Post by John Chanin on Apr 9, 2020 16:15:29 GMT
The southern seat in Hackney stretches down almost to Liverpool Street station. This area of Shoreditch, with Hoxton to its north, has become a byword for trendy hipsters, which started from occupation of what was once an extensive area of dereliction. However the majority of households here still rent from the council, in a variety of estates of different vintages. Indeed this is one of just 2 seats in the whole country where social housing tenants are still in a majority. At the north west of the seat is the very desirable Victorian housing of De Beauvoir, where large and expensive owner-occupied homes dominate. In the centre is London Fields, with Broadway Market to the south (once a typical street market, but now very trendy) and the Mapledene Conservation Area to the west, once the home of Tony Blair before he became famous. In the south east there is Victoria Park, one of London’s larger parks, shared with Tower Hamlets, with smaller and more recent housing to its north. Alongside Hackney Marshes, with its endless football pitches, is Hackney Wick , once home to another depressed tower block estate, but now redeveloped. The constituency extends over the Lea Navigation to include part of the Olympic Park, the borough border being the old course of the river Lea. To the north-east is the modern Homerton Hospital, and extensive areas of council housing. Hackney town centre and town hall is on the northern edge of the seat. The nearby comprehensive school here is famous for firstly being closed down as totally dysfunctional, and then, renamed the Mossbourne Academy, as being headed by Michael Wilshaw, whose success led to him subsequently being appointed Chief Schools Inspector. Many of the pupils came from another large ex-GLC estate in the seat, Pembury, which sits just to the north of the town centre.
Socially like Hackney North this is a a very polarised seat, with a surprisingly high proportion of people in managerial and professional occupations despite the high level of council housing. These tenants are very heavily black - up to 40% in the predominantly council Kings Park ward, and predominantly of African descent. Overall this seat has the 5th highest black population in the country, and also the 11th highest mixed, as it is well integrated. There is a very low asian population for inner London. Despite the enclaves of up market housing, this seat has the lowest percentage of owner occupation in the whole country. Like all the other east London seats there is a high proportion of students and people with degrees, partly associated with very low levels of the elderly, plus the high valuation put on education by ethnic minority households. All these features make it highly distinctive, but also very safely Labour as all the social groups here tend to Labour these days. Historically there was a strong National Front vote in Hoxton, later inherited by the Liberal Democrats, but this has long faded away, and locally every ward is Labour. The MP here is Meg Hillier, first elected in 2005 in succession to Brian Sedgemore, a junior minister in the last Labour government, and now Chair of the influential Public Accounts Committee.
Like all the east London seats this one is substantially oversized. The Boundary Commission originally proposed just moving the council estate dominated Kings Park ward beside the Lea to the Hackney North seat. However as part of a rethink in north London, the up market De Beauvoir ward has been linked with Islington South, with Dalston ward in the centre of the borough coming the other way from Hackney North. This will make no political difference in what is one of the safest Labour seats in the country.
Census data: owner-occupied 23% (573/573 in England & Wales), private rented 25% (64th), social rented 50% (2nd).
:White 51%, Black 27%, Sth Asian 5%, Mixed 7%, Other 10%
: Managerial & professional 47% (70th), Routine & Semi-routine 24% (427th)
: Degree 41% (36th), Minimal qualifications 28% (503rd)
: Students 10% (66th), Over 65: 7% (564th)
Socially like Hackney North this is a a very polarised seat, with a surprisingly high proportion of people in managerial and professional occupations despite the high level of council housing. These tenants are very heavily black - up to 40% in the predominantly council Kings Park ward, and predominantly of African descent. Overall this seat has the 5th highest black population in the country, and also the 11th highest mixed, as it is well integrated. There is a very low asian population for inner London. Despite the enclaves of up market housing, this seat has the lowest percentage of owner occupation in the whole country. Like all the other east London seats there is a high proportion of students and people with degrees, partly associated with very low levels of the elderly, plus the high valuation put on education by ethnic minority households. All these features make it highly distinctive, but also very safely Labour as all the social groups here tend to Labour these days. Historically there was a strong National Front vote in Hoxton, later inherited by the Liberal Democrats, but this has long faded away, and locally every ward is Labour. The MP here is Meg Hillier, first elected in 2005 in succession to Brian Sedgemore, a junior minister in the last Labour government, and now Chair of the influential Public Accounts Committee.
Like all the east London seats this one is substantially oversized. The Boundary Commission originally proposed just moving the council estate dominated Kings Park ward beside the Lea to the Hackney North seat. However as part of a rethink in north London, the up market De Beauvoir ward has been linked with Islington South, with Dalston ward in the centre of the borough coming the other way from Hackney North. This will make no political difference in what is one of the safest Labour seats in the country.
Census data: owner-occupied 23% (573/573 in England & Wales), private rented 25% (64th), social rented 50% (2nd).
:White 51%, Black 27%, Sth Asian 5%, Mixed 7%, Other 10%
: Managerial & professional 47% (70th), Routine & Semi-routine 24% (427th)
: Degree 41% (36th), Minimal qualifications 28% (503rd)
: Students 10% (66th), Over 65: 7% (564th)
2010 | % | 2015 | % | 2017 | % | 2019 | % | |
Labour | 23,888 | 55.7% | 30,693 | 64.4% | 43,974 | 79.4% | 39,884 | 73.3% |
Conservative | 5,800 | 13.5% | 6,420 | 13.5% | 6,043 | 10.9% | 5,899 | 10.8% |
Liberal Democrat | 9,600 | 22.4% | 2,186 | 4.6% | 3,168 | 5.7% | 4,853 | 8.9% |
UKIP/Brexit | 651 | 1.5% | 1,818 | 3.8% | 744 | 1.4% | ||
Green | 1,493 | 3.5% | 5,519 | 11.6% | 1,522 | 2.7% | 2,948 | 5.4% |
Others | 1,426 | 3.4% | 1,004 | 2.1% | 647 | 1.2% | 111 | 0.2% |
Majority | 14,288 | 33.3% | 24,273 | 51.0% | 37,931 | 68.5% | 33,985 | 62.4% |
