3 February 2026
Dear resident
With the US so challenging and unpredictable, the need to strengthen our European ties has never been so clear. Most people I speak to in Chelsea and Fulham tell me they wish we were still in the EU – yet few want years spent negotiating re-entry.
Instead, we’re repairing the damage step by step. We’re negotiating with the EU to reduce Brexit paperwork on food and drink (to lower prices) and make energy cheaper and cleaner. We’re deepening our defence cooperation. And we’ve just rejoined the Erasmus+ scheme.
Young people from Chelsea and Fulham will be able to study, do an apprenticeship, learn a trade or volunteer across the EU without worrying about cost. I’ve backed this in Parliament and will ensure it benefits residents from all backgrounds.
I’ve urged the Prime Minister to be even more ambitious. Cutting Brexit red tape is the fastest route to growth.
A wider youth experience scheme would let all our young people try out working and living in another EU country, giving them new opportunities and experiences. And making this a normal, everyday right will help people of all backgrounds see it as something they can do. I had this privilege in Berlin in the mid-1980s before the Wall came down – everyone should get it now.
Read on for how I’ve focused locally and in Parliament on protecting local businesses, schools and housing while pushing for action on gambling, food affordability, learning from PFI mistakes, SEND support and more.
As always, if there’s anything I can do to help you, please do get in touch.
Best wishes
Ben
I’ve received hundreds of emails from Chelsea and Fulham residents about social media’s impact on children. Parents and teachers tell me children are more anxious and struggling to focus at school. Young people themselves tell me social media is doing them more harm than good.
The problem is clear: algorithms designed by adults are addictive to children. Extreme content boosts engagement – unrealistic beauty standards, violence, misogyny, hate speech. This harms developing brains.
I’ve long campaigned on this – last year I supported a Safer Phones Bill for mobile-free schools and stronger age verification.
Many schools in Chelsea and Fulham have banned smartphones during school hours (they allow “brick” phones). Some parents initially objected but now thank the schools for making their lives easier. New government guidance will make schools phone-free by default.
Yet schools can’t control what happens at home, and parents feel trapped between protecting their child and socially isolating them.
The solution is raising the minimum age for social media access to 16 – with tech companies, not parents, responsible for enforcement. I signed a letter with 60 Labour MPs calling for this.
The government now plans to consult on a social media ban, stronger age verification and reducing addictive features. I met ministers last week to discuss what the consultation should look like – and to stress the importance of including young people’s voices. I’ll keep you updated.
Last year, I campaigned alongside residents and local councillors against McDonald’s opening to 3am in the North End Road. The council turned down the application as increasing anti-social behaviour.
Despite saying they’d respect the decision, McDonald’s have appealed and a court hearing takes place this week. I’ll be attending to give evidence on how this would damage the community.
Concerned residents are strongly encouraged to attend the hearing. Please get in touch with me for details and timings.
I recently brought together local businesses, the police and Hammersmith & Fulham Council to tackle retail crime around Parsons Green and Wandsworth Bridge Road. Police arrested and charged a man for vandalising local shops last December.
Shoplifting remains a major problem. Labour is scrapping the last government’s £200 arrest threshold so police will respond to all shoplifting, not just higher value theft.
The police outlined their new local priorities, with a revitalised Shopwatch group bringing businesses together with the police. The first meeting happened last week, with monthly meetings planned. Interested businesses, please contact me.
I’d also recommend all residents and businesses sign up to Met Engage to get local police updates.
The police stressed how important it is to report every crime – even minor ones build a picture that helps secure more local resources. Together, we can make our streets safer.
Kensington & Chelsea Council is pushing ahead with unsustainable rent increases for the King’s Road Parade of shops.
The dentist surgery is facing a staggering 200% rent hike and may stop providing NHS treatment – a critical service for families on lower incomes. Other shops are bracing for similar increases in the future. Sadly, this has been going on for years.
There’s a clear pattern: the Council is threatening affordable services that low-income residents depend on. Last month, they cut council tax support for the poorest people in the borough.
The Council has shown itself unwilling to engage. Shop owners wrote to Councillor Will before Christmas without reply. After I raised this publicly, she has offered to meet with a shop owner. All the owners deserve to be heard – ideally as a group.
More than 1,000 of you have already signed my petition. If you haven’t, please do – and keep the pressure on the Council to change course.
Fulham Bilingual is a unique example of Anglo-French cooperation that enriches our community – I raised this in Parliament recently.
So I’m deeply concerned about the French Lycée’s proposed changes to the partnership and the impact on the education of all children at the school, whether from Holy Cross or Marie d’Orliac.
I’m urgently seeking clarification and have raised this directly with the French Embassy. Many parents have reached out – I understand how stressful this uncertainty is for families and the entire school community.
I recently sat down with parents, the school’s leadership, Senator Olivier Cadic (who represents French citizens abroad) and Cllr Alex Sanderson (H&F’s Deputy Leader responsible for Children and Education) to discuss the options and the need for clarity.
My priority is ensuring no child’s education is disrupted and I’ll do everything I can to help.
Our iconic houseboat community in Chelsea has long suffered from its predatory landlord, CYBC. Now CYBC’s parent company is in administration, owing a staggering £96 million.
I’m concerned that the new directors are continuing with the previous approach – dealing with the Chelsea Reach houseboat owners one by one rather than as a group.
The boat owners tell me they are ready to take over and run the moorings themselves to benefit the community. It is time to get away from excessive commercial interests and view this as a social asset.
I’ve made it clear to the Port of London Authority, which licenses out the moorings, that the boat owners have my full backing, as they do of the community across Chelsea.
It worries me that the adults who run the gambling industry are effectively priming children for addiction. As I said in Parliament, young people are being exposed to betting adverts on social media at a time when their risk judgement is still developing. Online games use rewards that function like gambling.
Meanwhile, betting shops are proliferating on Chelsea and Fulham’s high streets, particularly in deprived areas.
Hammersmith & Fulham Council deserves credit for protecting residents within existing licensing rules, but, as I said in Parliament, local authorities need new powers to stop the clustering of high street betting shops.
Gambling is a public health crisis. We need action to match.
It’s great news that the government is planning 250 new neighbourhood health centres. Now we must avoid repeating the PFI mistakes that have burdened the NHS for decades.
If private sector involvement is needed, we must strengthen civil servants’ skills in negotiating contracts and managing these over the years.
I’ve raised this with the Health Secretary and NHS leaders in the Health and Social Care Committee. I’ll keep pressing to ensure lessons from PFI are learned.
Food prices are a real concern. Healthy food costs significantly more than ultra-processed alternatives high in fat, sugar and salt. This pushes low-income families towards options that drive obesity.
In the Health and Social Care Committee, I questioned executives from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Aldi. Only Sainsbury’s committed to topping up the government’s Healthy Start voucher scheme for low-income families, assuming it could be improved.
I asked why supermarkets add palm oil and high levels of salt to make food cheaper, taking Tesco’s standard and “finest” chicken tikka masala as an example. They couldn’t explain.
When I asked if they or their trade body, the British Retail Consortium (BRC), had lobbied to exempt brands from new restrictions on unhealthy food ads, they claimed just to have sought clarity. Yet a Freedom of Information request shows the BRC lobbied for this.
I’ve called in Parliament for a cross-government strategy to make healthy food both affordable and accessible for poorer families. I’ll keep arguing for this.
I’ve campaigned for disabled children’s services for decades and was a governor of two local schools. SEND reform is long overdue.
Parents in Chelsea and Fulham shouldn’t have to fight for schools that meet their child’s needs. Local councils shouldn’t be forced to turn to expensive private specialist schools that make millions for private equity firms.
The government has made a good start: £200 million to train mainstream teachers in SEND, and £3 billion for new specialist state school places.
An Education White Paper due before the summer will set out comprehensive SEND reforms. I’ve been meeting ministers and urging them to prioritise making state schools so good that parents don’t feel their only option is to fight for an Education Health and Care Plan.
Good SEND support benefits all pupils – fewer classroom disruptions and better learning for every child. We need to get this right so all children get the education they deserve without a battle.
In Chelsea and Fulham
In Parliament
Christmas seems a long time ago now but…
I was honoured to be invited to so many local Christmas events, including with Stoll veterans, the Chelsea Society and the Queen’s Club Foundation. I did a reading at All Saints Fulham for the Brain Tumour Research Campaign, sampled Save the Children’s Christmas Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall, and enjoyed the Christmas light switch-ons at the King’s Road and Chelsea Theatre. I was glad to see the North End Road Christmas Market still going strong since I launched it 11 years ago.
Music is central to Christmas, and I loved St Joseph’s School carols at St Mary’s, Jermain Jackson’s gig for Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Radio, the Tri-Borough Music Hub’s singing festival and Sherry Music Academy’s concert at Charing Cross Hospital.
On Christmas Day itself, I had lots of fun at H&F’s Big Christmas Day Lunch for locals who would otherwise be on their own – and bumped into a local celebrity!
Help with the cost of living
I’m glad that low-income families in Chelsea and Fulham are now getting automatic £150 Warm Home discounts every winter for the rest of the decade – and our new Warm Homes Plan offers them free insulation, heating, and solar panels and batteries worth £9,000-£12,000.
We’ve scrapped the two-child benefit cap, lifting 1,340 children in Chelsea and Fulham out of poverty. And we’ve frozen rail fares and prescription charges.
New support for leaseholders
Leasehold issues fill my postbag and I’m pleased we’re acting. We’re capping leaseholders’ ground rents at £250 a year (saving money and making flats saleable again) and banning new leaseholds entirely. Current leaseholders can switch to commonhold and service charges will be more transparent.
Funding culture for all
Every child in Chelsea and Fulham should have access to arts and music regardless of family income. We’re investing £1.5 billion in arts organisations such as Chelsea’s Royal Court Theatre, as well as museums, libraries and heritage buildings.
Backing local business
Our pubs matter to Chelsea and Fulham’s character. We’re dropping their business rates by 15% and freezing them for two years, plus launching a new High Streets Strategy to help local hospitality thrive.
Jobs and growth
We’re backing British scale-ups with a major investment in life sciences and deep tech – creating the jobs our community needs. And we’re working on cutting the Brexit red tape that’s held back our businesses and pushed food prices up.
Improving animal welfare
Having pledged to support animal welfare, I welcome our new strategy, which aims to end puppy farming, ban cruel cages for laying hens and pigs, stop live lobster boiling, phase out CO2 pig slaughter, reform dog breeding and more.
People often tell me they’d like to give something back to their community but aren’t sure where to start. If you’re looking to contribute, here are two causes well worth supporting.
In Fulham
Help the Barons Court Project support homeless people in our community by adding a new floor to their well-used Day Centre. This will create a purpose-built art studio, double their laundry capacity, and expand their acclaimed Homeless Made artists’ programme. Donate here.
In Chelsea
Help families build a sustainable income, improve their mental health and move out of poverty. The K+C Foundation’s Beacon Partnership is raising funds for a new holistic advice, support and care service for 250 low-income households on the World’s End Estate – offering a guiding light to residents struggling with complex needs. Donate here.
