Camden council sits in the very centre of our nation’s capital and, while town halls around the UK brace themselves for the outcome of the next comprehensive spending review, Labour councils are more important than ever.

There has never been a more important time for Labour to be in power in local government. While we are powerless to prevent the swingeing cuts handed down to us by central government, in Camden the Labour administration is determined to find the alternative and create a place that doesn’t leave anyone behind. Labour in Camden has a proud history of finding innovative ways to tackle some of the most challenging and complex issues faced by an inner-city area. Central to our values is the passionate belief that a rich social mix is critical to maintaining a successful city and a core part of London’s unique identity. This means keeping Camden as a place where everyone can afford to live.

We know that people are really feeling the strains of recession. Despite Labour’s very best efforts to protect the most vulnerable, the impact of £83m-worth of government cuts continues to hit local council services hard. It’s time for some radical action.

Labour’s number one priority in Camden is to tackle inequality. To help the council understand the impact of local and national service cuts on some of our most vulnerable residents, Camden Labour recently commissioned the Young Foundation to carry out some ambitious new research, which has created a bold new project, the equality taskforce, launched by Labour in Camden this summer.

Chaired by Oxford research fellow, Naomi Eisenstadt, the taskforce will explore how local public services can help tackle inequality in the borough, drawing upon research, community engagement findings and other sources of evidence to help shape council policy.

Early evidence-gathering from the Young Foundation’s research has already revealed heartbreaking accounts of the very real struggles that people are experiencing and their fears for the future. We have also heard amazing stories of resilience and communities coming together to offer support.

Those interviewed were a selection of Camden residents likely to be hardest hit by multiple changes to services, maintenance or benefit entitlements. This is deliberately not a large-scale quantitative piece of research; its value lies in the deep insight it offers in to the lives of some of our most vulnerable residents.

The equality taskforce will embody the core Labour values of equality and social justice, as well as building on other Labour achievements in Camden. Over the last two years, Camden Labour has worked hard, for example, to protect those residents most at need from the worst of the cuts in services, such as early years. We are proud we continue to invest significantly in life-changing services like early years provision and helping young people to gain training and sustainable employment.

We aim to capitalise on Camden’s location at the heart of London by creating the conditions for, and then harnessing the benefits of, economic growth. We now have one of the biggest capital deficits in London after £200m was cut from our schools budget. But we developed our own plan B. Our community investment programme is unlocking cash by selling or redeveloping out-of-date and under-used buildings and land to reinvest into improving community facilities. By being innovative and not accepting the significant damage those cuts would have on our community, we’ve developed a local solution. This will not only enable us to fund vital repairs to our existing schools and housing, but also launch one of the biggest social housing building programmes in a generation, with over 850 new council homes planned.

Labour’s ultimate aim in Camden is to make sure the borough remains a place where everyone has a chance to succeed and where nobody gets left behind. To this extent, the equality taskforce will play a vital role; enabling Camden to deliver the right services that genuinely help people escape poverty, boosting the life chances of every resident regardless of their social status or background.

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Sarah Hayward is leader of Camden council. She tweets @Sarah_Hayward

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Photo: James Stringer