Our Policies

We want to maximise the value of every pound spent in Sunderland by the council, its partners and you, the public.

We want to make sure that income is recirculated in Sunderland with our community being put first and local people are provided with opportunities for better employment and higher wages.

We want to make sure as much of the money that is spent stays in Sunderland for the benefit of our community.

We want to make sure that people who live in Sunderland benefit from a stronger local economy and a great city centre.

• We will promote Sunderland as a great place to do business as well as a great city to live
• We will make our city and our city centre as productive and attractive as possible to increase the number of jobs and businesses operating in the city
• We will ensure our city is digitally connected
• We will ensure the council maximises local spend in the city and we will encourage all key partners and businesses to spend locally
• We will follow social value principles to get the most for Sunderland to support local people and encourage more co-operative models of business in Sunderland.

We all use public spaces every time we leave home. These include the footpaths and streets we walk or drive along each day, the parks where our children play and the outdoor areas we exercise or relax in. Our lives can be influenced by our perceptions of the quality and cleanliness of the public areas we encounter. We all need to work together to deliver improvements to our streets, open spaces and our environment.

We want a clean city where our streets and public spaces are free from litter, fly-tipping, graffiti, fly posting, dog fouling, vandalised or damaged street furniture and signs.

We want a green city that has good quality beaches, attractive and tidy green and open spaces, well-kept parks and cemeteries, and policies which promote sustainability and ensure the protection and management of the natural environment.

With the help of individuals, communities, voluntary groups, local businesses, and landowners:

• We will provide the best possible local clean and green services within available resources
• We will champion local clean and green activities, supporting the combined efforts of partners and communities
• We will support residents and communities in caring for their local environment and neighbourhoods.

It is everyone’s right to feel safe in their community and a perception of safety is a basic requirement for creating civic pride in the area and for good strong community cohesion.

We work with partners in the city (including the police, fire, probation services and health) to prevent and reduce crime and disorder and improve community cohesion and maintain high levels of safety.

We work together for the benefit of everyone who lives, works, visits, studies and socialises in Sunderland and protect and support our most vulnerable people and places from harm.

Together through continued partnerships and collaboration:

• We will tackle violent crime and domestic abuse
• We will use both city wide and local area problem-solving approaches in response to crime, community safety and cohesion issues
• We will tackle threats and harmful behaviour that impact particularly on our most vulnerable people – such as modern- day slavery, sexual exploitation, fraud and financial crime, serious organised crime, cyber-enabled crimes and preventing violent extremism and radicalisation.

Everybody should have the right to live in a decent home in a neighbourhood that they are proud to live in. We will therefore do our utmost to ensure the city has sufficient good quality housing of the right types, particularly affordable housing for low-income households. On this basis, there is much that still needs to be done to improve the city’s housing stock and to ensure that there is the right mix and offer throughout the city.

We want to:

• Increase the number of new homes
• Provide early and proactive support to individuals and households to reduce the harmful impacts of welfare reforms

We will:

• Improve housing and management standards in the private rented sector including Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)
• Reduce the number of empty homes in the city
• Encourage the building of more and better housing in the city
• Help to reduce fuel poverty.

Education and skills are essential parts of our economic prosperity for local people in Sunderland.

Education and skills are of economic value to individuals as workers, to the businesses that employ them and to the wider economy through greater productivity and competitiveness.

It is crucial for our residents (especially our young people) to obtain the necessary educational achievement and skills required to ensure that local people have the competitive edge to succeed in the modern world and not be left behind, and to ensure they can benefit from jobs created in Sunderland.

We will:

• Work with education providers, families and young people to improve education attainment levels across the city
• Prioritise the improvement of educational attainment and closing achievement gaps for the most vulnerable children and young people
• Encourage greater collaboration between schools and other education providers and businesses
• Support businesses and individuals in improving skills to boost competitiveness and aid career progression and help support more residents into higher education
• We will promote the benefits of STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) to match job availability and encourage further business investment and job creation
• We will support adult learning opportunities in the city including digital skills.

So many factors contribute to our health and wellbeing, meaning our challenge is to reflect the breadth of the agenda whilst being specific about the areas we need to focus on to make the biggest difference.

Sunderland Labour is fully committed to improving the health and wellbeing of residents to help them live healthier and longer lives. We also want to help people live as independently as they can with us there to help when needed – especially supporting those most vulnerable.

We will work with residents, communities and partners to:

• Reduce health inequalities and improve the health of the poorest the fastest
• Support healthy, physically active lifestyles for all ages
• Support self-care, with more people successfully managing their own health conditions
• Enable people with care and support needs to have choice and control
• Supporting employee wellness programmes to promote good health and wellbeing.

We have fantastic assets and an outstanding offer in Sunderland – our beaches, green spaces, heritage, culture, parks, sporting activities and events such as the Air Show and the Illuminations.

We will continue to expand our cultural offer, so that Sunderland is an acknowledged destination of choice where people want to come and be part of that offer and Sunderland is seen as an all age-friendly city.

We also want to make sure that the economic benefits for the city of our cultural and events offer are fully realised by its residents.

We will:

• Make it as easy as possible for local people to access local opportunities
• Expand the city’s cultural offer across the Music, Arts and Cultural Quarter in the city centre, as well as continuing to improve the offer at the seafront, Washington, Houghton and Hetton
• Improve how we market Sunderland to a wider audience to gain more economic benefit
• Encourage growth of the creative industries in the city.

We are committed to providing the best quality services to Sunderland residents – in partnership with residents and local organisations wherever possible.

We want to make it easy for people to access the right set of services when they really need them – especially when unexpected events happen that affect residents’ lives.

We will prioritise support, interventions and resources where they are most needed:

• Our adult social care services and supporting people to help them remain independent
• Our children’s social care services and supporting vulnerable children and young people in our city
• And those most vulnerable in society including those impacted on by debt, by poor health, by the impacts of unemployment and disadvantage.

We want Sunderland to be a welcoming city for all, where people get on with each other and feel they are part of their local community. To achieve this, we will provide effective local leadership, to increase community cohesion, raise aspirations and create better access to social and economic opportunities.

Increasing community engagement and participation will reduce dependency on public services, building thriving, more resilient communities across the city that make the best use of their strengths and assets to overcome challenges.

We want to bring people together to make a difference and help them to do more for themselves and others so that their communities can thrive, making sure that:

• Residents, communities, businesses and organisations are equal partners
• Local people are engaged to achieve things that we cannot achieve alone and we add value to their activities
• The city’s strategic priorities are aligned to communities’ needs and aspirations to deliver joint action
• Support mechanisms are in place so local people can take action and we share information, skills and resources

We will:

• Make it easier for people to get involved in decision making and scrutiny of services and delivery of local projects and ideas
• Make it easier for people to share their views including through social media and consultation activities
• Ensure that there are local mechanisms in place to address neighbourhood issues and ensure community engagement.