Weekly Update – Friday 18^th December 2020

It appears that the Government has lost control of the spread of COVID-19 and the Tier system currently in place is failing to slow the spread of this virus. I’m very concerned about the high rates of infection across Edmonton and remain in contact with Enfield Council as well as local health authorities. Cases of COVID-19 in Enfield have gone from 253 to 517 per 100,000 in the last week. It’s clear that not enough is being done to stop cases from increasing and hospitals in the capital are incredibly strained. The Government needs to do more to enforce and tighten restrictions where necessary.

Unsurprisingly London has now been moved up to Tier 3, which means that hospitality Is closed again along with Indoor entertainment venues. In the face of warnings from doctors, Boris Johnson has pressed ahead with the 5-day relaxation period for Christmas. But its important to remember that the advice is that travel should be avoided where possible and that we should keep our contact with elderly relatives to a minimum. This is especially important while cases are spiking in the capital. The vaccine is here now, we are just months from safety. It’s more important than ever that we all do our part to save lives and protect the NHS, even if the Government won’t do theirs.

Christmas can be a difficult time

Christmas is going to be difficult for many people across the country this year. The usual family gatherings and festivities will be scaled back and that will undoubtably have an impact on peoples’ mental health. Christmas is always a difficult period in terms of Mental Health, so it’s good to be aware of some of the options available should you or anybody you know feel like they need to reach out for help over the next few weeks;

• Anxiety UK: 03444 775 774 (Support for people diagnosed with anxiety)
• No Panic: 0844 967 4848 (Support for people who suffer from panic attacks)
• Samaritans: 116 123 (24-hour helpline for people experiencing distress or despair)
• Mind: 0300 123 3393 (Help for people with mental health problems)
• Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team – 020 8702 3800

The Cladding Scandal

This week I finally received a response from the Government, after I had written to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in October about a group of leaseholders in my constituency who found themselves in an awful position as a result of the cladding scandal. Unfortunately, his response failed to address the concerns of my constituents and still leaves them stuck with a bill they shouldn’t have to foot.

For decades, private housing developers exploited Tory cuts to safety regulations to build properties with dangerously unsafe cladding. 72 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire as a result and yet three years later thousands of people go to sleep every night in homes clad with the very material which caused Grenfell to burn. While some progress has been made removing cladding from Local Authority buildings, for private residents the story is different.

The Government and the Private Developers who built the unsafe properties have decided to ask leaseholders and other residents to foot the costs of removing unsafe cladding. This is yet another example of the lengths to which this Government will go to protect the bottom line of big corporations at the expense of the rest of us.

The Government must change course and set up a scheme which ensures that the cladding is removed, and that leaseholders and other tenants do not end up paying for the greed of property developers. Until that happens, I will continue speaking out for those affected in my constituency and nationally.

Windrush Continues

This week I wrote to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, asking that she urgently stops deporting members of the Windrush Generation and their descendants. Despite the Home Office’s PR campaign, it’s clear that the injustice at the heart of the Windrush Scandal continues to be inflicted on thousands of individuals who have only ever known the UK as their home.

As a result of the different quirks and administrative anomalies which exist in UK Immigration Law, there are many children of the Windrush Generation who continue to be denied British Citizenship, despite many having been born in this country. As a result of the Hostile Environment, which the Wendy Williams report found to have been the cause of the Windrush Scandal, many of those individuals find themselves being detained, denied healthcare, unable to work or access housing and in the worst cases deported to countries which they may never have stepped foot in.

At the same time as Priti Patel stands in the Commons and apologises to the Windrush generation, she continues carrying out the exact same injustices on their children and relatives. People who are as British as she is. Although she may use racist dog-whistle language to muddy the waters, nothing could be more clearly wrong than deporting individuals to countries they may never have stepped foot in. I do not expect a positive response to my letter from Priti Patel but will continue to pursue this issue until the Windrush scandal finally ends.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email  edmontonconstituency@parliament.uk. I’m always happy to help whenever possible.

Kind regards,

Kate Osamor MP