On
behalf of the Brent Friends of Palestine (BFoP) Committee, thank you to
everyone who emailed Queens Park Residents Association (QPARA) to express your
dismay at BFoP not being allocated a stall at the annual Queens Park Day on
14.9.25. This was despite BFoP having a stall there in 2023 and 2024.
The
BFoP stall at Queens Park Day aimed to promote the Palestine Trauma Centre UK
and the therapeutic work it delivers with children and families in Gaza, and in
particular their Days of Joy project. BFoP has fund-raised for this project for
over 10 years. While at the stalls in ’23 and ‘24 committee members and
supporters spoke to many interested people and gave out leaflets which informed
them about the work of the PTCUK and how to donate to the fund supporting this
work. Everything we did focused on the humanitarian issues affecting the
children and their families in Gaza.
Above
the PTCUK Days of Joy display board on the stall we had the sign ‘Brent Friends
of Palestine’; we included this because we are the local organisation that
arranges fund-raising events for the PTCUK and publicises their work. We can
only surmise that it was this sign that made the stall too political for QPARA.
However we cannot find any communication from QPARA to tell us this, or ask us
to remove the sign at future stalls.
When
QPARA initially rejected BFoP’s request for a stall in 2025, we reached out to
them. In July one of the committee members and a QPARA member, who had helped
out at the BFoP stall in previous years and is a keen supporter of PTCUK’s
work, met with the Chairperson of QPARA. He was sympathetic to some extent and
agreed that our committee member could talk to an open QPARA meeting.
Unfortunately neither meeting changed QPARA’s decision to refuse the BFoP
stall.
In the
end a small PTCUK stall was hosted inside the QPARA tent on the day. This was
not organised by BFoP and we were not consulted. As we understand it, the QPARA
member who had met with the Chairperson in July had been asked by QPARA if he
would run the stall, probably as a result of the large number of emails QPARA
had received regarding BFoP being denied a stall. As one of our committee
members said ‘at least Palestine was mentioned somewhere on Queens Park Day’.
This
episode shows that we must continue to speak up on behalf of the Palestinian
people. The horror in Gaza and settler violence in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem, both of which are continually being shown on our screens, have to be
challenged. Your support matters.
We
welcome you to fund-raising events for the PTCUK and at meetings held in the
local area about the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We are
finalising details for a meeting in November and we will ensure it is
publicised on the Wembley Matters Blog.
Guest post
by local historian Philip Grant, in a personal capacity.
Today
24th September is the 35th anniversary of the Town Hall being given Grade II
listed status for its architectural and historic significance.
1. Brent Town Hall in 2009.
Last Monday, I was in the Council Chamber at Brent Civic Centre,
presenting a petition to save a heritage building. Two days earlier, I had been
in the Council Chamber at another local heritage building, the former Brent
Town Hall in Forty Lane, Wembley. As part of its 10th anniversary,
the French Lycée was giving guided tours of this Grade II listed (since 24
September 1990) building, which I had last been in to attend a Planning
Committee meeting in 2013, as part of Open House weekend.
2.The Council Chamber (still with that name) is regularly used for
school meetings.
The building dates from the late 1930s, after Wembley and Kingsbury
Urban District Councils had merged in 1934. A site of just over 2 hectares was
bought, on a hillside between Kings Drive and The Paddocks, land which had
previously been a polo club (with paddocks for its ponies), then used as a camp
for a huge jamboree of Boy Scouts from across the British Empire, in
conjunction with the Exhibition at Wembley in 1924. A promising young
architect, Clifford Strange, was chosen for the town hall’s design in 1935, and
work eventually got underway in 1937 (after a public enquiry over whether the
Council should borrow £160,000 to fund the building – equivalent to around
£14.5m now).
3.Ceremonial breaking of the first ground for the Town Hall in 1937.
The foundation stone was laid on 9 October 1937, and carries the name of
the Urban District Council, even though it had received its charter, becoming
the Borough of Wembley, a week earlier. Strange’s design, in Lincolnshire brick
but with a steel frame, was different from many town halls of the same period
because it was influenced by the work of the Dutch architect, Willem Dudok, and
features from Scandinavian buildings. It has an asymmetrical plan, with the
main entrance off-centre, and a “T” shape, with a frontage 350ft (106 metres)
long and a large Assembly Hall stretching out at the back, behind the wide
central staircase tower.
4.Aerial view of WembleyTown Hall, nearing completion in 1939.
One of the first things I learned on my visit to the building is that
the Lycée, since purchasing the Town Hall from Brent Council and taking
occupation at the beginning of 2014, has been very careful to preserve the
fabric and features of the heritage building. This has meant long discussions
at times with Historic England, and extra expense, but the results of their
care are evident as you go around it. Even the framed school photographs, in
the reception area as you pass through the entrance doors, are stuck
(reversibly) to the marble wall, as no drilling is allowed.
One original feature, just inside the doors, is the box office window,
where tickets for Town Hall events were sold. The grand Assembly Hall, which
would seat 1,200 people, was not just for show. It was a commercial
entertainment venue, with a full programme of events organised by the Council’s
own Entertainments Manager, and employing its own dance orchestra. Events were
advertised weekly in the local newspapers – this example is from March 1952
(the same week that Wembley History Society was formed, when more than 100
residents answered an invitation from the Mayor to attend a founding meeting in
the Council Chamber!).
5.A Wembley Borough Council entertainments advert.
(Source: Brent Archives local newspaper microfilms)
Going up the pale cream marble staircase, with matching marble walls and
art deco style hand rails, on the left at the next level is the internal
entrance to the Library. Wembley did not have its own library service, this was
provided by Middlesex County Council, and the Town Hall Library until at least
the 1950s was just a reference library, with the main public access via steps
up from Kings Drive. I remember it as a normal Brent Public Library, where I
would display posters advertising the History Society’s programme of talks, and
where I organised two small local history exhibitions (including one
celebrating the Society’s 60th anniversary).
6.Part of the 2012 Wembley History Society exhibition in the Town Hall
Library.
The Lycée still uses the library for its original purpose, but it is
also more than that, including tables for playing chess, and a small display of
“finds” from the grounds by its Archaeology Club. It is a bright and airy
space, as you can see from this photograph.
7.The former Town Hall Library in September 2025.
Continuing up the stairs, you come to the large landing space in front
of the Assembly Hall, which the signs the Lycée inherited tell you is still
called the Paul Daisley Hall, named after the former Council Leader and Brent
East M.P. who tragically died of cancer in 2003. This space is often used by
students to congregate and chat during breaks, and the curved display cases on
either side of the entrance to the Hall are currently hidden by protective
sheeting. This photograph from 2012 will give you an idea of what they look
like, and of the marble which they used to line the walls of the central
staircase area in the 1930s.
8.One of the display cases beside the Hall entrance (used for the WHS
exhibition in 2012)
At the edge of the photo above, you can just see a sign for the ladies’
toilets. Although those toilets have now been extensively modernised for use by
the Lycée’s students, the original metal letters for the “Ladies Cloakroom”,
fixed into the marble, have still been retained above the entrance.
When you enter the Paul Daisley Hall itself, you can see what a large
public hall it is, still with its original parquet flooring, which has been
sanded and polished to show it at its best. However, as it is now used as an
indoor sports hall, there are the markings for several courts, and the
wood-lined lower walls of the lofty hall are protected by absorbent sheeting to
protect them from damage. The stage area is also screened off, although this
can be removed when the hall is used for performances.
9.The Paul Daisley Hall, now used by the Lycée as a sports hall.
As you go up the staircase to the next level, there is a great view
across Wembley Park through the large window which fronts the central tower of
the building. Originally, it looked across to the twin towers of Wembley
Stadium, and when I was there more than ten years ago you could see the new
stadium. Now you can barely see the Wembley Arch, for all the tower blocks
built during the past decade (whatever happened to ‘protected views’ of the
Stadium!).
10.Wembley Park, from the central staircase window.
11.The 60th anniversary memorial on the glass screen fronting
the Council Chamber.
As you emerge from the stairs at the next level, the Council Chamber is in
front of you, separated from the landing by a full height glass screen. This
curved screen is another innovative feature of the late 1930s Town Hall, whose
design includes elements of both modernism and Art Deco, and allows plenty of
light into the Council Chamber. To the left on this floor are the three
Committee Rooms, all wood panelled, with partitions which can be folded back to
create one large room. The students in the group showing us round were reminded
that this provided a good-sized exam room, but their “Professeur” said that it
had also been used recently for a staff cèilidh (well, parts of France do have
a Celtic connection!).
12.The Council Chamber from the public gallery.
I included a photo inside the Council Chamber early in this article, but
we were also able to visit the public gallery on the top floor, to look down on
it. The three arm chairs (apparently used by the Mayor and others during formal
Council meetings – can any present or former councillors confirm that in a
comment, please?) were left behind by Brent when the Town Hall was sold, as
features of the heritage building. We were told by Laurent (pictured – the
Lycée’s Chief Executive Officer, and proud guardian of the heritage building
since 2014) that students are not allowed into the public gallery, as the
railing at the front is too low for today’s safety standards, but can’t be
changed because it is an original feature.
13.Inside and outside views of the former Town Hall’s roof garden room.
Another part of the former Town Hall, that I had never been in was what
I will call the roof garden room. This is very much an Art Deco feature, which
is set back from the three-storey right-hand office wing of the building.
Although most of the windows in the building were replaced with modern-standard
copies of the originals as part of its refurbishment before the Lycée opened in
September 2015, the 1930s floor to ceiling windows in this room had to be
retained. I don’t know what the room’s original purpose was, although at a
guess I would think it was for official receptions of the Council’s guests.
14.A corner of the “Mayor’s Parlour”, with its original desk.
Nearby is the former Mayor’s Parlour, where the Mayors of Wembley, then
Brent, would have their office and would also entertain guests. It has
beautiful wood panelled walls, with curved corners, again an Art Deco feature.
It is now the office of the Lycée’s Head of School, Mireille Rabaté, and
includes the matching desk which was part of the original Town Hall, again left
by Brent Council as part of the building’s heritage. And the photo on her desk
is, of course, of Winston Churchill, after whom this bilingual international
school is named. If you wish to read about the Lycée, you can find their
website here.
Cllr Jumbo Chan at Brent Full Council on September 15th 2025
Cllr Jumbo Chan, who has quietly and assiduously been doing a very competent job as vice chair of the Audit and Standards Advisory Committee, took just 2 and a half minutes at Full Council to inform his fellow councillors of the upcoming serious financial issues facing Brent Council. There was no reaction or questions from his colleagues. Cllr Chan is one of the recently deselected councillors.
His Committee meets again on Thursday and will consider the Interim Auditor's Annual Report LINK , a report on Council's work on actions following the Social Housing Regulator's finding of serious failings in Brent Housing Management LINK, and the Council's Risk Register.
It is clear that whoever forms the next adminstration after the May 2026 local elections will face a very rocky, if not perilous ride.
The biggest impact and most likely risks include the number of people needing homeless accommodation, the High Needs SEND grant deficit, financial resilience (including the Housing Revenue Account following the repairs needed in the light of the Social Housing Regulator's findings) and a decline in Council reserves.
The Auditor's report, despite the bland language, suggests that without further cuts and revenue raising the Council might have to apply for additional emergency government funding (Exceptiona Financial Support) at high interest rates.
AUDITOR'S REPORT
Here are some of the key points (my highlighting in bold):
Background
The Council faced continued
financial pressures in 2024-25, with a £15.5 million overspend driven largely
by rising temporary accommodation costs. While reserves were used to balance
the General Fund, the situation remains challenging. Saving plans delivered
targeted £8 million in savings. A balanced budget of £431.4 million is set for 2025-26,
including an additional £15 million for homelessness, which will cover current
demand based upon 2024-25 numbers. However, homelessness pressures are expected
to grow, adding further strain. The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and Housing
Revenue Account (HRA) also face financial pressure, with deficits and housing
regulatory concerns highlighting the need for a robust, long-term financial
recovery plan.
Key Recommendation 1
The Council must urgently take additional
difficult decisions to ensure that a realistic budget can be set for next year
and in the medium-term, so this can be delivered without the need to further
draw on reserves nor Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from central
government
The funding gap
The difference between any
council’s annual income and expenditure is the ‘funding gap’. The budget
process aims to close this gap by identifying expenditure savings, additional
income or using reserves to provide a balanced position. Any increase at the
Council in demand or costs, higher than the growth forecast in the Medium Term
Financial Strategy (MTFS), will require more savings or additional income to
offset.
The MTFS, dated February
2025, anticipates a cumulative budget gap of £28 million by 31 March 2029,
highlighting increasing financial pressures. Chart 1 sets out the savings and
growth delivered to date and projected over a six- year period.
• Forecast growth for
2026-27 to 2028-29 in the MTFS is reduced to approximately £26 million per
year, which is around 50% lower than the £53.3m million growth budgeted for in
2025-26.
• Forecast savings for
2026-27 to 2028-29 are only marginally higher than those required in 2024-25
and 2025-26.
This indicates considerable
pressure in the current MTFS with limited scope to absorb unforeseen cost
pressures.
Current spending levels
across the Council are deemed unsustainable and pose a risk to the Council's
financial sustainability. Without
additional income, additional savings
(which links to Key Recommendation 2), or
service cuts, the Council is at risk
of delivering overspends which
cannot be supported by remaining reserves.
Impact: If the Council fails
to manage demand for services and deliver against budgets the reserves levels
will threaten its financial sustainability. Exceptional Financial Support (EFS)
may be necessary for 2027-28, which would entail borrowing
at a premium to cover revenue costs.
Key Recommendation 2: It is
critical that savings through the Embrace Change Transformation Programme are
quantified and integrated into the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) providing
a pipeline of
sufficient recurrent savings and income generation schemes supported by robust business cases through
collaboration and business transformation.
Areas for Improvement - disposal of property assets
Using the property strategy
to identify assets that are not operational and not required for service
delivery could provide the Council with a pipeline of potential capital
receipts which could support the financing of the capital programme. This could
reduce long-term borrowing and mitigate additional financing costs. Any plans
for asset disposal should be built into the Medium-Term Financial Strategy with
realistic timescales, to mitigate potential Exceptional Financial Support needs
in 2027-28
Improvement Recommendation 1
Area for improvement: Using
the property strategy to make best use of assets, including the identification of
non-operational assets.
Area for improvement:
Strengthening the medium-term financial strategy to reflect and mitigate risks
from the Direct Schools grant (DSG) and Housing Revenue Accout) HRA balances.
The statutory override on
Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficits is extended to 2027-28, but the
Council’s £13.6 million cumulative deficit remains unresolved, posing a
material risk to the MTFS beyond the override period. Alongside pressures in
the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), where compliance risks and rising costs
threaten long-term sustainability, these issues require urgent financial
planning and reserve management.
Evidence: Many councils are
reporting significant deficits in their DSG accounts due to rising demand for
SEND services, especially Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs).
Management has actively
managed the cumulative deficit DSG position from a high of £15.9 million in
2021-22 to £13.6 million at 31 March 2025. It is a strong achievement to have
reduced the cumulative deficit and curtailed significant increases, with £1
million received from the Department for Education to mitigate in- year
overspends, helping to maintain the deficit and prevent further growth. The
Council's DSG Deficit Management Plan has been updated to cover up to and including
2027-28, in line with the extension to the statutory override, by which time
the forecast DSG cumulative deficit could be £20.3 million mitigated or £31.3m unmitigated.
Uncertainty remains around how the DSG deficit will be managed if the statutory
override is not extended beyond 31 March 2028, and this is not built into the MTFS.
Meanwhile, the HRA shows a
provisional £2.1 million surplus for 2024-25, but long-term sustainability is
threatened by housing stock refurbishment costs and debt.
The HRA faces significant
risk, indicated by the Council's self-referral to the Regulator of Social Housing
which resulted in a “C3 – significant improvement needed” grading for failing
to meet the Safety and Quality Standard in relation to accuracy and completion
of fire safety data and housing repairs, highlighting compliance risks and
potential cost increases.
Continuous monitoring and assessment are
necessary as the Council develops a recovery plan which needs to be funded by
the HRA reserve.
BRENT HOUSING MANAGEMENT
The Brent Housing Revenue Account (HRA) had an underspend of £2m in financial year 2023-24 but will be under strain as a result of the works needed to satisfy the Social Housing Regulator and to ensure tenants and leaseholders safety, which is the main consideration.
The Action Plan on the issues raised by the Regulator was due early this summer and delayed until September the but still not published. The report before the Audit Committee threfore does not contained a costed programme to ensure compliance and we don't yet know its impact on repairs and rents.
Extracts from the report: [My coments in square brackets]
The Health and Safety Specialist have been contracted to support ongoing improvement work, providing additional objective and independent oversight, as well building safety expertise.
Caldiston Ltd have carried out an independent forensic audit across all key compliance workstreams (including fire, gas, electrical, water, asbestos and decent homes requirements) which was completed in August 2025. The audit involved desktop reviews, staff interviews and validation of data from multiple systems in use by the service, including True Compliance, NEC, and LifeSpan. [Will audit and recommendations be made public?]
The audit aligned with officers' concerns, validating the referral to the regulator confirming that there were significant systemic issues, particularly in data management, governance, and policy implementation. The overall outcome of the audit was that the housing management service has inadequate assurance in relation to managing building safety and compliance.
Key recommendations from the audit include developing a comprehensivecompliance framework, resolving data integrity issues, closing overdue fire risk assessment actions, establishing central registers for smoke and CO detectors,and providing staff training on compliance processes. It is also recommended to implement dashboards for real-time KPI monitoring and align the Strategic Risk Register with actual risks.
The findings from the audit have highlighted and clarified several areas that the service had already identified as needing focus as well as some additional key learning. These findings will now feed into the development of a robust action plan for improvement. [Publication when?] This action plan will also include root cause analysis (as recommended by The Regulator), to ensure permanent solutions are in place to prevent similar issues arising in the future and will form a key part of the agenda and monitoring for the relevant project board under the newly established Housing and Tenant Improvement Programme.
Ongoing improvement work
Whilst the reflective audit work is vital for lesson learning and effectively mapping robust and long-term improvements to our management of building safety, it has been important to us as a service to ensure we are driving forward rapid improvements on the ground to strengthen oversight quickly and provide re-assurance for our residents
The Compliance Team have been onboarding additional contractors to expedite the completion of works as a consequence of Fire Risk Assessments, and as of 1 September it is confirmed that all outstanding high-risk fire actions in high-rise blocks have been satisfactorily addressed; either closed with evidence, completed and closed with evidence or work booked. [Figures for each category?]
The rebuild of True Compliance and the NEC asset register is underway [Expected completion date?], and additional governance has also been implemented around the management of data, in particular restricting property creation access which provides a more controlled approach to new properties being added to the system and feeding into compliance workstreams accurately.
The compliance team has been progressing with recruitment. A Compliance and Contract Manager, a dedicated electrical manager, a Quality and Delivery Manager and an interim Contract Officer all started in September. Two permanent Contract Officers are being shortlisted currently, all with a focus on compliance and safety.
Furthermore, the Housing & Tenant Satisfaction Improvement Board met for its initial meeting in September. [Please publish Minutes for transparency and accountability]
This Board, chaired by the Chief Executive, will oversee and drive initiatives aimed at improving the quality of housing services and increasing tenant satisfaction.
The Board will provide governance and oversight by monitoring the progress of improvement initiatives and ensuring compliance with housing standards. [Will results be pubished?]
Significant progress has been made in addressing the data issues highlighted in the audit report. Our priority has been to validate the ownership and the council’s compliance responsibilities of all properties on our Housing Database, NEC. This work is essential to build confidence in our data and provide a reliable foundation for reporting.
We are currently in the process of systematically reviewing each compliance stream, starting with Gas. This will confirm the properties that fall in or out of scope, and importantly, for what reason. Whilst the audit highlighted that confidence in the reporting number is low, we are using these figures as a baseline so that improvements can be clearly appreciated as our validation work progresses. This will result in the reported asset numbers changing as properties are validated and confirmed in work streams, and percentages fluctuating because of this.
This data correction work is not limited only to the properties we report on to the Regulator (i.e. council owned homes) but has been expanded to all residents in our properties e.g. leaseholders, i4B and FWH tenants etc. This ensures a consistent, council-wide approach that strengthens both safety andassurance moving forward.
A section of the report deals with financial considerations but not in detail:
Financial Considerations
Like other local authorities, Brent is facing significant financial pressures and is continuously needing to look for efficiencies to address budget challenges. Some of the main challenges that could affect the long-term viability of the HRA Business Plan along with rent levels are major works and repairs.[How, increased rents and reduced works and repairs as in Kensington and Chelsea?]
As the Council adds more stock to its portfolio and complexities of new additional requirements to building standards are increasing, such as fire safety works and decarbonisation, the cost of major works are rising. At the moment, there is insufficient government subsidy available to address these changes.
The Asset Management Strategy and investment plans must be approached cautiously and allow for flexibility to scale back on schemes where required. Careful budget monitoring and financial planning are crucial. With a current 5.75% loan rate for the HRA, £1m in borrowing costs the HRA circa £28k per annum in interest costs.
The specialists that have been appointed to assist with the recovery of the compliance breaches, are currently undertaking an initial assessment of the situation with the intention of developing a recovery programme. [Cost of specialists?[
Upon completion of the initial assessment, a paper will be presented setting out the anticipated costs and financial implications. For comparative purposes, a registered provider with 21,000 homes that were in a similar situation, spent £2.3m on their recovery programme. [Brent Housing Management manages approximately 8,000 council homes, 4,000 leaseholds, and 31 Gypsy and Traveller pitches]
It should be noted that whilst operating under a regulatory notice, access to grant funding for housing developments may be reduced or ceased, until the council can evidence a position of compliance.
Roundwood Park protest outside the closed toilets earlier this summer
Following the lack of action by Brent Council after the August protest in Roundwood Park calling for accessible, safe and clean public toilets in the park a petition has been launched.
KOVE (Kilburn Older Voices Exchange) staged a procession down Kilburn High Road calling for better toilet facilities back in 2024 LINK. and more recently a 'pop up' toilet has been set up by volunteers in Kilburn's Grange Park.
The current petition, Re-open Roundwood Park toilets, was set up by local campaigner Amandine Alexandre on the Brent Council website and is open until October 31st 2025.
Perhaps we can get some pledges from candidates before the Council elections next year?
The Petition
We the
undersigned petition the council to re-open Roundwood Park existing toilets
and work on the design of modern toilets, less prone to attract anti-social
behaviour
Roundwood Park users have been deprived of public
toilets since July 2022.
The lack of public toilets in Roundwood Park is
affecting absolutely everyone - parents with children, disabled people, older
people, people with health issues etc. It prevents lots of residents from
using the park as much as they would like and it stops too many people from
coming to the park altogether.
It's particularly an issue for women of all ages.
We, women, spend less time in parks than men - and that affects our health
and sense of well-being in a very negative way. Reversely, having access to
inclusive green spaces boosts our health. For example, girls are less likely
to be anxious and depressed when they spend time in green spaces.
On August 2nd, I was part of a group of local
residents who gathered in the park to ask for the re-opening of the public
toilets. Again, our request fell on deaf ears and we were told by Cabinet
member Krupa Sheth that we should use the cafe toilets.
This is an inappropriate answer that fails to
understand that the cafe toilets cannot be a replacement for public toilets
and that the closure of the public toilets is creating a health issue for
residents.
As Brent Council is about to spend £3 millions on
Green Corridors in Roundwood and Church End to encourage more people who live
in Church End to use Roundwood Park and fight against health inequalities,
now is the time to re-open the existing public toilets or build new toilets
in a different, better location in the park where there will be a reduced
risk of anti-social behaviour taking place.
