Ealing Times | Your MPs

What's happening to housing?

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:38:46 +0000

What’s happening to housing in Ealing and Acton? Like the rest of the country, house prices have been falling, which is a mixed blessing, depending on whether you are trying to get in or out of the market. But given the credit squeeze and the fact that prices are only back to December 2006 levels, there is, in practice, little opportunity for those on low or average incomes to buy. Which makes the subsidised housing market more important in west London than almost anywhere else in the country. Yet the Mayor, council and some housing associations are doing little to help families or single people.

No time for a novice

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:37:34 +0000

Since I last wrote this column the financial crisis has certainly got worse, with HBOS taken over by LloydsTSB and Bradford & Bingley nationalised and large fluctuations on the world’s stock markets almost a daily occurrence.

The tonic of music

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:35:01 +0000

I thought that I’d reached that stage in life where absolutely nothing had the capacity to amaze me any more when I walked into a fairly typical Ealing home to find a 40-piece philharmonic orchestra, a former England football manager and an eager crowd awaiting the first note of what was billed as The Last Night of the Waldeck Proms.

Forums for tokenism

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:23:07 +0100

The new football season – even if it does include a well-deserved England call-up for a Fulham player – hasn’t eclipsed the memory of Team GB’s stellar performance at the Olympics.

Working for ordinary families

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:21:42 +0100

The current economic climate is challenging, to say the least, but it is certainly not as bad as the economic slumps under the Tories in the 1980s and 1990s.

New hope for new season

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:19:47 +0100

The international scene is so profoundly depressing at present that I hope the good readers of the Ealing Times will forgive me for concentrating on matters a little closer to home this week.

How to cut out knives

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:50:34 +0100

At a time when young people in London and their families are worrying about knife crime and gang culture, Mayor Boris Johnson seems to be spending his time plotting to remove the Police Commissioner.

Celebrating with the Sisters

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:48:54 +0100

Last month Southall Black Sisters (SBS) won a dramatic victory in the High Court when, after two days of proceedings, Ealing Council withdrew from the case.

A tax on their profits

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:47:51 +0100

If the utility providers were still public companies – like British Gas, the London Electricity Board and the Water Board were – then central government could control price rises with a stroke of a pen.

Town Hall must take the lead

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:34:00 +0100

All three town centres in my constituency have been causing controversy this month. The biggest fuss - appropriately - is over Shepherd's Bush where the giant Westfield shopping centre is due to open in November.