As someone who spends his life working with difficult people in difficult places Shaun Bailey understands that violent crime and anti-social behaviour are dragging the place down.

Shaun argues that there needs to be a fresh approach. This includes more police officers on the beat, 24/7, which is being piloted by the local Conservative Council. But it also involves a greater focus on those issues that encourage people to turn to crime in the first place.

Do you want to own your own home?

Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Conservatives believe home ownership should be an option for all local people.

With this principle in mind, the local Conservative Council has launched H&F HomeBuy—a major new initiative to promote home ownership.

When Labour ran H&F Council their idea of ‘affordable’ housing was only to build homes for rent, keeping the dream of home ownership away from local people.

A Notting Hill Housing Trust survey has shown that 75% of social housing tenants want to own their homes. Also, a Rowntree Trust survey found 42.3% of households under 40 in H&F cannot access social housing and cannot afford to buy.

Local Conservatives believe in opportunity—and enabling low cost home ownership plays a major role in that.

New statistics have revealed that the number of people who are currently on benefits whose oldest benefit claim is more than five years has grown by 600,000 since 1999.

Since that time, the number of local authorities with more than 10% of the working age population claiming benefits for five years or more has more than trebled. These are overwhelmingly almost all Labour held authorities.

Four in every five youngsters receiving custodial sentences have no qualifications, more than two-thirds of prisoners are illiterate and nearly one-third of those excluded from school have been involved with substance abuse.  As David Cameron said recently, “If we do not get education right, we will not get our society right.”