Cllr Nicole Griffiths, Streatham St Leonard’s ward, said:

“I was appalled by the sickening allegations outlined in yesterday’s Brixton Buzz.
Elected Councillors are, quite rightly, expected to uphold a level of moral decency in their everyday lives. Irfan should stand down immediately due to the seriousness of these allegations. He should not continue as a councillor if he can’t fulfill his duties and serve his Clapham Park constituents”.

The post Greens call for the immediate resignation of Cllr Irfan Mohammed appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Organised and Chaired by RMT Member and Croydon Black Lives Matter Mel Mullins.  I was a little shocked to learn that this was the RMT’s 19^th Reparations Conference which I was unaware of during my time as a Labour Councillor and here I am a new member of the Green Party being made aware of this very important annual event and representing the Greens!

The Conference naturally focussed on Reparations, the Governments determination to avoid any discussions on the subject, speakers from various organisations in attendance, the guest speaker, was Robin Walker Known as (The Black History Man) who presented the topic: How Enslavement Brought Eco-Friendly Afrikan Farming Techniques to the Western World. There were several workshops covering issues such as Community Building: local action for global change.

Sustainable Practices: Empowering Climate Justice:

I co-chaired a workshop on Advocacy and Action: Campaigning for Reparations and informed the group of the Green Party’s part in bringing forward Lambeth Council’s call for Reparations. On 16 July 2020, the Council called on the Government to launch a commission, commit to reparations and overhaul the country’s curriculum to address this country’s role in the slave trade. 

I also pointed out that to positively campaign on reparations the community needs to understand what is meant by reparations what form will this take. To support this, we should work closely with the Caricom ten-point plan working as a collective.

Our very own Ria was in attendance, and she informed the Conference that the Green Party is the only party with a Reparations Policy.

An interesting and informative conference I look forward to attending next year.

The post Sonia Winifred at the RMT Annual Reparations Conference appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

The report highlights significant failings in providing vital services. Lambeth received
more complaints about housing than any other London Borough, and nationwide
only Birmingham City Council received more. Almost half of all complaints about
Lambeth involved housing.

Out of the complaints investigated, 92% were upheld. In terms of the number of
residents, that is more than twice the national average.

Residents are being repeatedly let down. Under Labour leadership the council has
also been inexcusably slow at responding and putting things right – the council failed
to provide a satisfactory remedy in 93% of cases before the investigation was
completed, again falling well behind the UK average.

The Ombudsman’s accompanying letter underscores its serious concerns about
delay and lack of compliance – noting the same concerns have been raised for the
past four years. Labour’s chronic failures have left the authority unable to provide
adequate solutions for residents.

This level of failure and delay is unacceptable, and the Greens will continue fighting
for urgent action to resolve the crisis and restore services for local residents.

The post Our response to the 2024/25 Housing Ombudsman report appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Do residents know that Lambeth Labour Party, who are failing so many residents so badly, pay themselves over half a million pounds annually in ‘special responsibility allowances’ (SRAs) over and above the basic councillor allowance of £16,200.

Also sitting on the Council are six opposition councillors. The Greens have three seats following their landslide win in the Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction by-election which was called once long serving councillor, Jim Dickson, finally stood down after clinging on to his seat (and allowance) for a full year after being elected MP for Dartford.

The Labour administration is refusing to recognise the new makeup of the Council – denying the Green group additional committee seats, resources, rights to debate at Full Council Meetings and sufficient officer support. They are also blocking a change to Lambeth’s Constitution to reflect the council as it is now.

Cllr Scott Ainslie, Streatham St Leonard’s ward and leader of the Green Group said:

“Labour Lambeth are clearly desperate, trying to deny the democratic vote at the recent by-election. Blocking the Greens from accessing council committees and other resources shows they are running scared of the Green Party, and so they should! With over 22% of Lambeth residents voting for us we are Lambeth’s second party and offering a different way of doing politics – see our pledges at https://lambeth.greenparty.org.uk/our-pledges/
and vote for us in the local elections in May 2026”.

CONTACT
streathamgreenpartyscott@gmail.com
contact@lambeth.greenparty.org.uk

The post PRESS RELEASE: Labour’s One-Party state pockets £500,000 of council funds while punishing Greens for winning appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

“Some of the highlighted projects in this Growth Plan have been around for over 20 years:

• The Spine root – consultations began a decade ago
• Vauxhall gyratory – Council consulted on removal 15 years ago
• Vauxhall island – vacant since the 1980s, approvals since 2012, along with Vauxhall Square
• Waterloo Station redevelopment was first proposed 2007
• Waterloo undercrofts were first proposed 2005
• Royal St – sites vacant since the war! Various permissions, including 650 key worker flats in 2007
• The Bakerloo line extension – proposed 2010, cancelled in 2020 and this new Labour government refused funding in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR)

Or even the most repeated mission ambition: to build 10,000 new homes over 10 years, 1,000 each year… that’s fewer than our current target of 1,335 each year!!

Permissions have been granted for over 1,000 homes and the equivalent of 6 Shards of office space which remain stubbornly undeveloped in Waterloo alone.

Lambeth is a borough of great promise – but also enormous and growing inequality, with a council frequently at odds with its own communities and businesses – who are extremely resilient in fighting back and getting on with it.

The major driver of inequality is unaffordable housing – it’s too expensive to purchase or rent, and there is a desperate shortage of social homes – which worsening inequalities, and knock-on effects, such as the impact on local community schools of falling rolls and closing.

In fact we have overshot our targets on market housing, but significantly undershot on social homes. 

More market homes won’t reduce prices or rents significantly (admits the OBR, the Mayor’s Towards a New London Plan, countless academic studies) – but, in the face of this the Growth Plan claims it will “reduce the negative impacts of housing costs on people and families, through securing 10,000 new homes” (pg 37).  Does the administration know something which the OBR and the Mayor doesn’t?

This growth plan seeks to suck in international finance to enable the speculative house building model which has exacerbated problems for 25 years. We don’t need more market homes. There isn’t a shortage – in fact, according to a developer’s own recent viability assessment, there is a glut of 1 and 2 bed market homes in Vauxhall. No, we need more homes with social rent and we need rent regulation in the private rented sector. 

Why aren’t we getting those? Because this government – this new Labour government  – won’t fund a major programme of social housebuilding. The £3.9bn promised in the CSR is similar to the previous Tory government. The Labour London Mayor is fuming – no additional funding for Bakerloo nor social housing – and you can’t blame a Tory government any more!

But the most galling thing about this ‘Growth Strategy’ is that it’s all about what you (the Council) is going to do to the residents and communities and businesses of Lambeth – not what you are going to do with them.

Not once does it propose working with residents or local businesses to improve things – it’s all about getting in investment etc “attract and enable investment”, “investible opportunities” or working with some of the world’s most profitable real estate outfits like Mitsibushi and Berkeley Homes. 

Why not work with Coin St Community Builders to deliver the approved 300 homes and a new leisure centre, or the new nursing home they’ve been proposing for decades?

Why not work with the local community trust at Jubilee Gardens –  blade for blade London’s most visited green open space – and with Braeburn Estates to deliver an extension to JG promised 50 years ago over central London’s last open-air car park? 

Why not work with the Friends of Brockwell Park to deliver some real sustainable cultural events in the park, such as the Land Justice Fair taking place in Myatt’s Fields later this month?

Why not work with residents desperate to improve their estates, but threatened with demolition and sale to international finance at MIPIM?

Lambeth is a carbon factory, enabling the unnecessary emission of millions of tonnes of carbon by the demolition of solid young buildings and approval of dozens of carbon-busting skyscrapers. This growth plan is doing nothing about this.

It mentions 72 Upper Ground more than any other site: but this is demolishing a building less than 50 years old which could have provided 220 homes, and will emit 103,000 tonnes of carbon in building it’s uber-concrete bunker, the equivalent of every one of its 4,000 workers to drive in from Surrey every day for 20 years.

This isn’t sustainable growth, it’s the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire.“

The post Cllr Scott Ainslie Criticises Lambeth Labour’s Growth Strategy appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

WELCOME, CLLR PAUL VALENTINE

On 1 May 2025, Cllr Paul Valentine was elected to represent Herne Hill & Loughborough Junction ward! Paul’s election means that the Green Party is now the joint majority opposition group at Lambeth. This means we get more time and resources to stand up for our communities, see Scott’s comment on it here. 

“Thank you to everyone – there is a great demand on the doorstep for more Green Councillors who will work for the people of Lambeth. We’re community led and we’re community driven. We need our local members to step up and help us get more green councillors elected in 2026!” – Paul

LAMBETH 4 DIVESTMENT

Lambeth 4 Divestment is running a petition demanding that the Lambeth divest from all funds complicit with Israel’s genocide, occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people. If this petition reaches 3000 signatures it can be debated at Full Council. Please give it your support and share it with your networks now!

GREENS IN THE PRESS

Greens edge out Labour in Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction upset as Valentine claims Council seat

Herne Hill by-election sees Labour lose its seat to the Greens

Suspended over Gaza vote, former Lambeth Labour Cabinet Member finds new home in Green Party

For regular updates, you can follow Cllrs’ work here and here.

GREENS IN THE COUNCIL

[NB: Don’t forget to click on the links to watch the video or read the minutes!]

Nicole attended April’s Cabinet to challenge the administration to address one of the root causes of homelessness by tackling wealth inequality. She ensured Green Party policy priorities, including housing and developer funds, were added to this year’s work programmes for the Housing and Overview and Scrutiny Cttees. Nicole also highlighted the lack of strategy and oversight of the council’s operational and commercial assets portfolio at the Overview and Scrutiny Cttee.

At Annual Council in April, Scott spoke out against Labour’s defensiveness and the need for more opposition voices across council committees so as to better serve our communities. Scott joined Lambeth Unison members’ calls to divest the council’s funds from occupied territories at Pensions Cttee. Please sign this petition to help get divestment debated at full council. Scott also had to recuse himself from Planning Cttee having expressed his concerns regarding the over-commercialisation of Brockwell Park. He also demanded greater clarity on the specific savings that Lambeth must make in order to meet the auditor’s statutory recommendations at Corporate Cttee.

This week the Green Group co-signed a cross-party call-in challenge of the decision to amalgamate Fenstanton Primary School and Holy Trinity Church of England Primary Schools. They also requested justification for the use of special urgency measures to rush through the decision to go ahead with Brockwell Park Live events despite a court case ruling that Lambeth had not followed the correct procedure.

LAMBETH-WIDE NEWS

Politicisation of community groups
There is growing evidence that groups and forums that originally came together to represent the views of local residents are being taken over by politicians imposing their own agendas. Nicole and Scott are particularly concerned that a council-funded forum in Streatham is no longer operating in a clear and balanced way that best serves the community. Some committee members and campaigners have expressed concerns that their views are sidelined and dismissed in a bullying manner and have stood down because of it.

Brockwell Park

Councillors have been engaging with the groundswell of local objection to the Brockwell Live events. The Greens support a managed number of outside events taking place in Lambeth’s parks and commons, but are concerned about the over-commercialisation of the park, damage to Brockwell Park’s ecosystem, restriction of local residents’ access to green space and the Council’s misuse of planning law. Councillors will do what they can to ensure that all stakeholders enter constructive talks about next year’s events.

See the below gallery for more events and actions the councillors have engaged with across the whole borough. 

WARD NEWS

Streatham St. Leonard’s
Transport has been a key issue in the ward this month, with concerns that Green Cllrs have been excluded from key stakeholder and community meetings by a community forum dominated by Labour and Conservative party members.

On safety and accessibility, Scott has succeeded in finding a new venue to restart the Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel meetings and Nicole has been advocating for better shared cycling and pedestrian access through Tooting Bec Common. Councillors and local campaigner Saiqa Ali working with local disability campaigner, Sam Jennings, to ensure pavements are safe for wheelchair users.

Local development has also been on the agenda, with Cllrs meeting the Streatham Business Improvement District to discuss empty shops on Streatham High Road, its cleanliness and a tourist tax. Councillors sought confirmation that the council will ensure the new occupiers of the former Streatham Space Project are chosen in consultation and will continue to operate the venue as a theatre and community hub as per the original agreement with the developer.

Nicole and Scott attended a community meeting regarding the future of Streatham Hill Theatre and met with the Lambeth School Streets team about the new extension at Henry Cavendish, Dingley Lane.

Nicole has been supporting a young woman and her 6 month old baby stuck in a tiny single room, in accommodation without easy access to a bathroom or kitchen, to be rehoused. She is very pleased that they have finally been moved to decent accommodation, receiving a beautiful thank you note.

Herne Hill & Loughborough Junction
Paul has been busy getting immediately involved in ward issues, primarily the event schedule for Brockwell Park. Paul attended a tour of the Brockwell Live site and asked operators about rehabilitation and biodiversity and has since been signposting residents to report any breaches of the event management so that they can be held accountable. More information can be reviewed here.

Paul also visited Brockwell Lido to speak with concerned residents about the cleanliness and accessibility of the facilities, and has a busy calendar for the coming weeks as he builds connections with local groups. If you would like to speak to Paul about a local issue you can email him on pvalentine@lambeth.gov.uk

See our image gallery below for more ward community news and events.

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

Windrush 2025 Celebration presented by The Brixton Immortals Domino Club

• Saturday 21st June, 11:00am – 6pm, Brixton Library and Windrush Square
• Sunday 22nd June, Big Caribbean Lunch, 12pm – 7pm, Windrush Square

Lambeth’s Voluntary and Community Sector is running a free network event on Tuesday 1 July at WeAre336. The event will include a focus on demonstrating impact plus refreshments and networking opportunities. It would be great if our members could book a place here.  

Streatham Common is hosting the Streatham Summer Festival and the Streatham Church Festival on 5 and 6 July 2025.

Residents can respond to consultations on Lambeth’s new engagement platform. This includes plans such as estate renewal, cycle hangars and strategic development.

Scott, Nicole and Paul could not do what they do without the help of members like you. Please get in touch to help support their work.

Best wishes – Scott, Nicole and Paul.

contact@lambeth.greenparty.org.uk 

The post Lambeth Green Party Summer Cllr Update appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

The by-election was called after Jim Dickson (Labour) decided to step down, nine months after his surprise election as the MP for Dartford in Kent. 

It is the first time the Greens have ever won a by-election in the borough, and Labour’s first by-election defeat in Lambeth since 2008.[1]

Previous results had suggested the contest would be a clear two-horse race between the Greens and Labour, and so it proved again, with the two parties sharing 87% of the vote, from a 32% turnout.[2]

Valentine topped the poll by a 326 vote margin over Labour candidate, Stephen Clark. 

The six week campaign was hard-fought, with a large numbers of Green activists pitted against Labour’s own support drawn significantly from among its 57 Lambeth councillors.[3]

The result means Lambeth council now has six opposition councilors, with the Greens and the Liberal Democrats each having three out of the borough’s 63.

Councillor Paul Valentine, said:

Fellow Green Party councillor Scott Ainslie (Streatham St Leonard’s and leader of the group) said:

“I’m delighted to be able to welcome Paul to the group of Green Party councillors.

He is committed, hard-working and loyal and just the kind of independent thinker Lambeth needs. As a young private renter working in an insecure industry, he is well situated to understand the challenges faced by so many of the people who live in our borough. Paul’s fifteen years of experience as a trade union member has been excellent preparation for taking on the councillor role.

For almost a year the residents of Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction have been underrepresented and underserved by an absent councillor who has continued to be paid his allowances, while switching his elected allegiances as freely as those of his football team.[4]

That changes now.”

Contact: 

Nick Christian 07846597000

[1] Vassall Ward By-Election – Thursday 20 March 2008 https://moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=45&RPID=94850824

[2] Election results for Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction https://moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=239&RPID=94846776

[3] https://x.com/SarbazBarznji/status/1910447472607904013

[4] Prior to his election as MP for Dartford, Jim Dickson presented himself as a supporter of south London’s Crystal Palace, however since he has often tweeted in the manner of a long-term fan of Dartford FC: https://x.com/Jim4Dartford/status/1917262810251247747

The post Lambeth Greens celebrate by-election victory in Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

We’re delighted to introduce Paul Valentine, the candidate who’s going to join our existing councillors Scott Ainslie and Nicole Griffith to challenge the Labour monopoly of Lambeth council. 

Paul has been a private renter here in Herne Hill for ten years, and works at the Southbank Centre alongside being an actor, tour guide and holding trade union roles.

“I’m standing because I love our area, and Labour aren’t listening to what we need.”

Paul Valentine

Paul will fight for:

• Protecting green spaces such as Brockwell Park and Ruskin Park
• Defending Carnegie Library
• Tough scrutiny and following the money to hold the administration to account over key decisions
• Improved housing services
• Opposition to the selling off of council assets and the demolition of housing estates
• Ensuring local voices are heard loud and clear and Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction gets its fair share of resources
• Less congested and cleaner streets
• Better and more accessible public transport
• Cleaner air
• Better access to public toilets.
• Holding Lambeth Council to account in relation to the Genocide in Gaza.

If we’re to win this, we need as many Greens as we can out doorknocking and delivering leaflets to show that Greens can win, and Paul is the best choice for Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction.  Labour have already mobilised quickly, with many of their 57 councillors on the doorsteps. With enough boots on the ground we will build awareness of the election, support for Paul, and get the vote out on the day!

Get involved!

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elect-paul-valentine-for-herne-hill-lj-ward

If you have never doorknocked before or are new to the Green Party, no worries. We’ll provide a brief training when you arrive and you’ll be paired with someone more experienced than you.

Get Paul Valentine Elected in Herne Hill & Loughborough Junction!

• April 28th 2025: Monday Getting the Vote Out – 14:00 from Loughborough Junction Station
• April 28th 2025: Monday Getting the Vote Out – 17:00 from The Cambria With Amelia Womack!
• April 29th 2025: Tuesday Getting the Vote Out – 14:00 from Herne Hill Station
• April 29th 2025: Tuesday Getting the Vote Out – 17:00 from Herne Hill Station
• April 30th 2025: Wednesday Eve of Poll – Getting the Vote Out – 14:00 from Herne Hill Station
• April 30th 2025: Wednesday Eve of Poll – Getting the Vote Out – 17:00 from Herne Hill Station with Zack Polanski!
• May 1st 2025: Election Day – All day!

Promoted by Pete Johnson on behalf of Paul Valentine and Lambeth Green Party, all at 13 Rydal Road London SW16 1QF.

The post Introducing Paul Valentine, our Green Party Candidate for the Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction By-Election on May 1st appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Lambeth Green Party AGM

Please join us for our AGM at 2pm on Saturday, 22nd March, The Rotunda Hall, Cressingham Gardens, SW2 2Q. Here we will announce the candidates for our target wards for the local elections in May 2026 and discuss the upcoming by-election on 1 May, 2025 in Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction ward. Let’s get more Greens elected!

GREENS IN THE PRESS

Lambeth Green party accuses Lambeth Labour of being ‘too afraid of hard questions’
New reforms to support victims of child sexual abuse
Lambeth council plan 450 new homes – but not all of them will be for council tenants
Political row breaks out over critical auditors report on council finances
Hau-Yu Tam Lewisham councillor joins the Green Party

GREENS IN THE COUNCIL

Plastics and Climate and Nature Motions Rejected

Labour voted against climate action in Lambeth’s Full Council meeting on 22 January 2025 when it refused to acknowledge the Green Party’s motion to combat the environmental effects of single use plastic. They also attempted to water down a motion to support the Climate and Nature Bill scheduled for parliament and ultimately dismissed it. More coverage on January’s council meeting is available here, and you can support this petition to reduce plastic waste organised by Phili from the Naked Larder.

Budget 2025/26

Lambeth’s budget proposes £99m in savings over four years and the Green Group has been working tirelessly to develop an amendment that would limit the impact of cuts to essential frontline services. Unfortunately, Labour dismissed our proposal without any serious consideration and is blazing ahead with cuts to youth services, libraries, council tax support and other high-needs areas. Cllrs have been supporting campaigners and union organisers in resisting the defunding of our communities.

Auditor’s Statutory Recommendations
In response to such a precarious financial outlook, Lambeth’s independent auditors have issued unprecedented and prescriptive recommendations for the council to get a grip of its corporate governance. Scott spoke out strongly against the administration’s failure to take this warning seriously by adopting substantive reforms. You can watch proceedings from March’s Budget Council here. 

Green Victory on Planning Applications Committee
Scott has been on PAC for the past two years asking that the council chooses refurbishment of buildings over demolishing and rebuilding and using materials that sequester carbon, for example Cross-Laminated Timber. For two years, the request often fell on deaf ears. However, Walker Books redevelopment (specialising in children’s literature) was overwhelmingly praised last night for choosing to do exactly that! Result!

LAMBETH-WIDE NEWS

Over the past few months, Cllrs’ inboxes have been overflowing with emails from desperate tenants. Many are housed in sub-standard and unsuitable temporary accommodation. Transfer is impossible apart from the most desperate cases.

The Council has recently changed its homes offer policy to one strike and you’re out, leaving many of our most vulnerable residents with stark and unacceptable choices – take the offer or the council will remove you from its housing list.

We have also been campaigning for fairer distribution of developer funds across the borough, including investigating unused project funding and holding strategic meetings with senior council officers. 

Scott attended the Holocaust Memorial Day at Town Hall on 26 January 2025. 

See the below gallery for more events and actions the councillors have engaged with in the borough. 

LOCAL NEWS

Councilors continue to be busy in their ward, Streatham St Leonard’s. We’ve been engaging with the new director of the Business Improvement District, community stakeholders and council leaders to deliver more funding and sustainable development in Streatham. We have also been representing local issues to the MP such as metroisation of our rail network and fairer parking rules to ensure continuity across the Streatham area.

We have ensured that the local Safer Neighbourhood Panel meetings restart, working with residents to challenge police to do more to address crime, anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls in Streatham.

Our Clean Up Streatham campaign continues unabated and we thank everyone for their vigilance and support. We will continue to report fly tipping, investigate missing bins and challenge council and Serco officers to improve waste and street-cleaning services. We now have a hotline to Serco which allows for instant reporting and follow up.

See our image gallery below for more community news and events.

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

Support this petition to reduce plastic waste organised by Phili from the Naked Larder. 

Halt the 25% Funding Cuts to Lambeth’s Award-Winning Library Service. 

Residents can respond to consultations on Lambeth’s new engagement platform. This includes plans such as estate renewal, cycle hangars and strategic development

Nicole and Scott could not do what they do without the help of members like you. Please get in touch with them to help support their work. For immediate updates, please click on the links below.

Best wishes – Nicole and Scott.

contact@lambeth.greenparty.org.uk 

The post Lambeth Green Party Spring Cllr Update appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

5 March 2025

The Labour administration is doing all it can to avoid owning up to their part in Lambeth council’s dire financial position. 

Many councils have been starved of resources by central government austerity, but Lambeth’s circumstances are different. Decades of mismanagement and unscrupulous practices by the Labour administration are the real reason for its financial woes.  

Green opposition councillors have been warning of Labour’s recklessness, particularly over their terrible business plan for Homes for Lambeth (HfL), for as long as the current leader of the council has been a councillor.

Labour’s attitude of defensiveness and self-preservation is stymying honest reform. If the leadership’s denial and steamrolling over dissent with half-truths continues, they are not equipped to lead this council out of the financial crisis.

Lambeth’s external auditors have taken the unprecedented step of issuing statutory recommendations for corrective action, as previous warnings by them have failed to be acted upon. The Labour administration has responded, as it has done for years, without genuine humility, acknowledgment of their part in failures or commitment to change. 

Lambeth Labour are trying to say ‘there is nothing to see here, many other councils across London are in the same position’ – self-righteously trying to swerve blame instead of taking a grip of corporate governance. 

The simple truth is, the only other London boroughs to receive such an intervention by auditors are bankrupt Croydon – who also tried and failed to run their own public/private property company – and Tower Hamlets, where government inspectors have had to intervene.

Lambeth Labour alone are responsible for the expensive and failed HfL. They are responsible for selling off council homes and decades of neglect maintaining estates. They are responsible for millions of pounds in legal disrepair compensation payouts. They are responsible for unrealistic budget setting, poor contract management and weak governance.

Over the past 11 years I have seen the creep of their defensiveness infiltrate every tier of this council, which must make life extremely difficult for officers and backbench members, who may be concerned about putting their ideas forward. Ranks close when difficult questions are asked. No real change can take place in this suffocating atmosphere.

There is a penalty for Labour not taking ownership of its mistakes, it will always be too busy looking over its own shoulder to have a clear-eyed view of the road ahead. It will never open its ears to warnings from the Green Party and others who advocated so strongly against doomed schemes such as HfL. Lambeth Labour will never have the humility to completely reform its culture and shepherd this council out of financial crises. 

Lambeth’s Budget Council meeting is on Wednesday 5 March 2025 7pm. I strongly suggest you watch it. 

We are facing another confused, incomplete and unrealistic budget. Labour’s proposals to find £99m in savings over four years are mysterious at best, with £30m of this (Target Operating Model) still “in progress”. They must also now perform a magic trick to balance their Housing Revenue Account within one year and repay the £40m bailout loan from central government. It’s likely residents will see another fire sale of publicly owned assets.

A Green-led council would never have made the same mistakes, as we would have listened to the peoples’ plans on estates and worked with residents rather than against them. We would never have run estates into the ground in the first place or sold off council owned assets to private developers. We would never have signed off on such a poor business plan for HfL. We advocate participatory budgeting, so that communities have more of a say in how their money is invested in the borough.

For many years now, Labour has put party first. Greens would put people first. We work from the bottom up, not top down.

To read more on this topic see MyLondon’s coverage here .

For enquiries, contact lambethgreenofficer@gmail.com.

The post Lambeth Labour’s Financial Crisis appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.