One Borough Driving economic opportunity and regeneration With so much on our doorstep, like Wembley Stadium and a designer outlet coming soon, Brent is a fantastic place to live or invest. • The new Brent Civic Centre is taking shape with the completion of the main structure earlier this year and is on track to open in summer 2013. • Wembley’s Outlet Centre is under construction. New shops, which include Gap, M&S and Superdry and restaurants such as Prezzo and Frankie & Benny’s, will open in 2013 and provide over 200 new jobs.
• Brent achieved Fairtrade status in February 2012. The council was proud to work with the Brent Fairtrade Network to promote Fairtrade, support sustainable farming worldwide and reduce global inequality.
Greater access to affordable housing London continues to be an area of high housing demand and Brent is no different. But we are increasing provision by providing 4,500 new homes by 2014, with half being affordable housing. • In 2011/12 900 new affordable homes were delivered through a range of schemes, 100 more than in the previous year. • In the past year three new developments; Watling Place, Merle Court and McDonald House, have been completed on the South Kilburn Estate creating over 200 new homes. • The council has responded to housing and welfare changes by producing a new Tenancy Strategy, setting out our approach to rents, tenancies and housing.
One Community Reducing unemployment and low incomes Brent is committed to supporting the borough with help into employment. • Brent Connexions organised a construction and engineering apprenticeship event resulting in nine young people offered placements. • Local businesses and residents continue to benefit from multi-million pound projects across the borough via the ’Supply Brent Portal’ which matches contractors looking for staff or needing goods with Brent jobseekers and businesses. • We published our Child Poverty Strategy setting out the actions the council and partners will take to tackle the impact of unemployment and low incomes on children. • Working in partnership with agencies including Job Centre Plus and College of North West London, we continue to offer training and employment support through our Wembley Works office.
Supporting children and families Increasing sports, leisure and culture facilities
• With initial help from funding provided by the Mayor of London, the council brought 16 vacant shops back into use. The scheme includes the highly successful South Kilburn Studios and New Windows on Willesden Green. This work is continuing in 2012/13.
Protecting our environment Brent Council has made great progress in its commitment to making the borough greener, cleaner and more sustainable. • The Brent Green Charter was launched, setting out the goals to protecting and improving the borough’s environment and the role residents can play. • Last autumn a new recycling and waste service was launched. Since then there has been an increase in recycling from 29 per cent to almost 52 per cent in July 2012. Thousands of tonnes of waste which would have been sent to landfill are now being recycled.
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OCTOBER 2012
THE BRENT MAGAZINE
We’ve harnessed the London 2012 spirit to introduce more activities and improve equipment and facilities across the borough, to help make sport and exercise a part of everyday life for more people of all ages. Our transformed libraries are now open seven days a week and offer an even broader programme of cultural activities and better learning resources than ever. • A new multi-use games area has been installed at King Edward VII Park, tennis courts at Gladstone Park have been refurbished and a synthetic turf pitch has been laid at Woodcock Park, Kenton. • There were more than 73,000 visits to Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre in 2011/12 - up by 4,500 from 2010/11. • Brent’s libraries have been going from strength-to-strength with more and more residents joining the library service. In a three-month period in 2012, 4,316 members were registered by the library service. • Ealing Road and Kilburn Libraries have been refurbished and reopened in the last year with modern bright interiors, new stock and facilities such as computers for users.
We continue to support young people to fulfil their potential. • The opening of Preston Manor Lower School and expansion at three other primaries created an extra 840 permanent primary places. • Major projects to improve schools include a £40 million scheme to totally rebuild The Crest Academies in Neasden and the £29 million rebuild of The Village School for pupils with special educational needs. • Last year 32 Brent children were successfully placed with permanent families through both adoption and special guardianship orders. This was a significant increase on previous years, outperforming the national averages. • Results attained by Brent pupils continue to improve. In 2011 the proportion of students achieving five or more A*- C grades at GCSE rose again, to 62 per cent - four per cent above the national average. • More Brent youngsters are going on to university from our schools than ever before. Last year 71 per cent of those completing A Levels or equivalent qualifications went on to university – the second highest figure out of 149 boroughs.