Statements on Kenton United Synagogue attempted arson attack

 From Kim Wright, Chief Executive of Brent Council

 

“We are aware of the deeply concerning incidents that have taken place across northwest London in recent days, including an attempted arson attack at Kenton United Synagogue overnight. I know this will be causing understandable anxiety and distress for our Jewish residents and the wider community here in Brent.

I’d like to thank the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade for responding at pace, and for deploying additional resources to the area while they carry out their investigations. We will continue to work closely with the police and our community partners across the coming days, and I would urge anyone with information to come forward and report it.

There is absolutely no place in Brent – or anywhere – for hate, antisemitism, or violence of any kind. We stand in full solidarity with our Jewish communities and all those affected. Brent is proud to be a diverse and united borough, and we will not tolerate hate from those who seek to divide us.”

 

 From Brent Green Party 

 

The attempted arson attack at Kenton United Synagogue is an incredibly terrifying act of anti-semitism. The spate of attacks on the Jewish community in Brent and its neighbouring boroughs are vile and completely unacceptable.

 

If you have any information that could lead to finding those responsible for these attacks, please contact the police as soon as possible.

 

The Brent Green Party send our thoughts and prayers to the Jewish community.

 

FA Cup Semi-Finals Sat April 25th & Sunday April 26th - road closures etc

 

Greens launch their Election Manifesto for a Fairer, Greener Brent. Time to end the 15 year Buttocracy!

 

Cllr Mary Mitchell, leader of the Green Group on Brent Council speaking at the ACE Brent Hustings earlier this week.

  

This content published and promoted by James Paton on behalf of Brent Green Party and its candidates c/o 23 Saltcroft Close, Wembley, HA9 9JJ

 

Brent Green Party has launched its manifesto for a Fairer, Greener Brent. The Manifesto promises a more participative approach to running the local council with real citizen involvement.  A similar approach was taken within the party to the production of the Manifesto with members involved in a policy ideas workshop at the campaign launch and ongoing dialogue later online.

  

  

A FAIRER, GREENER BRENT

INTRODUCTION

We believe Brent is ready for fairer, greener change. Change rooted in respect for the people of Brent and fresh determination to make life better for all of us. 

 

We want more for Brent residents than Labour have provided over the past sixteen years. We believe that governing Brent is about political choices - and too often Labour have made the wrong choices. Choices that work in the interests of developers and corporations, and not in the interests of Brent residents, choices that reflect a lack of transparency and accountability, and choices that reflect a lack of ambition for Brent.

 

Austerity, started by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and continued by Labour, has been the backdrop of these choices but these failures have not been inevitable. 

 

We believe Brent is ready for a new administration that is committed to listening to residents, real citizen involvement, transparency, accountability and to tackling social and environmental injustice.

 

The Green Party is growing exponentially in Brent, and nationally, where hundreds of thousands of voices are crying out for change and for a politics rooted in the belief that local services should work for people, not for profit. 

 

Nationally the Green Party is calling for a fairer, greener taxation system, including a new funding system for local government, public ownership of water and rail and rent controls. In Brent that same conviction shapes every commitment that we are making to Brent residents.

 

We want children to grow up in a safe, warm home, with parks and open spaces that are protected, where there is real choice about how to move around in Brent in a way that minimises air pollution and increases health outcomes. 

 

We want climate change to not be perceived as an add-on, but care for our natural environment and awareness of the relationship between planetary and human health impacts every decision that is made. We think planetary boundaries shouldn’t be exceeded by continued wealth and resource extraction, threatening our lives here and now and also that of future generations.

 

We want to work in collaboration with other parties and independents, respecting the decisions that residents have made about who represents them, and to bring back real democratic debate and participation to Brent.

 

Above all, we will build a Brent where everyone can feel safe and belong, where lives are not restricted by lack of opportunity and where residents can thrive irrespective of their background and start in life.

 

We will build a fairer, greener Brent that works for everyone.

 

1. Tackle Brent’s housing crisis head on

 

(1) Deliver more genuinely affordable homes by prioritising social rent and genuinely affordable rent over expensive ‘affordable’ products, supporting community-led housing (including Brent Community Land Trust), and using council land and planning powers to secure higher proportions of truly affordable homes. We recognise that shared ownership is not an affordable option for most Brent residents.

 

(2)  Stop the sell-off of social homes and rebuild council stock by campaigning to end Right to Buy and adopting a “replace what we lose” approach, including targeted buy-backs and acquisitions where this reduces temporary accommodation and keeps families in Brent.

 

(3)  Adopt a retrofit-first approach to estate renewal and regeneration, exploring innovative funding models and considering the whole life carbon impact of buildings in decision-making.

 

(4)  Get better value from Brent’s housing companies (i4B and First Wave Housing). Review their financial performance and tenant outcomes (repairs performance, standards, satisfaction, affordability and void turnaround) and report findings annually to Scrutiny, before scaling up acquisitions/“settled homes” approaches to reduce reliance on expensive temporary accommodation and increase genuinely affordable provision borough-wide.

 

(5)  Implement a strict “regeneration without displacement” policy so residents can stay in their communities, including no net loss of social rent, a meaningful right to return and resident involvement from the earliest stage of design and decision-making.

 

(6)  Bring repairs and housing management back under stronger local control by bringing council repairs back in-house (or re-procuring with clear standards), publishing performance data and creating a clear escalation route so persistent disrepair is fixed quickly.

 

(7)  Support renters’ rights – working alongside organisations like London Renters Union – and enforce them locally by backing London and national campaigns for rent control .

 

(8)  Hold every landlord to account by maintaining and expanding landlord licensing so protections apply across the whole borough, increasing the number of enforcement officers, and moving from “paper licensing” to routine checks, proactive inspections and tougher penalties for repeat offenders.

 

(9)  Require sustainable development that can be verified by publishing easy-read carbon/energy information for major schemes, reporting annually on compliance with Brent’s Sustainable Environment & Development SPD, and requiring SuDS wherever feasible, microgeneration built into new builds and usable food-growing space in major developments and growth areas.

 

(10)    Reduce empty homes by introducing stronger reporting, enforcement and penalties for long-term vacancy and using available powers to bring homes back into use so the borough’s housing stock is used for people and not left idle

 

 

2. Restore Public Ownership and Promote Community Wealth

 

 

 

 

(1)  Support a strong, resilient local economy that keeps wealth and benefits in the local area through prioritising insourcing of local services, local procurement and local supply chains.

 

(2)  Design a property strategy that takes into account the social value as well as the financial value of council assets, limiting rent increase of council-owned properties & supporting the use of empty properties by community-led organisations. Only dispose of council assets with full community consultation.

 

(3)  Spend or earmark developer funding for local communities rapidly and where it is most needed, provide regular, transparent reporting on funding received from developers and decentralise decision-making about how funds are allocated.  ( Footnote: Brent has accumulated approximately £177 million in unspent Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 funds, the highest amount in the UK according to the Home Builders Federation Unspent developer contributions 2026.)

 

(4)  Explore closer integration between the council and community libraries, through the integration of volunteer-led library services where demand exists, exploring paid library personnel, and protecting the remaining Brent libraries from an erosion of their opening times and services to the community. 

 

3. Protect, enhance and expand Brent’s parks and green spaces

 

 

(1)  Protect Brent’s green spaces from sale, development and commercialisation, including renting out park spaces without consulting residents and protection of open space designations.

 

(2)  Adopt enhanced tree planting standards based on Action on Climate and the Ecological Emergency (ACE) recommendations: professional planting and aftercare protocols, canopy cover mapping by ward with targets for low-canopy areas, native and climate-resilient species prioritisation, and an interactive map showing planned felling with reasons. Require independent verification of tree survival rates 3 years after planting.

 

(3)  Mandate biodiversity targets in the Krinkles’ Brent parks maintenance contract at the next review point - including measurable targets for pollinator habitat creation, native species planting, and canopy cover increase. 

 

(4)  Incorporate rain gardens such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) or planting, repurposing some kerbside space, helping to prevent surface water flooding and increase biodiversity and replacing hard landscaping with soft ones.

 

(5) As Lead Flood Authority work with partners including Thames Water, Canal and River Trust, Environment Agency, Thames 21 and the many concerned voluntary oganisations concerned to tackle pollution in our waterways and plan flood mitigations. 

 

 

4. Give our children and young people the best start in life

(1)  Increase free-to-access youth activities that provide social connections and screen-free time to children and young people and lobby the national government to properly fund councils to provide a comprehensive programme of youth centres and more youth workers to meet local needs.

 

(2)  Commit to involving young people, especially those from marginalised groups and who have spent time in care, in decision-making about children and youth services.

 

(3)  Strengthen inclusive practice in schools to improve support and ensure the provision set out in Education Health and Care Plans and Special Educational Needs plans is delivered.

 

(4)  Provide accessible and high-quality playgrounds and play spaces, with a guarantee that missing and broken playground equipment is replaced within 6 months, and that every playground not restored in the last ten years is surveyed and refurbished within this council term. We will use natural, non-toxic materials with benefits to the natural environment and to children’s health and seek to create shaded spaces within playgrounds. 

 

(5)  Encourage and support schools to green their playground by developing resources about the benefits of green playgrounds and providing information about grants available to schools (locally and at national level). 

 

(6)  Provide necessary help required to schools to sell second-hand uniforms, hence reducing costs for families and textile waste. 

 

(7)  Encourage schools to remain within the Brent family of schools overseen by the Local Authority  and continue to campaign against forced academisation.

 

(8)  Ensure the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre continues to have a future, working closely with community organisations to provide access to biodiversity and wildlife to children of all backgrounds across Brent.

 

5. Make it easier, cheaper and healthier to move around in Brent

 Image: Nightingale Estate parklet, Hackney (Credit Michael Shilling)

(1) Adopt a joined-up approach to managing the space on the road next to the pavement most commonly used for parking (the kerbside) balancing public benefit, safety, climate goals and local priorities, including through developing a “kerbside toolkit” for communities to adopt, including the introduction of community and business parklets.

 

(2) Reform parking policy to develop fair, evidence-led parking approaches that cut carbon emissions, improve air quality and make more sustainable use of kerbside space, including through linking parking charges to emissions, size and weight of vehicles, and expanding controlled parking zones to 75% of the borough.

 

(3) Expand cycling provision, including roll out of a variety of cycle parking types in areas of the highest demand and as part of a strategic approach to facilitate cycling across the borough, and seeking the installation of segregated cycle lanes where funding allows.

 

(4) Build strong partnerships with community organisations working to give Brent residents a real choice of how they travel  by re-instating the Active Travel Forum and identifying support mechanisms e.g. provision of under-utilised council property or direct funding/

 

(5) Increase action on expanding active travel by re-instating the Active Travel Forum, changing the active travel strategy to 2030 rather than 2041 to align with the revised London Mayor’s Transport Strategy.

 

(6) Work with transport providers to improve the reliability, affordability and accessibility of public transport across Brent, including supporting more frequent bus services, better orbital connections, and integrated ticketing to make journeys simpler and more attractive.

 

(7) Commission a borough-wide pedestrian safety audit identifying the most dangerous crossings, junctions, and desire lines, with a priority programme for improvements - evidence-led and data-driven, not reactive to individual complaints/

 

(8)  Expand school streets with a whole-neighbourhood approach, not just on single roads, but the surrounding area. Include measurable air quality monitoring before and after implementation, particularly on high-pollution corridors. Further extend 20mph coverage into new neighbourhoods where supported.

 

6. Promote clean streets and public care of our environment

 

 

(1)  Adopt a prevention-first approach to increase recycling rates and reduce fly tipping and littering by investing in awareness and communication campaigns, focused on hyper local solutions and in partnership with local communities.

 

(2)  Strengthen waste enforcement within landlord licensing, and link licensing conditions to verified occupancy levels to reduce the gap between actual waste generated and collection capacity, driving fly-tipping in residential areas.

 

(3)  Conduct a thorough review of waste management services to ensure regularity, accountability and clarity as well as work towards bringing waste services back in house.

 

(4)  Re-introduce free bulky waste collections for residents after piloting of different models, and review access to Abbey Road Recycling Centre.

 

(5)  Expand repair cafes and developing partnerships with schools to teach re-use and repair skills, and develop a directory of local repair and reuse businesses.

 

(6)  Install more accessible public toilets in parks to improve community hygiene and accessibility and encourage local businesses to offer access to toilet facilities to non-customers in exchange for a business rate reduction.

 

(7)  Introduce more ‘rest’ and ‘play’ assets to the street scene for older and disabled people, and children and young people to socialise, improving community cohesion and facilitating greater access to public space for everyone.

 

7. Take decisive action on the energy transition and climate crisis

 

(1)  Establish a Brent Community Energy Fund that supports community-led energy projects, including retrofitting, to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and expansion of community-owned energy generation schemes in Brent.

 

(2)  Deliver retrofit and solar generation on council-owned buildings at scale, in partnership with community organisations and utilising new funding models

 

(3)  Moving council energy supply to verifiable renewable sources, and prohibiting avoidable single-use plastics in the Brent Civic Centre and at events.

 

(4)  Expand work on the West London Local Area Energy Plan, using influence to fast-track feasibility studies and progress.

 

(5)  Ban advertising of high-emitting industries on council owned billboards.

 

(6)  Boldly pursue retrofit of council-owned homes through exploiting innovative financing models, starting with stock condition surveys for 100% of council homes within 18 months to credibly plan for where the greatest impact can be achieved.

 

(7)  Publish an annual carbon budget for council operations with the same rigour as the financial budget, including buildings, fleet, procurement, and contracted services.

 

(8)  Embed whole-life carbon assessment and biodiversity into every planning decision over a specific threshold by requiring lifecycle assessments, prioritising retrofit over demolition, enforcing measurable nature and carbon targets, and holding developers accountable for delivering them.

 

(9)  Update the Local Plan to reflect carbon and biodiversity as non-negotiable design parameters, not trade-offs and to include design codes for materials, density, greening, overheating, flood resilience

 

8. Increase Transparency and Accountability

(1)  Establish a dedicated scrutiny committee to address the housing crisis,  the lack of  genuinely affordable houses, the poor state of maintenance of council-owned housing  and poor enforcement of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) landlords in some areas.

 

(2)  Establish independent chairs of scrutiny committees from opposition parties to ensure democratic scrutiny of policies and operations in line with best practice rather than the ruling party scrutinising itself.

 

(3)  Review and update progress on the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy through quarterly reports to the appropriate Scrutiny Committee using Key Performance Indicators.

 

(4)  Review council pay ratios in line with Green Party Policy to amend the Pay Ratio to 10:1 for Council Staff so the highest salaries are not more than 10 times the amount of lowest earning staff – increasing some salaries and reducing others.

 

(5) Adopt ethical investment and procurement policies and divest Brent Council pension fund from fossil fuel companies and companies complicit in the ongoing genocide in Palestine and other conflicts including weapons manufacturers. Work with other London boroughs to encourage the London CIV (Common Investment Vehicle) to carry out such divestments.

 

(6)  Set a target of 80% implementation of internal audit recommendations within 12 months.

 

(7)  Commit to publishing all Freedom of Information responses proactively via a searchable public register, not just responding to individual requests.

 

(8)  End the scandal of temporary accommodation spending by publishing full costs, providers and outcomes quarterly, in recognition of the fact that Brent currently spends over £100,000 per day on temporary accommodation with minimal transparency over provider contracts or quality standards

 

(9)  Publish a real-time housing safety compliance dashboard so residents and councillors can see exactly which legally required checks (fire, gas, electrical, asbestos, water, smoke/CO) have been completed, verified, and are overdue.  (Reference/footnote: The RSH gave Brent a C3 “serious failings” grade in May 2025 because the council could not verify 12,500 fire safety actions marked as complete. Nearly half of council homes had no recorded stock condition survey despite the council claiming 95% coverage. Source: RSH C3 regulatory judgement, May 2025.)

 

(10)  Publish a monthly “Council Health Check” covering Ombudsman and regulator findings, complaint volumes by service area, compensation paid, audit recommendation implementation rate, and financial position. (Reference/footnote: The LGSCO upheld 88% of detailed investigations against Brent (21 of 24), one of the highest rates in London. Compensation payouts hit 277,814 in 2024-25, a 56% year-on-year increase. Source: LGSCO annual review letter 2024-25.)

 

9. Build a Brent where everyone can feel safe and belong 

(1) Champion migrant rights through close partnership with migrant and refugee organisations in Brent and design services to support residents regardless of immigration status

(2)       Oppose far-right influence in our borough, work with police to ensure online safety for all, and pioneer local educational initiatives designed to dismantle the online narrative of hypermasculinity and misogyny including through funding of mentorship programs

(3) Listen to and work with community organisations raising concerns about policing practices, bringing together stakeholders to meaningfully address concerns in a community-centered way

(4) Establish named community safety officers for Brent Hubs to allow residents to engage directly with the community safety team and the police about personal safety concerns

(5)  Expand the number of safe shelters in Brent for women fleeing violence, including those that meet diverse needs, with culturally competent services for Black, Asian, and minority ethnic women and  dedicated provision for LGBTQ+ survivors, as well as accessibility for disabled women. We will prioritise the use of vacant or underused council properties for conversion into safe accommodation.

(6)  Strengthen neighbourhood policing partnerships to prevent crime, reassures residents, and strengthens communities and we will make the case to the Metropolitan Police for the resources and local presence every ward in the borough deserves

(7) Address health inequality through transparency and action, publishing ward-level health inequality data annually, making the 11-yr life expectancy gap between Stonebridge and Kenton visible, trackable, and tied to specific council interventions in housing, environment, and social care. Brent had the highest age-adjusted COVID death rate in the UK (REFerence ONS)

(8) Commission an independent review of safeguarding referral pathways, acknowledging the fact that the CQC rated Brent adult social care “Requires Improvement” in August 2024 and found that safeguarding referrals from under-represented groups were not being received.. (Source: CQC inspection report, August 2024.) Set a maximum 28-day target for adult social care assessnts with monthly public reporting on compliance.

(89 We will encourage partnerships between social care, health, housing and the voluntary sector to ensure early support and prevention.

 

10. Affordable, healthy food for every neighbourhood 

 

 

(1)  Maximise allotment use by conducting a borough-wide audit of all 21 Brent allotment sites to ensure every plot is actively used. Introduce a strict “use it or lose it” policy to reallocate neglected plots to residents on the waiting list.

 

(2)  Champion the “Right to Grow” to make it easier for residents to transform grey spaces into vibrant, edible landscapes.

 

(3)  Prioritise community growing education by launching seasonal “Dig Days” and urban growing workshops, bringing together experienced gardeners and beginners to learn skills in food production, soil health, and composting. Turning food growing into a shared community activity that builds skills and connections, and partnering with schools to embed skills with young people.

 

(4)  Ensure access to affordable, healthy food  with a low environmental impact by piloting not-for-profit community supermarkets to reduce food bills and making fresh fruit and vegetables more accessible, particularly in areas facing food insecurity. Partnering with retailers to tackle food waste and promote sustainable consumption.

 

(5)  Work with nurseries and schools to reduce the use of ultra processed food at school and at home, and use all possible mechanisms to limit the opening of new fast food outlets near schools. Encourage schools to promote the benefits of a mostly plant-based diet.