May 2026 Monthly Report

HACKNEY'S HIDDEN GEM

New Age Games programme

Hackney Council’s New Age Games programme is a free exercise programme for residents over the age of 50. Running until 17 July, the sessions take place in different venues across the borough, including the Britannia Leisure Centre, Frampton Park Baptist Church, and the Pembury Community Centre. And there are a wealth of exercise programmes to choose from, including chair-based exercises, soca aerobics, swimming, badminton, tennis, yoga, pilates, water aerobics, and tai chi. See here for further details and here for the full timetable of events.

PARLIAMENT

Laying out the agenda for the next year

This month the King came to Parliament to lay out the Government’s upcoming legislative programme – that's all the laws the Government intends to pass in the coming year. There were several commitments that will make a real difference for Hackney:

• Opportunities for every child in education

  • The current system of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities is not functioning as well as it could. That’s why the Government is introducing the Education for All Bill, bringing about earlier, better support so that every child has the opportunity to thrive at school. All staff in nurseries, schools and colleges will receive training on SEND and inclusion and new National Inclusion Standards will ensure schools are meeting the needs of every child. To ease the transition and protect children’s support, there will be a triple lock of protections, and there will be no changes to EHCPs before at least September 2030.

    
    

• Leasehold reform

  • Earlier this year, the Government and the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee consulted on proposals for leasehold reform. Now these plans are being put into action. The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill will ban leasehold for new flats and will introduce a new framework to help leaseholders convert to commonhold, as well as making it easier to gain Right to Manage. And significantly for Hackney, ground rents will be capped – initially at £250, falling to a peppercorn rate after 40 years.

    
    

• Investing in social housing

  • Hackney and the country desperately need more social housing. That’s why the Government is committing to protect the existing social housing stock and making it easier to build more. The Social Housing Renewal Bill will also protect tenants who are survivors of domestic abuse to live separately from their abuser.

    
    

• Cladding

  • Hackney has the second highest number of buildings needing cladding remediation in London. Last year the Government kickstarted its Remediation Action Plan to remediate buildings with dangerous cladding over 18 metres by 2029. Now, it is boosting that work through the Remediation Bill. This includes a new legal duty to remediate buildings, stronger powers for enforcement, and a third-party backstop if companies continue to fail to fix the problems they created.

EHRC guidance on single-sex spaces 

The Secretary of State for Women and Equalities laid the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) updated draft guidance for the Equality Act before Parliament. The guidance has been updated in light of the Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of ‘sex’ within the Act last year. As an MP I have no locus over court judgements, and in Parliament we have to make things work according to the law. The previous draft of the guidance was confusing for businesses and left trans people in limbo about whether they would be able to access any services at all.  

This draft is a step in the right direction in that it is an improvement on the interim guidance. It makes things clearer for businesses and individuals and provides guidance for sensitive single-sex services. It asks that businesses make sure that sex-based exclusion is reasonable, and it is clear that excluding trans people from necessary services like bathrooms would not be proportionate. But I still have some concerns about how the guidance affects people with Gender Recognition Certificates as well as other trans people, and how we can ensure privacy is respected and protected, which I am raising with Ministers.  

In Hackney, many businesses already think about how to meet the needs of all residents, and I will be asking Hackney businesses and organisations how they will ensure access to their services is inclusive. 

TREASURY SELECT COMMITTEE

Student finance

The Treasury Committee's inquiry into student loans and graduate taxation held its first evidence session next month. The committee received testimony from 52,000 graduates about their experience, The mental burden of a growing debt is huge and most were unaware of what they were signing up to. The numbers that prompted the inquiry are stark – graduates now leave university with over £50,000 of debt on average, repaying nine per cent of earnings above £28,470. The Government is alive to the issue and capped the interest for Plan 2 and 3 student loans, which has meant that any significant spike caused by war in the Middle East will not lead to a surge in how much money graduates owe.But the underlying central question of fairness remains: have the goalposts been moved on a generation who signed up under different expectations? I will keep you updated as the inquiry progresses and we put our findings to Ministers.

HACKNEY

Local elections

At the start of the month Hackney went to the polls and voted in its new Council. I want to thank all the hardworking councillors who lost their seats after years serving Hackney. And congratulations to all those who were elected – it is a privilege to represent Hackney.

Cheaper weekend bus travel in the summer

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced a new weekend hopper fare for the summer. For the first time ever, anyone travelling on buses and trams at the weekend on a Saturday or a Sunday between 25 July and 31 August will only pay one single fare for unlimited journeys across Hackney and London that weekend. See here for further details.

Apprenticeships and construction skills in Hackney

I was pleased to host the Minister for Skills, Jacqui Smith, in Hackney for a visit to the Kier Colville Estate. Colville is in the midst of an ambitious regeneration programme that will see the 430 existing homes replaced whilst adding 93 new homes. The tour was led by two quantity surveying apprentices who showed us around the site and introduced us to other apprentices working across the supply chain at different stages of their training. It was impressive to see young people growing their careers and skills whilst building new homes for Hackney. We followed the tour with a roundtable with representatives from the construction industry, focused on how to open up more apprenticeship routes and bring local young people into the sector. It is good to see, once more, Hackney leading the way in skills and opportunities for young people.

V&A East Storehouse – Museum of the Year Finalist

Brilliant news for Hackney as the V&A East Storehouse has been shortlisted for Art Fund’s Museum of the Year award – the world's largest museum prize. The winner is due to be announced on 25 June but the shortlisting is a real testament to the exhibitions and work of the remarkable institution we have on our doorstep. If you haven’t already visited, why not pop in and see for yourself – see here for further details and information on how to plan your visit.

Have your say on Personal Independence Payments

Disability Rights UK, Toynbee Hall and the Commission on Social Security have created a survey co-designed with disabled people on state benefits. They want to hear directly from people who receive Personal Independence Payments (PIP) about how the system currently works and how it can be improved. The survey is available in BSL and Easy Read, as well as printable versions. If you would like to complete the survey, see here. It closes on 25 July.

Grant funding for religious and heritage buildings

The Places of Worship Renewal Fund is a new £92 million programme funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to support the repair of listed places of worship across England and targeted at areas in most need. The fund is open to all faiths and denominations and will run until 2030. See here for more information.

The deadline for submitting Expressions of Interest for the first round of grants is midnight, Sunday 14 June 2026. But don’t worry if you can’t make that deadline: further rounds of grants will follow later in the year and in future years.

And for buildings and sites of historic value, the Heritage at Risk Capital fund is a programme to support repairs and conservation. Up to £60 million remains available for allocation over the next four years, to 2030. The fund is targeted at areas in greatest need, particularly where heritage investment can deliver wider social and economic benefits for local communities. Applicants and projects must meet the fund-specific requirements listed on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Capital Fund webpage .

The deadline for submitting expressions of interest for the first round of grants is Sunday 7 June. Again, further rounds of grants will follow later in the year and in future years.

HAVE YOUR SAY

The Government and other bodies regularly consult on policy proposals. Below are a few areas that are open for consultation. Click on each option to find out more and to share your thoughts.

• Stop and search authorised professional practice (APP) - GOV.UK - Closes 6 July.

• High Value Council Tax Surcharge - GOV.UK - Closes 14 July.

• Review of the Metropolitan Police Service -  Closes 31 July.

HOW TO CONTACT ME

Via email on meg.hillier.mp@parliament.uk or you can call me on 020 7219 5325. The main phone line is open Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm.

Visiting Parliament and Prime Minister’s Questions

Tours of the Houses of Parliament can be arranged for groups of up to 20 people. Tours last up to 75 minutes and start between 9am and 12pm Monday to Wednesday, and between 9am-1:30pm and 3.30pm-5pm on Fridays.

MPs are allocated a small number of tickets for tours of Big Ben. I operate a ballot for these four times a year. The next ballot is for tours in the autumn.

MPs are also given a very limited number of tickets for Prime Minister’s Questions. I operate a ballot system each month. The ballot is now open to attend PMQs in September.

To apply for a tour, or be entered into the ballot, please send your name, and full postal address (you must live in Hackney South and Shoreditch) to meg.hillier.mp@parliament.uk. 

If you would like to enter the PMQs ballot, please also supply a contact number.     

It is easier to arrange viewing tickets for other departmental question times or debates. To see what's on click here.