• JONATHAN Wright of Islington Green Party writes: “Where we agree with Labour, we will support them”, (Our role as opposition, March 9).

So, how is it that Green councillor Caroline Russell voted down Islington Labour council’s budget that included £57million investment in new council homes, prioritised for local people?

Cllr Russell’s only input into the budget was extremely limited to: proposing subsidised bike hangars when Labour already has a programme to install 400 hangars across the borough and has installed 700 secure bike storage spaces on our estates; sacking a council officer who helps Labour deliver its progressive policies, while she has access to four such Green members of staff as a London Assembly member; and proposing a procurement measure which Labour is effectively already doing.

While the Greens are happy to call for a “national house-building programme”, one of the very important questions that electors will need to ask themselves at the May council elections is: will the Greens actually ever support building new homes in Islington, where we have around 18,000 people on the council housing waiting list?

I have to point out that their record here to date is abysmal. Meanwhile, Islington’s Labour-run council will build 200 new council homes this year, with a commitment to deliver 2,000 new genuinely affordable homes, including 500 new council homes, by the end of 2019-20.

Real homes, for real people, in desperate need of a home in the borough. That is what Councillor Andy Hull meant when he said that the Greens are not a serious opposition on Islington Council. They have nothing practical to say about dealing with the Tory government cuts of £220million to council funding since 2010.

CLLR GARY HEATHER
Labour, Finsbury Park ward