havering and also Anti-ULEZ Conservative councillor David Taylor was gracious in his mea culpa Havering’s ULEZ Data (davidtaylor.online)

3 Havering Council’s response to Arnolds Field judicial review | London Borough of Havering

4 Can I Be Prosecuted For The Contamination Of Land? – Stephensons Solicitors LLP

5 Arnolds Field: Illegal dump owners say clean-up plan blocked – BBC News

6 The council continued avoiding any responsibility. The judge noted, “….but also no action is being taken in respect of statutory nuisance.” Clear the Air in Havering, R (On the Application Of) v London Borough of Havering [2025] EWHC 1492 (Admin) (17 June 2025) para 31

7 loc.cit para 29

8 loc.cit para 105

Havering’s Council Tax 2025-6

Havering Council is bankrupt. The usual explanation is the cost of Adult Services and Homelessness. That’s glib. Council Tax was introduced in 1991 by a panic-stricken Conservative government reeling from the Poll Tax riots. They planned valuation reviews every five years, after which council tax would be recalibrated reflecting property price inflation. No reviews have taken place. Areas with massive property price inflation, like Havering, haven’t had council tax adjustments.

Havering’s Council Tax 2025

In 1991 a £320,000+ band ‘H’ house¹ in Havering had a council tax of £1070. This equates to 0.33% of its minimum value.

In 2025 a band ‘H’ property is worth about £2m.³ Council tax for band ‘H’ is £4,627, which is 0.23%. This doesn’t look much but it is a 30% difference.

Council tax has significantly reduced for band ‘H’’ property owners since 1991.

Inflation since 1991

Band ‘H’ houses were valued at £320,000+ in 1991. Using standard inflation, that increased to £733,720 in 2025.⁴ House price inflation is a multiple of standard inflation. A 1991 £320,000+ house is now £2,157,601,⁵ an inflation rate of 574%.

Council Tax is a failure

Political cowardice by governments has bankrupted Havering.⁶ Council tax is a failed mechanism for funding council services.⁷ Continuing to use 1991 valuations is ludicrous.

Correcting 34 years of inertia will take political courage………I’m not holding my breath.

Notes

1 Council Tax bands and bills | London Borough of Havering

2 Properties For Sale in Emerson Park | Rightmove

4 Inflation calculator | Bank of England

5 House price index | Nationwide

6 Havering Council Tax: Is It Too Low? – Politics in Havering This was written in 2020 but the analysis is still valid though the examples are historic.

7 George Osborne’s Age of Austerity programme, 2010-16, put the knife to the throat of Havering’s finances and matters more than sub-optimal increases in council tax.

The Political Importance of Ipswich vs West Ham, 25th May 2025

The Premier League relies on immigrants. The 22 players who began this match came from ten countries.¹ Eleven players were British (50%) and another ten countries are represented. (Only the Congo had more than one player.)

Both managers were British, which is odd. Only four managers in the Premier League are British and this game had half of them.²In contrast the Liverpool vs Crystal Palace game had 32% of British players. Neither of their managers is British. The two principal trophies in English football were won by immigrants.³

Politicians ignore this, using emotional speeches. Nigel Farage places the restriction of immigration front and central in his Reform Party political message.⁴

Premier League clubs spend fortunes on players, most of whom are immigrants. This commercial decision explains why preemptive positions on immigration are absurd.

Other sectors of the economy make similar but less spectacular decisions. Higher Education has 18% of its workforce as immigrants and the NHS has 17.7%.⁵The 2016 Brexit vote, notoriously, hit the hospitality sector very hard indeed as immigrants left.

Premier League football illustrates the importance of immigrants to Britain’s success. English football and its story reappears throughout the economy.

Negative political discourse about immigration is toxic and socially destructive.

Addendum

Eberechi Eze, a Crystal Palace and England footballer, is the son of Nigerian parents. He epitomises ‘British’ values. His charity provides opportunities in south London.⁶

Notes

1 Starting Lineups – Ipswich vs West Ham | 25.05.2025

2 List of current Premier League and English Football League managers – Wikipedia

3 Starting Lineups – Liverpool vs C Palace | 25.05.2025 See also “…..because of their [immigrant] backgrounds, typically from poorer countries, they do not take success or prosperity for granted. That is an ideal combination of factors for success.” How to find the most talented people on earth – Marginal REVOLUTION

4 Nigel Farage demands complete ‘halt’ to immigration as it ‘devalues UK’ | Politics | News | Express.co.uk see also REFORM 2025 LTD overview – Find and update company information – GOV.UK Reform isn’t a political party. It is a private company owned by Farage and others.

5 Number of non-EU academics in UK rises | Times Higher Education (THE) see also NHS staff from overseas: statistics – House of Commons Library

6 ‘Giving back is in our hearts’ – Eze on impacting South London – News – Crystal Palace F.C.

Havering’s Annual Council, 21st May 2025

The meeting saw the election of the mayor for 2025-6.¹ Even though Havering’s mayoralty is non-executive, it has significant powers. Havering’s multi-party council means the mayor’s casting vote is decisive whenever there’s a tied vote. The principal duty of the mayor is as an ambassador for the council.

The meeting itself was riveting for political geeks. Speeches of congratulation to the out-going mayor, Gerry O’Sullivan, were gushing. Dilip Patel’s “amazing work”, Gillian Ford’s “incredible year” and Christine Vickery’s, “a lot of fun” give a flavour of the contributions. Gerry himself said it had been “wonderful”.

The meeting continued with Ray Morgon’s tour d’horizon, which stressed HRA’s achievements.

His devotion to lobbying is undiminished. Ray is lobbying for Fairer Funding for local authorities. He made a throwaway remark about the government loan, £100m+, which glossed over Havering’s financial disaster. The chances of a Conservative outer-London borough successfully lobbying for additional funding in the current economic situation is nil. Ray has a cast-iron case but that isn’t enough politically speaking.² Ray remains a True Believer in lobbying.

Ray identified his transport successes achieved in the last year. Of especial note was the Gallows Corner renewal programme, the SuperLoop bus service and possibly Beam Park station. Interestingly the East Havering Data Centre isn’t a done deal but the reason why not wasn’t even hinted at.

His laboured references to Crystal Palace’s success didn’t entertain or inform. It was a relief, even for geeks, when the meeting ended after an hour or so.

Notes

1 The new mayor is Sue Ospreay, her deputy is Barry Mugglestone.

2 Havering’s Election: An Undemocratic Democracy? – Politics in Havering The political consequences of Austerity were felt by Havering’s two Conservative MPs who nearly lost their seats last year.

Andrew Rosindell: Parliamentary Speech, 7th May 2025

Andrew’s lengthy speech discussed Havering and Greater London. His speech was autobiographical and historical. He began with a long list of Havering’s Essex roots.

Havering is an Essex region with long historic connexions. He cited his home address, St Edward’s church, Essex county cricket club, and the water supply from Essex and Suffolk amongst many other examples.

Andrew outlined the baleful impact of Greater London, which has led to, “60 years of muddle, confusion and constant debate about whether Romford and Havering remain part of Essex or not.”²

Andrew says Havering is paying too much for too little because it’s a London borough. He airily remarked it cost, “…tens of millions of pounds per year.” Andrew didn’t say how much Havering pays, though the data is readily available. Assertions should be supported with facts.

Andrew claimed ULEZ should have been avoided.He believes ULEZ is a ‘Bad Thing’- people with respiratory illnesses probably disagree. Andrew added that his constituents disapproved of Greater London but provided no polling data.

Policing is a major issue. Andrew says Havering suffers as a London borough. He said, “….if you speak to my constituents, they will tell you that they believe Havering residents are in effect subsidising inner London areas…” Amazingly Andrew didn’t remark that Havering, who are bankrupt, pays an additional £1 million to the MetPolice to guarantee local policing.

Leaving London would mean Havering losing the beloved Freedom Pass. Pensioners adore it and they are reliable voters. Andrew wants the Freedom Pass extended to contiguous counties. This means TfL would take control of links into London. TfL will become far larger if Andrew’s proposition is supported, which implies a ‘levy’ on the new areas.Will they be pleased to pay the price?³

Andrew’s heart-felt sincerity came through loud and clear and was praised by the minister, Jim McMahan. He said, “I pay tribute to the hon. Member for championing his area and for the very clear passion that he has for the place he represents.”

Notes

1 Bing Videos and Havering Borough and Essex Devolution – Hansard – UK Parliament

2 All quotes are from the Hansard report of the speech

3 The Freedom Pass isn’t free. Havering pays £8m p.a. for access to the system.

The Magnificent Two: Hornchurch and Romford

Havering has been named the worst place to live in Greater London in a new study….[because of] natural beauty, wellbeing, heritage and culture, schools and jobs, and value for money.¹

There are five categories used in this judgment. The article received wide-spread coverage despite the authors being deluded. Havering has two of the very best centres in outer-London. Focusing on the Magnificent Two:, we find regional centres of excellence in very different arenas.

Hornchurch

Hornchurch is the centre of the regional hospitality scene. Its bustling high street is populated by thriving pubs, restaurants, café society and entry level eateries. To the north is the wonderful Queen’s Theatre, which is the centrepiece of the culture quarter. A quality library, the Fairkytes centre, and a grade two listed building in Langtons, which opens on to Langtons Park. Immediately to the east is St Andrew’s church, which is a grade one building The church is an entry point for the War Graves cemetery.

Hornchurch is an unmistakeable urban masterpiece.

Romford

Romford exists in a challenging retail environment. Think of the competition. Lakeside to the east, Westfield to the west and e-commerce. Multi-billion pounds of predatory retail.

Romford is thriving. Why?

The irreducible fact is that people like shopping near to their homes with human contact. Transport is a key ingredient in Romford’s success story. It’s a transport hub for every element in society. Links to all parts of the borough are quick and easy by public transport and, for car drivers, car-parking is guaranteed on busy days.

The principal shopping malls are attracting new activities, which further enhance the allure [CP1] of the town centre. An entrepreneur has opened a cinema for a vote of confidence in Romford.

The worst place in Greater London? Balderdash!

Note

1 Havering named the worst place to live in Greater London | This Is Local London

[CP1]