Diane Abbott

Diane Abbott fails to show up the first time Regenerate arrives to meet her. “There’s a meeting on the Violent Crime Reduction Bill,” says a breathlessly apologetic assistant. “She’ll be in it for hours.” Second time around, there’s no doubt that Abbott is here as the sound of her laughter rushes out to greet you before her office door opens.

The buzz and chatter going on around Abbott suggest that she runs one of the livelier offices off the eerily silent corridors of the MPs’ new office warren, Portcullis House. Certainly it could be one of the busiest, as Abbott has a packed parliamentary diary that makes you wonder how the former journalist also manages to find the time to write newspaper columns and appear on radio and television quite so frequently.

Within parliament, Abbott chairs the all-party parliamentary group on gun crime and is sitting on the Violent Crime Reduction Bill. The latter is still a work in progress; hence its need for a hefty chunk of her attention. The bill will give the police and communities new powers to tackle knife, gun and alcohol-related violence, notably by bringing alcohol disorder zones to our towns and suburbs, where police and local authorities could apply special measures to curb the activities of both drinkers and suppliers of alcohol. The potential introduction of ADZs has caused some concern among the development industry, with the RICS and the British Property Federation voicing fears that they could have a negative impact on the regeneration prospects of towns and cities in marginal areas.

But Abbott is a woman of forthright opinions and she has no hesitation in expressing them, even when they run counter to the government line. She is unequivocal on the need for tough action to curb not only alcohol-related disorder, but other forms of street crime. These are matters close to the heart of the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, as she lives with them on her own Hackney doorstep: the Hackney borough experienced more than 200 gun crimes over the past year (see box, page 24).

Hackney achieved notoriety when a series of gangland killings on a stretch along the Lower and Upper Clapton Roads earned the area the soubriquet “Murder Mile”. Yet at the same time as violent crime levels remain high, this area of east London is experiencing rapid gentrification, and the prospect of the Olympics coming to nearby Stratford is pushing up property prices here while in other areas of London they are stabilising.

With gentrification, street crime and the Olympics all so close to home, Abbott is well qualified to talk about the big issues of regeneration, and she doesn’t pull any punches.

Q & A

Regeneration is a good thing, but we have to focus on taking drug dealing off the street

They certainly need more police activity directed at street-level disorder. On my road there is a youth gang that is causing a lot of distress; and yet there are two parks within five minutes’ walk where young people could engage in activities, there is a college three bus stops away where young people can study and which has a gym, and around the corner from where the gang hang out there is a sports centre. It is not therefore a question of facilities, so you have to look at what’s happening in schools.

Will the Violent Crime Reduction Bill help?

It will give councils many more tools, to introduce alcohol disorder zones to tackle alcohol-related disorder, for instance. But we have to be careful about giving local authorities the resources to use those tools. The bill does go far enough, but there is a need to adequately resource it at a local authority level. But what I can’t understand is why, at the same time as the government is tackling crime through the Violent Crime Reduction Bill, it is also bringing in the new Licensing Act.

Where does crime come on the list of concerns for your constituents?

It comes very high on the list, but the paradox is that whereas the police focus on Mr Big – on going after the big importers of drugs, for example – the thing that upsets my constituents is low-level crime and disorder. They don’t have a view on taking drugs, as such, but they don’t want people selling drugs and injecting drugs on their own street corners. In Hackney the police are introducing dispersal zones [which allow police to order people to leave an area and not return within 24 hours], but I have misgivings about them because they simply displace the activity. But if you offered the people who live in my road a dispersal zone, they’d jump at it. The problem is bigger than that – there are people who have to go to work early who won’t use a certain bus stop because a crowd of junkies is hanging around that spot.

What impact have gentrification and regeneration had on Hackney?

The very poor and the relatively rich now live cheek by jowl. In the road where I live a family house costs up to half a million pounds, and yet nearby we have deprived estates. The gentrification is emphasising the differences. When very poor people see that very rich people can pay up to half a million pounds for a house, that causes friction.

Gentrification is emphasising the differences. When poor people see rich people pay half a million pounds for a house, that causes friction

So has regeneration been good for Hackney, or simply for the yuppies?

Regeneration is a good thing for Hackney, but for it to work we have to focus on taking the drug dealing off the street.

What does Hackney need to make it a better place to live?

Hackney needs more regeneration of people and that starts with education. The government has put a lot of money into primary schools, but secondary schools are more of a problem. I am worried that the government’s latest reforms [to allow schools to govern themselves] are targeted at middle-class parents like me. The test of reforms is how they help the refugee, the black person, the people lower down the social strata. I want reforms that are aimed at people like my parents, who were intimidated by the system and by middle-class parents.

How does the future look for your constituency?

The future for Hackney is very bright. I’ve been the MP for the area for 18 years and when I first came here, Hoxton was very sad. Now it is the new Soho. The Olympics will bring significant levels of investment and transport infrastructure, but we do have to deal with the social disorder and with the alienation that people may feel as gentrification, regeneration and the building for the Olympics progress. It is all very well to regenerate buildings, but we have to make sure that we regenerate people, too.