Excited Greens launch their Brent Council Election Campaign on a wave of enthusiasm after Hannah Spencer's by-election victory

 

Some of the Green candidates  standing in the May local election (Credit: Nick Woollard)

 

  Brent Green Party launched its campaign for the Brent Council May Election on Sunday full of the joys of Spring following  Hannah Spencer's amazing Manchester by-election win. They could not have chosen a better time to get motivated to win as many seats as possible on May 7th.

Amanda Alexandre, Green candidate for Harlesden and  Kensal Green ward, said:

Since the election of Hannah Spencer, we have received many heartfelt congratulations from residents across the borough - on the street, at the cafe, on the allotment. Our membership has also increased to over 700 and more than £350 in donations have been donated to our crowdfunding campaign since Friday.  All this support has unlocked a new level of ambition for Brent Green Party for the elections of May 7th  

The launch began with speeches from some of the candidates explaining why they were standing for the Greens:

 

 

This was followed by training in canvassing for the many members who are new to politics and knocking on doors for the first time. There was lots of enthusiasm for getting started with a number of Action Days taking place across the target wards in the weeks ahead. 

 

Stressing the participative nature of Green Party politics, members then broke into small groups to share ideas for the upcoming Brent Green Manifesto with the emphasis on fresh and imaginative policies. This produced some very animated discussion as can be seen from the photographs of excited participants below:

 

Credit: Nick Woollard    

 

Credit: Nick Woollard    

 

 

Credit: Nick Woollard   

 

Credit: Nick Woollard   

 

Children were welcomed to the event and enjoyed badge making and drawing, and the food and drinks of course.

 

 

Credit: Nick Woollard    

 

 

It was a friendly and convivial gathering with lots of new connections made as well as old friendships consolidated, boding well for the challenge ahead.

 

 

 

Credit: Nick Woollard   

 

Credit: Nick Woollard    

 

 

Credit: Nick Pollard   

 

 

Credit: Nick Woollard   

  

 

Credit: Nick Pollard    

  

 

Finishing with some young singing and song writing talent    Credit: Nick Woollard

 

NOTE: Membership of Brent Green Party passed 700 today with many joining after Hannah Spencer's by-election victory.

 

If you would like to support Brent Green Party's 2026 Election Campaign uou can donate to the crowdfunder HERE. 

 

 

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

LETTER: Complaint about delays with repairs? No problem, Brent will delay dealing with your complaint

 

Via ChatGPT         

 

Dear Editor,

   

Last November, with increasing frustration at lack of progress with mounting issues around our blocks, Alpha, Gorefield and Canterbury Tenants and Residents’ Association in South Kilburn submitted an official complaint to Brent Council. This listed over 20 outstanding issues around the blocks, some reported years ago, and also complained about the lack of communication from Council departments about these issues.

 

The response we received at the start of December was, to be frank, a joke. The seriousness with which the responding officer treated the complaint is perhaps best shown by the fact that they got the name of the blocks wrong. They tried to pin the blame for repairs not being carried out on the officer who does monthly walkabouts around the area with us and said “I am pleased to hear that a walkabout is scheduled for 11 December 2025. During this visit, all outstanding issues will be collated, and further updates will be provided afterwards. I have also reminded the wider service areas of the importance of clear and timely communication, both to manage expectations and to ensure residents feel included in the process of improving their community spaces.”

 

We waited until after that walkabout to respond on the off chance that what was written might materialise. Fat chance, so we escalated the complaint (20/12), pointing out that, as so often, no other Council officers came besides the one who always comes and makes meticulous notes. In escalating the complaint, we objected to the attempt to place the blame for delays on that officer, since we know for a fact that he passes on issues (he copies us into the emails). Like us, he rarely gets responses. In the face of this we named a succession of more senior Council officers who have, at various times, promised to take action to action those issues and little has happened and nothing more is heard.

 

The acknowledgement we received on 5th January said, “the latest date by which we hope to respond in full is 25 February 2026, although we will aim to do so sooner if at all possible.”

 

On 25th February we received an email from the Complaint Investigator saying “I am writing to update you with progress on your complaint. Unfortunately, ongoing unprecedented caseload pressures mean that we will need more time to complete the investigation. We expect to provide you with a full response to your complaint by 25 March 2026.”

 

Unbelievable. 

 

Of course, in the meantime, a few of those issues initially complained about have been dealt with, most haven’t, and new ones (reported, of course,) have arisen. As ever, getting blood from a stone is much easier than getting any information from brent Council.

 

Meanwhile, we are told that Brent's Chief Executive is concerned at problems with neglect of South Kilburn, A Cabinet officer recently told an online meeting that he knew there are real problems in South Kilburn. Yet knowing and concern and actually doing anything seem a long way from their minds. When, earlier last year, officers from several South Kilburn TRAs wrote to all and sundry (MP, CEO, Councillors, council officers), in general terms about lack of action and communication, most didn’t respond, those that did told us they were passing our letter on to Council Officers, obviously oblivious to what we were raising in the first place.

 

Note: To be clear, the Council blocks concerned are not part of South Kilburn regeneration, though people might think they are being neglected in advance of demolition.

Pete Firmin, chair, Alpha, Gorefield and Canterbury Tenants and Residents Association

       

Central Middlesex Hospital UTC reduction in hours at Scrutiny on Wednesday but without any written submission - accountability still lacking

 

 

 No information for the 'briefing'

 

Brent Green Party's campaign, supported by a petition signed by 570 residents, has succeeded in getting the reduction in hours at Central Middlesex Urgent Treatment Centre on the Agenda of Wednesday's Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.

BUT, and it is a very big 'but', there are no accompanying papers, so committee members and the public have no evidence from the NHS on which to base any questions or comments. This repeats the pattern established when a similar 'briefing' was slipped into a Scrutiny meeting as an urgent item (not on the agenda on that occasion) just before the NHS consultation - absolutely nothing in writing then either. 

Along with the failure to publish details of the results of the consultation (I had to submit an FoI to get them, see this LINK ) and the implementation of the reduction in hours without notice LINK, indicates an apparent contempt for the Committee and its role, as well as for concerned residents.

The Committee must show it will stand up for residents on Wednesday, despite (or because of?) of the fact that the reduction of 21 hours a week has already been implemented by London North West University NHS Healthcare Trust without the detailed scrutiny that was needed.

You would not get away with similar conduct and lack of accountability on a major issue at a primary school governing board!

Wembley Housing Zone – Brent’s latest “spin” versus the facts!

Guest Blog by Philip Grant in a personal capacity    

 

 

 Zephaniah House under construction in Wembley High Road (with “The Pages” opposite).

 

On 24 February, Brent Council issued a press release: “More affordable homes coming as Zephaniah House reaches key milestone”. Its content has already been shared by websites including Kilburn Times, Harrow Online and Construction News. Like most stories from Brent Communications, it tells a positive tale, including “quotes” from Cabinet members, to give the impression that all of this “good news” is the work of our local Labour councillors. [What would you expect, when the Cabinet Lead Member for Communications is Cllr. Muhammed Butt?] 

 

“Topping out” at Zephaniah House (image courtesy of Brent Communications)

 

The news item this time was the topping out ceremony at Zephaniah House (on the former Ujima House site in the High Road), part of the Brent Council/Wates Residential Wembley Housing Zone development. The press release says that this is ‘an important step toward delivering 54 new affordable homes on the former Ujima House site in Wembley.’ As you can see from my opening photo, there is still a lot of work to do on the building before the homes there will be ready for occupation, which is supposed to be by 31 December 2026. But with local elections in just over two months, I’m sure they would like you to think it would be sooner!

 

“Quote” attributed to Cllr. Teo Benea (from Brent’s press release)

 

The featured “quote” in the press release is from Cllr. Teo Benea, as the Wembley Housing Zone is a Regeneration project which she inherited from her predecessor in that Cabinet role, Cllr. Shama Tatler. There is also a “quote” attributed to Cllr. Fleur Donnelly Jackson, the Housing Lead, which includes the lines: ‘… our ambition is to deliver as many affordable homes as we can. Zephaniah House will help reduce our waiting list …. This is what it looks like when a council commits to tackling the housing crisis head on.’ I don’t know whether Cabinet members really compose these “quotes” themselves, or whether someone at the Civic Centre writes them. I will share this guest post with them, so they have the chance to reply!

 

I agree that building genuinely affordable Council homes for the people on the waiting list (around 34,000 is the most recent figure I’ve read from Brent Council) should be a top priority, so the 54 homes at Zephaniah House will go a small way towards ‘tackling the housing crisis’. But, yet again, the Council is using the term “affordable homes” to cover more than the genuinely affordable homes (that is, either at Social Rent level, or the slightly higher London Affordable Rent – “LAR” - level), which its 2020 Poverty Commission Report showed was all that most Brent residents in housing need could afford.

 

The start of my first Wembley Housing Zone guest post, in August 2021.

 

The most recent information I have on the 54 homes on the former Ujima House site was from a Freedom of Information Act request in 2023. These were originally all meant to be for rent at the genuinely affordable LAR level, but this had been changed to 32 (including all eight family-sized flats) at LAR, and 22 for shared ownership. If that has changed, I hope the relevant Lead Member can update us.

 

I have been writing about the Wembley Housing Zone since August 2021 (see illustration above), when I highlighted the fact that the proposals going to Cabinet ignored the Brent Poverty Commission’s housing recommendations, which they had accepted less than a year before, writing:

 

‘If the Council is going to undertake and manage the construction on the two sites, why not make ALL of the homes it builds “affordable housing”, providing 304 Council homes for people (especially families) on its waiting list? Ideally, these should all be for social rent, for those most in need, as recommended in Lord Best’s report. If that is not financially viable, an alternative could be 50% let at social rent levels, with the other 50% (presumably the better ones on the Cecil Avenue site, which a developer would have wanted for “private sale”) at London Affordable Rent.’

 

A pdf copy of my guest post was sent to all Cabinet members a few days before the 16 August 2021 meeting, at which they formally decided to go down the “development partner” route. I received no response, and my views were ignored. When I later emailed the Lead Member for Housing, asking why they were not building more homes for genuinely affordable rent, she replied that as this project was under her colleague, the Lead Member for Regeneration, she’d forwarded the email to Cllr. Shama Tatler, who would respond to me. (She didn’t!)

 

I later discovered, through FoI requests, that this ‘preferred delivery option’ had already been informally agreed at an unpublished Policy Co-ordination Group meeting in July 2020. That followed on from a previous “go ahead” for the option, by as few as two Cabinet members (the Council Leader and Lead Member for Regeneration?), in 2019. As a result, there had been at least two “soft market testing” exercises, in February 2020 and April 2021, which were used to justify the recommendation to Cabinet in August 2021. You can read the details in my January 2022 guest post “Brent Council, the developer’s friend – the proof in black and white”, and its December 2021 prequel.

 

My November 2021 “parody” Brent Council “publicity photo” for its Cecil Avenue housing scheme.

 

The Zephaniah House press release also refers to the larger Wembley Housing Zone development, across the High Road on the Cecil Avenue site, which it says ‘will bring 237 new homes, including 84 affordable homes.’ As shown in my “cartoon” above, when this received full planning consent in February 2021, it was intended to include 250 homes. The August 2021 Cabinet decision meant that only 98 of these would have been “affordable”, and only 37 at the genuinely affordable LAR level. Big posters on the hoardings around the site now claim that Brent is “delivering new Council homes” there, but the reality is that 150 of them will be for private sale by Wates.

 

 

Two signs from the hoardings round the Cecil Avenue site (with my linking comment).

 

Of the 84 “affordable” homes, information from an FoI request, which I shared in January 2024, shows that 56 (that’s just 23.6% of the 237) would now be for rent to Council tenants at LAR level, while 28 would be for shared ownership. The drop in the “affordable” figure (87 to 84) must be the three which I was advised would be for “discounted market sale”, a form of so-called “affordable housing” available if your annual income is no more than £90k!

 

It was claimed in the press release that Brent Council’s ‘ambition is to deliver as many affordable homes as we can.’ But is that what they have done with the Wembley Housing Zone? They already owned the former Copland School site at Cecil Avenue, and had previously used money provided by the GLA to purchase the Ujima House office block. Without having to incur the cost of purchasing the land, Brent should have been able to build all of the homes there as Council housing. That would particularly have been the case if they had got on with the scheme in 2021, when interest rates on loans from the Treasury were lower, and building costs had not risen as much as they have now.

 

A sign on the hoardings at Cecil Avenue, about Brent’s WHZ “Vision”.

 

So why didn’t they? That must be down to the Council’s Wembley Housing Zone “Vision”, driven by the then Lead Member for Regeneration and supported by the Council Leader. It was clearly their wish to make it a joint venture with a “developer partner”, which led to a delay until early 2023, when they awarded the building contract to Wates Residential (agreeing to pay them £121,862,500). And although Cllr. Tatler posed for this photo with Wates on the Cecil Avenue site in March 2023, for a press release announcing the contract award, it was February 2024 before construction began.

 

Cllr. Shama Tatler and Wates officials, from a March 2023 Brent press release.

 

Cllr. Tatler’s “vision” for the Wembley Housing Zone can be summed up in this sentence from her Cabinet Member Foreword, in a report to a Cabinet meeting on 8 April 2024 (which approved ‘up to £11.23m Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy to deliver a new publicly accessible courtyard garden’ on the Cecil Avenue site):

 

‘The regeneration that underpins the Wembley Housing Zone, is exactly that – an effort to build a better Brent, a place where home ownership is a reality, not just a dream.’

 

That is NOT a vision to build as many homes as possible, for genuinely affordable rents, in order to reduce the number of local people in real housing need on Brent’s waiting list!

 

As early as January 2022, I was calling for proper scrutiny of the August 2021 Cabinet decision, with a view to increasing the number of genuinely affordable homes in the Wembley Housing Zone scheme, but all my efforts were thwarted by councillors or Council Officers. It was only at a Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee meeting on 23 April 2024 that Cllr. Tatler was finally asked to explain why Brent had not delivered more genuinely affordable homes as part of that project. When I watched the webcast of that meeting, I could not believe what I was hearing, so I played it through several times, and this is the answer Cllr. Tatler gave:

 

‘'With the Wembley Housing Zone, we didn't own the land. We had to purchase the land. That impacts viability as well. And we are looking at how we deal with affordable housing on the scheme. Ideally we would want to deliver 100% social housing on any of our land ....'

 

What she publicly told the Committee was untrue, as recorded on “Wembley Matters” at the time. I wrote to Cllr. Tatler, with a copy to the Scrutiny Chair, but she never replied to me, and as far as I am aware she never apologised to the Committee for misleading them.

 

If you want facts about Brent’s affordable housing, rather than “spin” or misinformation, I suggest you read Martin’s blogsite, and don’t rely on what you hear from the Council!

 

Philip Grant.

Brent apologises over poor communication regarding the sudden closure of St Raph's Community Centre but much more needed to restore trust

 

Sharing Space session at the Community Centre pre-closure

As Wembley Matters reported there was shock on St Raphael's Estate when Brent workmen suddenly and  without notice changed the locks on the residents' community centre. In the aftermath that followed there was speculation that the closure, on grounds of  fire safety, may have been politically motivated. LINK

Asif Zamir, of St Raph's Voice, that runs events at the Centre, has recently announced that he is standing as an Independent in the local elections. 

Mr Zamir sent an official complaint to Brent Council and received an apology that left a number of questions: 

  

Thank you for your email dated 16 February 2026. While I appreciate the apology regarding the "way in which the closure was communicated," I must formally correct the record on several points where your summary does not align with the documented facts.

1. Failure of Notification

 

Your email states that the Residents’ Association (RA) Chair was "advised of the situation" and informed of the lock changes. This is factually incorrect. The Chair was not informed of the closure, nor was the changing of the locks presented as a solution or even discussed. The email chain sent to the Council Leader and the Lead Member for Housing clearly demonstrates a total absence of communication from Council officers prior to the locks being changed. This was not a "shortcoming" in communication; it was a complete failure to engage with the community’s elected representatives.

 

2. Safety Contradictions and Resident Risk

 

There is a deeply concerning logical gap in the Council’s timeline. You state that safety concerns were identified on 30 January and required "swift action."

 

However the room was allowed to remain open for on Fri, Sat, Sun and Monday Morning; accessible to residents after these "significant safety concerns" were known to the Council, I understand and appreciate you may not have been personally involved in this, but it remains the responsibility of the council to inform us and discuss solutions.

 

Instead of immediate notification to residents regarding these "grave dangers," advising the chair to ensure the room is not used, deploying emergency staff to disconnect the power or isolate the fusebox the Council’s primary instruction was to a locksmith whom would change the locks mid session on Monday.

 

If the building was truly unsafe, allowing residents to continue using the space while quietly arranging a lock change suggests a failure in the Council's duty of care.

 

3. Lack of Responsiveness

 

Your summary omits the fact that emails from the RA and myself were ignored by all officers for a full week following the incident. "Hindsight" does not explain why active attempts by the community to seek clarity or alternative provision were met with silence during a purported safety crisis.

 

4. Outstanding Requirements

 

While I note the assignment of a single point of contact, the community still requires the following to restore trust:

 

The Full Technical/FRA Report: We are still waiting to understand the specific failings that led to this urgent closure.  

 

A Detailed Timeline: We require a "pinned down" schedule for the remedial works.

 

Work Logs: A comprehensive list of works already completed and those that remain outstanding.

We would like these documents to be provided without further delay so the Residents' Association can independently verify the status of our community space.

 

Regards,

 

Asif Zamir

 

On February 25th St Raph'sVoice  said: 

 

The council advise that they are still awaiting receipt of the formal Fire Risk Assessment report, upon which they will be in a position to provide a clear timeline for the required remedial works that need to be undertaken to the community room.

 

This is after 3 weeks!

LETTER: John H of South Kilburn still waiting for repair to his Octavia HA flat to be completed - 3 months on

 

Readers will remember the case of John H, the disabled South Kilburn pensioner, who was without heating for many weeks in the winter. After repeated stories on this blog and help from Brent Council the heating in his housing association flat was eventually restored, but the associated repairs are still outstanding. The wordcloud above gives an idea of the nightmare that John has encountered in trying to get the repair completed.

In despair, John wrote another letter to Wembley Matters yesterday that I publish below:

   

Dear Editor,

 

It is now 3 months (24th Nov. 2025-24th February 2026) since I reported to my landlord Octavia, that 2 of my thermostats had failed and needed to be replaced.

 

However, I am still waiting for the repair to be completed, even though my heating was restored on the 6th of January 2026.

 

Yesterday SureServe were due to install a new thermostat in my living room, but they failed to attend, which has now reached 14 missed appointments over 3 months.

 

Mears are due to come tomorrow to repair all the damage caused by SureServe when they restored my heating system.

 

I made a complaint to Abri yesterday by email regarding waiting for 7 weeks to get my temporary thermostat replaced with a new one in my living room.

 

As they did not reply to yesterday's email, I have now submitted another one, using the Abri complaints online form regarding the wait of 50 days for my thermostat.

 

 

John H

South Kilburn

 

Brent Green Group Leader: 'For Brent residents austerity with a red rosette is just the same as with a blue rosette'

 Last night's Brent Council Budget Setting meeting  was different from others during the last more than a decade because for the first time an alternative was presented by a party to the left of Labour.

It was clear that in this, the last Full Council meeting before the May election,  the move of five  Labour councillors to the Green Party, riled the Labour leadership. They wanted to paint their move as opportunist rather than a matter of principle connected to Labour's national and local failings. Some Labour councillors looked a little shame faced during these attacks.

Deputy Leader Cllr Mili Patel, likened the three opposition parties to characters from the Wizard of Oz, quite forgetting that the real Wizard of Oz in her scenario, was in fact Cllr Muhammed Butt who was sitting next to her.

The election campaign has already seen some tricky moves by Labour including the release of Community Infrastructure Levy funds for pre-election improvements previously deemed impermissable, Labour election leaflets published with green colours rather than red, and Brent Council publicity on social media and in the Brent Magazine featuring plenty of pictures of Brent councillors claiming credit for various initiatives. Not an equal playing field.

The Brent Budget Debate was similarly unbalanced with Labour Cabinet Lead after Cabinet Lead extolling their own virtues with quote after quote listing the millions they were spending for the people of Brent, quite forgetting it was the people's money they were spending not the party's.

 

 

Labour's skip's? 

Cllr Muhammed Butt and Cllr Krupa Sheth feature

 

Those pre-election CIL funds and Cllr Krupa Sheth again

 

Designed to deceive? No, surely not?

 

Lib Dems and Greens voted against each other's alternative budgets last night and the details were different.  However, there were some common themes regarding the importance of truly affordable housing (Greens want a separate Housing Scrutiny Commitee),  environmental initiatives and reviewing the mayoral roles and finances. 

Room for cooperation once elected? 

STAFF IN BRENT SCHOOLS SAY 8 WEEKS MATERNITY LEAVE IS BETTER BUT OUR BABIES DESERVE MORE. SUPERMARKET STAFF CURRENTLY GET MORE LEAVE THAN SCHOOL STAFF!

 From Brent District National Education Union

  

BRENT SCHOOL STAFF CAMPAIGN TO STOP MOTHERS BEING FORCED BACK TO WORK TOO EARLY

National Education Union members across the borough of Brent have welcomed the increase in maternity leave from 4 fully paid weeks to 8 but are disappointed that Minister for Women & Equalities, Bridget Phillipson didn’t see fit to allow us 28 weeks maternity leave, equal to that of her staff in the Department of Education.

A Brent NEU petition has gone from strength to strength with educators saying they wish they could care for their own children in the same way they care for the children they work with. We just want equality with other workers, including supermarket workers (Aldi, M&S, Tesco and ASDA all offer 26 weeks fully paid with Lidl leading the market at 28 weeks)

A recent Brent NEU survey highlighted that mothers are being forced back into work due to terrible maternity pay, leaving very young babies in childcare, whilst expressing milk in school toilets and car parks.

87.5% of Members said they were willing to take industrial action to improve maternity rights in Brent.