🔶 Josh Babarinde MP - Domestic Abuse (Aggravated Offences) Bill

• Closes legal loopholes that let domestic abusers qualify for early release.
• Ensures domestic abuse is properly recognised in sentencing decisions.

🔶 Max Wilkinson MP - New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill – “Sunshine Bill”

• Requires solar panels on all new-build homes.
• Cuts energy bills, boosts UK energy security, and tackles climate change.

🔶 Sarah Olney MP - Victims of Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (Access to Sentencing Remarks) Bill

• Secures free access to court sentencing remarks for victims.
• Strengthens support and transparency for survivors of sexual offences.

🔶 Danny Chambers MP - Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill

• Bans the import of mutilated pets and puppies under six months.
• Cracks down on illegal puppy smuggling and strengthens UK animal welfare laws.
   

A wave of TikTok-fuelled posts has recently encouraged school pupils to organise fights between schools, using slang borrowed from US gang culture. Actual incidents appear limited, but the trend is worrying.

The Liberal Democrats have proposed a film-style age-rating system for social media. Platforms would default to 16+, with stricter 18+ limits for services hosting graphic violence or other serious harms. Ratings would be set using an Ofcom framework assessing addictiveness, mental-health impact and harmful content.

Disappointingly, Labour MPs have just voted against a proposal to tighten age limits on social media access.

Local Lib Dem campaigner Alan Jones said, “While no single measure will solve the problem, this approach would help protect young people online, give regulators clearer powers, and push tech companies to design safer platforms.”

Many social housing tenants are telling us they are facing long waits for repairs – which often aren’t done properly even when they finally happen. Yet the Council has approved a 4.8% rent increase for 2026/27. Average rents will rise by £6.41 per week – an extra £333 a year.

At the same time, the Council admits there is already a large gap between Local Housing Allowance and private rents. With the Labour Government freezing Local Housing Allowance, the risk of homelessness is rising and more families could end up in temporary accommodation.

Local Lib Dem campaigner Kath Pollard says “Tenants deserve decent homes, repairs done on time and fair rents – not inflation-busting rent rises.”

The Labour-run Council in Waltham Forest recently voted through a budget that will hurt our borough for years to come. It is a budget that attempts to balance the books on the backs of residents' pockets. It is a budget that could have significant long-term consequences.

Back in 2022, Labour promised residents that a Labour Government would deliver us a fair-funding deal. They promised help with the cost of living. Their top pledge? A brand new lido. 

Two years later, the Council Leader Grace Williams urged local voters to back Labour in the General Elections claiming that the funding challenges we faced locally would be fixed by a Labour Government. Their local Parliamentary Candidates Calvin Bailey and the soon-to-be Health Secretary Wes Streeting from neighbouring Ilford, also pledged to rebuild Whipps Cross Hospital.

What have we got in 2026? Plans for Whipps Cross shelved for a decade and a ‘Fair Funding Review’ that provides 6.4% less in real terms than Waltham Forest received 15 years ago.

We have the near maximum annual 5% Council Tax rise not just this year, but for the foreseeable future. Rent increases on Council dwellings are above the level of inflation. And the lido? Well, that promise wasn’t worth the leaflets it was printed on.

Having squandered taxpayers’ money on frivolous items, such as £7,600 on heated toilet seats at Waltham Forest Town Hall and over £62,000 on a vanity PR campaign called ‘Together Waltham Forest’, the Council now requires an emergency bailout to the tune of £19 million from the government to help balance the budget.

That loan will incur significant interest and it is the local tax payer who will see a sizeable chunk of their hard earned money spent on the repayments.

Equally concerning is the lack of clarity over how the Council will deploy the emergency funds and service the loan, despite Labour Councillor Paul Douglas insisting his party had “clear plans” for both.

Perhaps most worrying of all, Waltham Forest’s own Chief Financial Officer does not believe that the use of this emergency loan is a sustainable financial strategy. Labour have applied for the loan anyway.

Waltham Forest Labour have failed to make the case to their own government for fair funding. They have failed to persuade their own government to fund the Whipps Cross rebuild in this parliament. They have failed to persuade the Labour London Mayor to keep his promise to keep our last police front counter open.

Labour have given up on Waltham Forest. The Liberal Democrats believe it’s time for change.

Alex Marshall-Lewis is the chair of Waltham Forest Liberal Democrats and a community activist in Higham Hill.

The Department for Transport has introduced a new traffic-light council rating system for pothole repairs and road maintenance.

Waltham Forest is one of only 13 local authorities to receive a RED rating, the lowest rating possible, for the condition of the roads.

Rather than address the concerns, the Labour-run Council has decided to challenge the Labour-run Department for Transport’s rating.

Local residents don’t need a rating system to know that Labour has dropped the ball. The pictures show only some of the potholes that have been reported by your local Liberal Democrat team since the start of the year.

Lib Dem campaigner Naomi McCarthy said: “The average pothole repair costs £320, and sometimes over £1,000. These ratings show how the council is failing Grove Green residents. It’s dangerous, costly, and residents need urgent improvements now.”

More broken promises by Labour! In his last election manifesto, Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan pledged to keep “a 24-hour police front office counter in every borough.”

He has broken that promise. Now police front desks across London face cuts and closures, including at Chingford Police Station, which is the last police front desk in Waltham Forest.

In January, members of the London Assembly had the chance to join the Liberal Democrats and push back against these closures.

Instead, every Labour and every Green assembly member voted to block a Lib Dem amendment that would have required at least one 24-hour police counter to be kept open in each borough.

Liberal Democrat campaigner Naomi McCarthy said, “Labour is failing Londoners yet again with broken promises. They are clearly not serious about providing the public with easy access to the police.”