Emma Dent Coad’s ‘love letter to Kensington’ is nothing of the sort

Few places can rival the London borough of Kensington in diversity. In the 19th century, new mansions sat alongside the cholera-ridden slums around the piggeries and brick claypits. A speculative racecourse came and went. More recently, postwar slum clearance created new housing divides and Portobello Road became a key London destination. Racial tensions erupted in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, and in the 1970s the Westway motorway sliced through the north of the borough, reinforcing its landlocked character and poor transport links to the rest of London.

In 1965, following a major reorganisation of London’s government, Kensington was combined with Chelsea to create a new borough. In 2013, I became the leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council. Emma Dent Coad, the author of One Kensington, soon became the opposition leader, before going on to serve as MP for Kensington from 2017-9. She has now bounced back to lead the Labour party on the council again, doubtless with an eye to another crack at parliament. This book – a full-throated attack on the council’s record under Conservative leadership, which she characterises as indifferent and uncaring – reads like her job application.

Its basic premise is that Kensington is one of the most unequal places in the UK (hardly a revelation) and at the same time the ‘richest borough’ in the country. Undoubtedly some residents are extremely wealthy, but that doesn’t mean that the council is. It is as constrained as any other local authority; it has very limited tax-raising powers and is heavily dependent on government grants allocated on the basis of population and need.

Councils have a statutory duty to deliver specific services, as laid down by central government. They do not determine levels of universal credit, housing allowance, benefits or even rents.