14 March 2025
Dear resident
Welcome to my latest newsletter. I’m here for you – I’ve helped hundreds of Chelsea and Fulham residents last month alone with a whole range of issues.
Housing problems dominate my mailbag. But there are also many concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour, the impact of smartphones on children, the pollution of our waterways and the cost of water bills.
I’ve been pushing for action on these issues locally and nationally and I’ll continue to do so. Getting results for residents will always be my priority.
In these testing times, I’m pleased the government is taking new steps to make our country stronger and safer, boosting our national defence and reforming and rebuilding the NHS.
Talking of the NHS, we’ve hit our pledge of getting two million extra NHS appointments seven months early, with extra appointments for chemotherapy, radiotherapy, endoscopy, and diagnostic tests.
There’s lots more to do but we’re getting into our stride.
As always, please do get in touch if I can help in any way.
Best wishes
Ben
On the doorstep in Chelsea and Fulham, I find the one thing that unites all families is their concern about the impact of social media and smartphones on their young children. It also worries children themselves, as I know from talking to primary school pupils.
So as I said in a recent debate on smartphones, congratulations to Fulham Boys School for being among the first state schools to take the bold decision to replace smartphones for years 7-11 with basic “brick” phones (for texting and calling only).
Following the change last May, head teacher David Smith tells me students are more engaged, social interactions have improved and classroom behaviour has benefited significantly.
There’s much more to do to get smartphones banned in schools and I’ll continue to push for change.
Residents in Chelsea and Fulham have had enough of illegally modified motorbikes and e-scooters riding on pavements, stealing phones, making a huge noise and generally being a pain.
So I’m delighted the police are getting new powers to seize offending vehicles without warning as part of the government’s new Crime and Policing Bill.
As I said in Parliament, we also need our police to work effectively with our local councils to crack this problem.
Everyone, no matter their income, should be able to get healthy, affordable food. Sadly, this is far from being the case.
To make foods cheap and moreish, manufacturers load them with sugar, salt and fat, and supermarkets sell them with gusto. On the scale at which they are being eaten today, this damages people’s health – all quite legally. Obesity and type 2 diabetes have become a public health emergency.
Solving this requires a new approach. As I said in Parliament recently, it’s no good badgering people to eat five pieces of fruit and veg a day if they can’t afford to do so or if this isn’t available where they live – that’s just patronising.
Locally, the wonderful Alexandra Rose charity partners with Hammersmith & Fulham Council to give vouchers to low-income families of children under five and pregnant women so they can get fresh fruit and veg at Fulham’s North End Road Market.
I’m pressing for the government’s forthcoming food strategy to look at making healthy food more affordable and available everywhere.
You can read my speech in full here.
In a changing world, the government is right to be boosting our country’s strength and security.
A lasting peace in Ukraine will be good for Britain. I’m pleased the Prime Minister is doing all he can to help achieve this, working with the US and in a closer and deeper relationship with France, Germany and other European partners. The ball is now in Mr Putin’s court.
Essential to this is the decision to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. We can expect this to increase jobs and growth, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized defence suppliers.
Along with more than 100 Labour MPs and peers, I’ve written to British banks and fund managers to support our country’s national security by removing requirements that are preventing investment in the UK’s defence industry as unethical.
This International Women’s Day, I reflected on the life of the courageous suffragette Emily Wilding Davison.
One of my favourite discoveries in Parliament has been a plaque to her on a broom cupboard door. It tells the story of how she hid there on the night of the 1911 census so she could record her address as the House of Commons as male MPs could do – at a time when women couldn’t even vote.
I was delighted to learn that Ms Davison was an alumnus of Kensington Prep, a school now based in Fulham. I shared the story with the pupils when they visited Parliament recently.
Women’s equality has come a long way but there’s still a lot more to do.
Doughty army veteran Rod Hood is fundraising for the Stoll veterans in Fulham and for outstanding local homeless charity the Barons Court Project by taking part in The Big Stamford Bridge Sleep Out.
Do please consider donating if you can.
Promoted by Nikos Souslous on behalf of Ben Coleman, both at 28 Greyhound Road, London, W6 8NX
