Iain Coleman, The Peabody Estate, First Port and Local Industrial Strategy
Report back from Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick
Andy Slaughter MP meets young volunteers from Hammersmith and Chiswick
November 3, 2025
The week before last, I paid tribute to my good friend Iain Coleman, who died on the 20th of September, at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Iain was MP for Hammersmith & Fulham 1997-2005, and therefore my predecessor for part of the Hammersmith & Chiswick seat. We were elected to H&F Council for neighbouring wards in 1986 and I was his deputy for five years while he was council leader there from 1991 to 1996. He led Hammersmith & Fulham with great skill and served all its residents, but here as in Parliament his passion was for those left behind. Residents still often ask me about him and remember his kindness.
Recently, Hammersmith & Fulham Council came to the House of Commons to launch the Pathway Bond with the aid of Darren Jones MP, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister.
For several years H&F council has been using its Upstream London industrial strategy to attract some of the biggest and most pioneering companies to base themselves in the borough. The next stage is to ensure the jobs and opportunities those companies provide are available to local young people, especially those from more deprived backgrounds.
The Pathway Bond is a way to link young people to their prospective employers Nearly 100 businesses have already expressed interest in offering mentoring, work experience, apprenticeships and international placements.
There was an inquiry session held on the 23rd of October in Parliament to hear evidence regarding FirstPort, the UK's largest leasehold management company. At the session 12 residents, one of whom is a constituent in Hammersmith & Chiswick, gave evidence and raised concerns about management and communication with residents as well as transparency, and unexplained high service charges.
I recently gave a talk to politics students at William Morris Sixth Form, as always, it was a pleasure to speak with the students, answer their questions and hear their ideas. It is always wonderful to see young people so enthusiastic and engaged with politics.
I met with residents of the Peabody Estate in Hammersmith Broadway to learn more about the improvements and repairs needed on the estate. The Estate has a great location and is an example of how they built decent affordable housing over a century ago, the least we can do is maintain it now. With their excellent local Councillor Callum Nimmo, I will be pursuing residents’ concerns.
Last week I visited energy supplier, Brook Green Supply, who have been based in Hammersmith since they were founded nearly 20 years ago, and now are one of the biggest commercial energy suppliers. It was interesting to meet staff and hear about their ideas on how to make energy sector more efficient and cheaper.
Andy Slaughter on his visit to Brook Green Supply
It has also been a busy couple of weeks in the Commons. The week before last, I took part in the debate on the Transport Secretary’s statement about the revised proposals for a third runway at Heathrow, which I remain strongly against. Along with other west London MPs I quizzed the Transport Secretary on whether the government would fully look at the economic and environmental cases for and against a third runway before there was any agreement to proceed. I also questioned the need for additional flights in the south-east given the plans to expand and improve both Luton and Gatwick airport.
There are numerous stages before any construction can begin and even if the government went with Heathrow's current plans there would be no extra flights until 2035. However, it remains fundamentally the wrong place, and we will continue to campaign against further expansion.
The Sentencing Bill was back in the Commons for two weeks in a row for Committee Stage and then remaining stages of the Bill. I welcome the principles of the Bill, and the reforms suggested within it, but they are not without risk.
As Chair of the Justice Committee, I tabled several amendments to the Bill with a view to reduce those risks and make practical improvements to the Bill. In my speech at the Committee Stage debate, I spoke to those tabled amendments and how they could benefit the legislation. In the remaining stages debate, I again noted the amendments I had tabled and asked the Minister if he would look at those proposals, to see whether changes can be made when the Bill goes through the House of Lords.
Last week the Justice Committee published our report into the drugs crisis in our prisons. We found in the report that the drugs crisis in prisons is ‘endemic’ and that there is a dangerous culture of acceptance. Urgent reform and investment are needed to tackle this problem.
Last Thursday evening I was delighted to attend the Justice for All event celebrating 800 years of the Magna Carta at the Old Bailey. It was a wonderful evening full of inspiring talks from those working in the justice system. I was also lucky enough to meet a group of young volunteers from Hammersmith and Chiswick who are training for jobs in tech and business and helped organise the prestigious series of lectures about reforming the criminal justice system for the event.
Best wishes,
Andy
andy@andyslaughter.com
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |