Debbonaire: ‘Bristol W not all milk & honey’

In her first comment article for Bristol24/7 as an MP, Thangam Debbonaire looks at the inequalities across her Bristol West constituency and across the city.

Saturday morning in some parts of Bristol West can be very pleasant. Pick up your newspaper, wander down to the French patisserie to buy a couple of baguettes for brunch, then head opposite for fresh fish galore with local people queuing to buy them and a vast range of colourful vegetables displayed on the street nearby.

That’s Stapleton Road in Lawrence Hill for you. Over in Clifton Village, people are doing pretty much the same thing.

So it looks as if we all have a lot in common across the city. And of course we do. But it would be silly to say that from east to west in the constituency of Bristol West that everywhere is a green and pleasant land full of milk and honey.

Where would you put the dividing line between the comfortably off and the not so comfortably off and then the poor? Would it be Whiteladies Road?  Maybe the M32? Ashley Road? Church Road?

It will be obvious to most people that housing and the general street scene becomes less pleasant as you head eastwards and in some places areas are rundown and there is visible poverty. 

That looks like a big division in the city I love which on a bright and sunny day is truly glorious and a great, fun place to be. But unhappily, this is not true for everyone and that is a problem which, in this apparently booming city, is getting no better.

For tens of thousands living in the inner city it is a daily struggle with sky high rents increasing in leaps and bounds, lettings agents’ fees for little or no service and poor quality housing. Low pay families dividing their meagre income between rent, food and heating. 

Things can change. For example, in Berlin they have just brought in a rent cap. Legally, rent rises must now be less than 10 per cent.

Labour had plans to ban agents’ fees to tenants (they are supposed to be working for the landlord) and cap rents and give longer contracts to tenants. Landlord registration has started in the inner city and will expose poor quality housing and landlords who fail to provide a good standard of accommodation.

What else could be done? For years now, I and others locally have been running a campaign to make Bristol a Living Wage city.

The Living Wage Foundation say that “work should be the surest way out of poverty”. The idea is that all employers would pay all staff at least the living wage of £7.85 per hour. A councillor’s campaign has forced the mayor to make Bristol City Council pay the living wage. That’s a start. Some say this is unrealistic and anti-business but working people spend most of their money locally and with more money in the mix that would boost the local businesses and the local economy. You don’t have to be crazy left-wing to support this. Boris Johnson, the Tory mayor of London, thinks it’s a great idea.

Of course, money makes a big difference to individuals and families. The vast majority of people claiming benefits actually have a job – they don’t get enough pay to feed their families and so get tax credits. You and I are funding these benefits and so are subsidising low-pay employers. The current climate favours minimum wage jobs and zero hours contracts. Are we really a low-wage economy? Is this the future we are all happy with?

A big difference the council could make is to be much more energetic clearing rubbish from the streets in our rundown areas. No-one has any respect for a neighbourhood that looks like a rubbish tip.

Overnight street cleansing takes place in the city centre so why not in all areas where there is constant rubbish in the streets? Another idea is to have a zero-tolerance policy on those who dump rubbish on the streets – and fine all who offend.

Copying good practise from west to east in the constituency to make life more pleasant for all must be possible so that one day shopping for brunch on a sunny Saturday in Stapleton Road could be just as pleasurable as the same experience in Clifton Village.

Divisions are there to be broken down.