Leader — More power to our elbows!

There ain’t nothing going on but the rent, as Gwen Guthrie once sang. There seems little prospect of curbing the seemingly inexorable rise in the cost of living in our fine borough.

The meaning of the word ‘affordable’ has become extended to the point of redundancy. Who can protect us ordinary folk from the onslaught of so-called gentrification?

Local town halls, in the face of limited powers and funding cuts, have lessening ability to act in the public interest.

Councils are a bit hamstrung: they’ve got so few real powers. The London Mayor and central government are able to call in planning applications and steamroller over their  democratically-mandated decisions.

But what to do in the face of these problems? Perhaps there’s not that much that people can do to change  the system but there are lots of  local concrete examples of things people are doing to improve their own lives and the wellbeing of the local community.

Grassroots groups can  act together to lobby both local and national government, for example the fossil fuels divestment campaign.

Other public endeavours are undertaken to protect, conserve or preserve local amenities, public space or historic buildings by groups such as OPEN Dalston and the Hackney Society.

Action by people at local level does not always have to be in opposition: homegrown projects such as the solar power project at Banister House is now the biggest to be installed on social housing in the UK. Other successes include the New Era Estate protests and the campaign for the withdrawal of the so-called Public Space Protection Order.

The Chesham Arms and Prince Edward pubs that were saved from development when they became listed as Assets of Community Value.

In the space that’s left between the state and corporate interests, action by local residents can still influence decision-making by both. More power to our elbows!