Living Ambition – aiming for the highest quality of life in London

Havering is already a great borough with a high quality of life, good services and many achievements to its name. The opportunities for this borough over the next twenty years are almost without limit. The Council will work hard with partners and the local community to seize those opportunities and shape a future for Havering that is bright, bold and rewarding for everyone who lives, visits, or works in the borough.

We have a clear ambition for Havering. We want to provide our residents with the highest quality of life in London. We want to be a borough that thrives on its links to the heart of the capital and yet retains the strong and historic identity that we currently enjoy.

Havering in 20 years time will be a new model suburb – a more successful and energised gateway to London, but still characterised and shaped by its attractive natural environment, unique history and vibrant culture.

Our community will have become more prosperous, through first class education and emoployment opportunities for all. Havering will be a borough where new talent and innovation is welcomed and nurtured. The borough will have benefited from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and their enduring legacy.

Our re-invigorated town centres will be places of enterprise where people enjoy their lives. Attractive and popular housing will be interlaced with high quality cultural, retail and leisure opportunities. Thriving towns, villages and neighbourhoods will be set in and studded with beautiful green open spaces that enhance Havering’s standing as one of London’s greenest boroughs.

Safer and cleaner streets will help foster public pride and public services will work in partnership with local people – empowering them to continue the improvement of Havering for future generations. Above all Havering’s residents will enjoy their life in any of the harmonious communities that make up one of London’s finest boroughs.

Goals

The Council’s Living Ambition Agenda will be delivered through the Council and its partners working towards five goals. These goals will be underpinned with clear and deliverable targets each year, which will be constantly monitored and assessed.

Environmment

To ensure a clean, safe and green borough.

Havering will be an attractive place where local people take pride in and care of its well kept streets and pavements. Its recycling rates will be high and the amount of waste sent to landfil will be dramatically reduced. The Council and Police will deliver seamless partnership working to drive out low level crime and anti-social behaviour. This focussed drive will deliver not only London’s lowest levels of crime but also a borough where local people feel as safe in its town centres as they do in their homes. Beautiful and safe parks and open spaces will help provide cleaner air for all, recreation for adults and secure places for children to play.

 

Learning

To achieve excellence in education and learning.

Havering will be a place where pupils in our schools record the highest exam results in the country and first class learning opportunities are available to all. The Borough’s schools will provide a modern and inspirational learning environment with a clear focus on the health and well-being of pupils as well as their educational development. Further and higher education will be an option pursued by many, not the few, with a broad range of vocational and academic study available within the borough. Learning will be valued for its own sake as a life long activity and everyone will be encouraged to achieve their potential whatever their vocation.

 

Towns and Communities

To provide opportunities for all through economic, social and cultural activities.

Havering’s towns and communities will be places of culture, commerce, community and beauty of which residents will be proud. Attractive and successful towns and communities will provide an equality of opportunity to all residents of Havering no matter where they live, no matter what their background. Affordable, appropriate and sympathetic housing will mean more local people are able to own their own homes with high quality rented accomodation available to those who cannot afford, or who choose not to buy. Increased commerce and enterprise will open the door to prosperity for thousands more Havering residents. The provision of superb leisure and cultural facilities will help ensure that Havering is one of London’s most energised and civilised boroughs. The retail offer throughout Havering will remain a draw to visitors, supported by excellent transport links within the borough and beyond its borders.

 

Individuals

To value and enhance the lives of every individual.

Local people will receive the customer experience they deserve from their Council and its partners. Every resident will be able to contact the Council easily and in a range of different and always be confident of a prompt and effective response. Residents will have individual and diverse requirements and these will be dealt with fairly and respectfully. Residents will know that their views count and that services are tailored to their needs. The quality and range of services provided to Havering’s most vulnerable residents will be second to none across London. These services will be appropriate to the needs of individuals and their delivery will be personalised. Residents of all ages and backgrounds will feel equally engaged with the decisions that affect them and equally valued by their community.

 

Value

To deliver high customer satisfaction and a stable council tax.

Havering will deliver the highest quality of local services to be found anywhere in the Capital and this will be reflected in high satisfaction rates amongst local residents and customers. Better and more ambitious partnership working across and beyond the borough will ensure that these excellent services are also more affordable than ever before. This drive towards a leaner and more efficient authority will stabilise council tax and provide local people with real and lasting value for money.