Royal Free maternity unit cut rooted in lack of affordable housing, warns Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer
MP fears plan for Royal Free is a sign families are priced out of Camden
Friday, 5th January — By Dan Carrier
The Holborn and St Pancras MP visited the Great Croft Centre
FREE, SIMPLE-TO CANCEL 30-DAY TRIAL OF AUDIBLE
LABOUR Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has said the threatened closure of the Royal Free’s baby unit is rooted in a shortage of affordable homes.
The Holborn and St Pancras MP traced a link between the falling birth rate in Camden and plans to close the maternity service at the famous Hampstead hospital, revealed by the New Journal last year.
He said: “The Royal Free is used by a lot of my constituents and I want to see excellent maternity provision in Camden. We are talking to stakeholders but the underlying point is the falling birth rate. It is affecting maternity services and primary schools.
“I am convinced one of the reasons is the fact it is becoming increasingly expensive to live in the borough of Camden. Young families feel they have to move away and this goes to the heart of the issue – the lack of affordable homes, the lack of social housing.
“I know Camden is working really hard to provide more social housing but this is yet more evidence that much more needs to done to provide more affordable housing right across the country.”
Mr Starmer was speaking to the New Journal during a festive visit to the Great Croft Centre in King’s Cross – run by Age UK – just before Christmas.
We reported last year how NHS chiefs believe that with the Whittington, UCLH and the Royal Free hospitals all providing maternity units, there was too much capacity for falling demand – with birth rates declining. One will close and the Free is seen as the most likely, due to numbers, and recent multi-million-pound upgrades at the Whittington.
Sir Keir has held surgeries at the Great Croft centre and added a crucial plank of a new Labour government would be fixing the social care system.
“My sister works as a carer. I know the sector well,” he said. “The first thing we need to do is put in place a fair pay agreement right across the sector. A fair pay agreement is a priority. The first part will be in relation to care workers. It is far too fragmented. It needs a framework for people to be able to progress – many leave to go into the NHS.
“There are steps we will take straight away. We have to look at the council funding issue. Councils have a real problem with short-term, one-year budgets. You need longer-term budgets. It will be a difficult situation. We have a broken economy and broken public services. But we will turn this round.We can do things quickly.”
He added that the need for extra care for older people should not mean charities are expected to step in for the state.
He said: “Dignity is at the heart of all of this work. It can feel like we are back to Victorian paternalism. There is a sense that the community is doing the heavy lifting for a government that has failed.”
The Arsenal-supporting MP joked that with an election due in the next 12 months, he was drawing up a foolproof strategy to ensure a Labour victory.
He said: “Like every football fan, if VAR goes in favour for my team, I’m happy with it. If it goes against you, you hate it. My friends text me whenever there has been a contentious VAR issue that if we really wanted to make sure we win the next election, we’d pledge to scrap it.”
