A fair deal for everyone in Wandsworth

The Council has a vital role in providing social care, supporting local schools and helping those who experience hardship and crisis. We will ensure that Wandsworth is special for all residents. We will champion and support initiatives that will have a positive ripple effect across the borough by:

• Keeping the same low Council tax.
• Campaigning for the Council to be London Living Wage accredited, ensuring care workers are paid £11.05 per hour - so hard work comes with fair pay.
• Ensuring that the Government’s recently announced £150 Council tax rebate actually goes to the right places - and that a third of families don’t miss out simply because they don’t pay their council tax by direct debit.
• Targeting extra funds (such as savings from underspend or extra income from fees or Government grants) goes to helping local schools with their skyrocketing energy bills.

Clean air and a climate-resilient Wandsworth

Wandsworth has some of the worst air pollution hotspots in the capital, harming our health and the environment. Our borough only scored 5 out of 10 in the independent 2021 Healthy Streets Scorecard. Last summer, some parts of Wandsworth experienced devastating flash flooding twice. We will demand better by:

• Supporting cycling and walking through better bike storage across the borough, encouraging street planting and parklets and improving green walks e.g. the Capital Ring Walk.
• Promoting a school street at every school so children can breathe clean air. Where this is not feasible, for example if a school is on a main road, we will pursue alternative measures.
• To make public transport accessible to everyone, we are campaigning for step-free access to local tube stations (e.g. East Putney and Tooting Bec) and mainline stations (e.g. Wandsworth Common and Queenstown Road).
• Building bridges: we will work with our MPs in Parliament to address the closure to vehicles of Hammersmith Bridge which has impacted the Putney community and we’ll champion the new Thames footbridge at Nine Elms.
• Giving buses more priority and lobbying the Mayor to fast-track green buses by 2028.
• Pushing the Council to put in place a flood prevention plan and flood warden scheme.
• Supporting demands to phase out diesel and wood-burning stoves.
• Backing the creation of a new Clean Air & Climate Cabinet member to make these issues a priority.

More green energy, less waste

Wandsworth Council has one of the worst recycling rates: ranking in the bottom 10 councils in England. Together, we can create a more circular economy, increase recycling and maximize reuse. We will do this by:

• Introducing food waste bins to cut down on household rubbish and generate green energy.
• Getting better recycling facilities into all flats and estates: with proper bins and collection, better signage and by supplying residents with recycling sacks.
• Launching an information campaign on local recycling and supporting a Waste Nothing challenge in local schools.
• Stopping non-recyclable single-use plastics use within the Council by 2030 and encouraging local businesses to do the same.
• Helping small repair businesses and community groups to fix appliances and ‘upcycle’ furniture.

Safer neighbourhoods

We know that badly lit paths and open spaces are causing real problems in certain parts of Wandsworth – raising people’s fear of crime and causing concerns about personal safety. Studies have shown that better street lighting can reduce crime by an average of 21%. We want everyone to feel safe to travel or exercise late at night in our borough. We will address this by:

• Working with residents to identify streets or public spaces that are badly lit, and then campaigning for better street lighting to be installed.

• Speaking to the local police teams to encourage them to patrol in a more visible way and to respond to any intimidating or anti-social behaviour.

• Backing our London Assembly colleagues who are pushing the Metropolitan Police to account for addressing culture and practices that are damaging public confidence and trust in the service.

Affordable quality homes and a better deal for renters

There’s no quick fix. We simply have to build more affordable, high-quality homes in Wandsworth. But we also need to ensure residents’ views are at the heart of planning decisions. We will do this by:

• Backing affordable, high quality house-building and campaigning for new developments to be sustainable and include schools, green space, transport and shopping.
• Signing up to the Cladding Scandal campaign and lobbying private building and housing associations to act immediately to rectify cladding, snagging and External Wall System fire review (EWS1) issues.
• Establishing a “Good Developer” accreditation scheme to award developers that engage properly with local communities and deliver good quality.
• Championing renters and taking action on rogue landlords by getting Wandsworth to join the Rogue Landlords Checker database.
• Pushing for a Housing First Approach to homelessness – where a roof over your head is a starting point to address other complex needs.

Support local businesses and reinvent our high streets

We will support local businesses and breathe new life into local high streets across Wandsworth by:

• Providing free wifi on every local high street to support businesses, like local cafes and pubs, catering for increased home working.
• Championing small businesses and encouraging the Council to promote the benefits of buying and eating locally through its website, social media and other communications.
• Encouraging more diverse services on local high streets, such as home workspaces, childcare, pop-up shops, vaccine centres and spaces for social enterprises and independent businesses.
• Replacing Business Rates with a Commercial Landowner Levy based on the land value of commercial sites rather than their entire capital value, thereby stimulating investment, and shifting the burden of taxation from tenants to landowners.
• Backing creative and artistic initiatives - from outdoor performances to art trails – to showcase local artists and nurture local culture.­

A Council that listens to residents

Liberal Democrats understand that change shouldn’t happen to local communities, but with them. We will put community voices at the heart of council decision-making. We will do this by:

• Campaigning for a Citizens Assembly on Clean Air to gather feedback and ideas from local people and ensure that the borough’s priorities reflect their views.
• Making the Council’s website fit for 2022 and beyond.
• Working with officers to improve response times to queries.
• Being active and visible locally: our Liberal Democrat Councillors will hold monthly street stalls or surgeries to meet and talk with residents and address their issues.

Read our Manifesto

To find out more about our key policies and how we are demanding better for Wandsworth download our 2022 Local Council Election manifesto.