Karen Buck MP is calling for all private tenants in Westminster and Kensington to make sure their landlord protects their deposits under new laws on tenancy deposit protection which come into force on 6 April.

Following a joint campaign by Shelter, Citizens Advice and supported by Karen Buck MP, all new deposits for assured short hold tenancies (ASTs) will now have to be protected. The new law requires all landlords to be in a Government-approved scheme, with sanctions against those who don’t comply. Anyone signing a tenancy agreement after April 6 should ask their landlord or agent how their deposit will be protected. (more…)

You could easily be forgiven for concluding, from the coverage of recent months, that the NHS had ceased to provide hospital care, laid off the last doctor and the last nurse, and collapsed under a weight of debt that would have made the directors of Enron blush. To contend that this is not the case is not to make light of what has been a difficult year, which has indeed been painful for staff and sometimes patients, especially in those NHS Trusts which had built up financial problems over the years (or had simply not been very well managed financially). However, if we don’t see the bigger picture, we run the risk of making some very serious mistakes about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to the delivery of that most crucial of services- healthcare. (more…)

Karen has secured an Adjournment Debate in Parliament tomorrow (Wednesday 21st March) to raise the profile of the problems thousands of families face whilst stuck in temporary accommodation.  Issues raised will include high rent, inadequate standards of living and irresponsible landlords.

You can watch the debate live from 11am on parliamentlive.tv from Westminster Hall. 

Karen Buck was awarded with the accolade of being Dod’s & Scottish Widows MP of the Year at last night’s award ceremony.  The awards, held on International Women’s Day to celebrate the achievements of women working in public life.

Karen was nominated by the Westminster CAB for her stand on the Legal Aid debate (read supporting statement below).  On hearing the news Karen said, “It is a great honour and privilege to have won this award and particularly grateful to Westminster CAB for their encouragement. Advice services are one of the less visible pillars of the welfare state and anything that raises their profile can only be good.” (more…)

A report launched last Wednesday by the London Child Poverty Commission, which Karen has been a member of, suggests ways to take more children out of poverty before the 2012 Olympics.

It shows that a combination of national and London-specific policy changes, coupled with improvements to employment, benefits and tax credits, could reduce child poverty in the capital to 24 per cent by 2010/11, lifting 278,000 children out of poverty. Without major policy changes, London will continue to have a child poverty rate of 39 per cent.

Carey Oppenheim, Chair of the London Poverty Commission said: “We have real potential to reduce the very high rates of child poverty in London – but it will require action on three fronts: radical improvements in employment for parents on low incomes, rises in national benefits such as child benefit and child tax credit as well as specific measures which improve the incentives for Londoners to take and hold on to jobs. In combination, these could make a lasting impact on the scale of child poverty in the capital in time for the Olympics.” (more…)

Contributing to a debate in Parliament on the subject of school sport, Karen asked the Minister for Sport if he would meet her to discuss how youth and school sport could be boosted in inner London, which is trailing behind the rest of the country.

The fact is that Conservative Westminster City Council’s private leisure contractor, Cannon’s, are still not accommodating the reasonable demands of local young people for access to sports facilities; school sports remain generally under-developed and organised competitions across a range of sports are too few and far between. It is probably not surprising that Westminster has the second highest level of child obesity in London.

Sport contributions to public health and well being; to community cohesion, crime prevention and even improved educational attainment. We have a great sports unit in Westminster, and many keen young people. Now is the time to swing all the energies of the council, schools, the Royal Parks and others behind a commitment to transform sporting opportunities in the area.

Read Karen’s questions and the Sports Minister’s answers in full

Question 1

Question 2