Vauxhall: Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett (Liberal Democrats)

Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Vauxhall

1. Housing

The Housing crisis is simply down to the lack of new social  housing built for communities who can afford it, and instead we have high rise developments fought over by rich millionaires by greedy developers for people who don’t live here all the time, don’t participate in community life and ignore local community needs.
Developers have to start fulfilling the Local Council requirements of at least 35% social housing, and at the same time mechanisms like the rent to buy scheme for young people to get on house ladder so young people can once again believe in owning a property as advocated and announced by the liberal Democrats this week.

2. Local business

In order for local businesses to grow, they  require local communities to thrive and develop and use local businesses, rather than spectacular high rise developments by greedy developers with tenants who don’t shop or use local businesses would be a good starting point. Local businesses also require tax incentives to develop and to increase the number of apprenticeships in those businesses, which provide local job opportunities for the population.

3. Education

On the whole, schools in Lambeth are good, however there is always a need for improvement and the Lib Dem pupil premium policy has given a boost of £17,085,600 to schools in Vauxhall  but more assistance is always welcome. Local Schools require Councils to be inventive and find ways to enlarge schools to provide sufficient number of places for the local community Lambeth Council has not been good at doing this, as in the current case of the Archbishop Sumner’s Primary School, whereby the local community want to expand and the Council are refusing to find ways to assist.

4. Leisure/Culture

The cutbacks could be avoided if Lambeth Council set its priorities correctly, and therefore the current plans to close libraries, and hand over to communities to run them voluntarily is not going to encourage local leisure and cultural opportunities. Green space is paramount for leisure activities to flourish and building over this space with no alternative arrangements as in the Nine Elms development is typical example of not providing the green open space areas for cultural and leisure facilities.

5. Environment

High pollution levels needs to be brought down over London and that’s why the Liberal Democrats believe in doubling renewal energy by 2020 reducing the need for  fossil fuels and at the same time focus on air quality levels which the EU has highlighted how the Mayor, Boris Johnson is failing to reach acceptable EU levels. The failure to cut emissions means that  the Liberal Democrats can highlight a range of ideas to improve the environment and reduce high pollution levels with electric cars, more green space and increasing cycle routes to reduce the need of buses, and cars on our streets.