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Battlelines in Newham

Newham has suddenly gone from being one of the most predictable and stable boroughs in London, to extraordinarily unpredictable in the space of a few weeks.

Sir Robin Wales is the longest serving borough leader in London, having first become council leader in 1995 and then directly-elected Mayor in 2002. He assumed he would be reselected on the nod for 2018, but faced a strong challenge for an open reselection involving other candidates.  After a lengthy discussion, involving threatened legal action and the intervention of the London Labour party, Sir Robin has announced an open selection on 1 March, at which he will be a candidate.

Faced with opponents within his group who feel he has not promoted the right people (themselves), and by left-wing supporters of Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum who have successfully mobilised against the local leadership in Haringey, some thought Sir Robin would choose to step aside rather than face the indignity of deselection. That is not the Robin Wales way and he has set up a full campaign.

The challenge has come from Rokhsana Fiaz, a councillor in Custom House ward; two other potential candidates, John Whitworth and Kay Scoresby, withdrew and backed Fiaz.

The key policy battles are around urban regeneration and new council housing in the borough, but the politics and allegiances of local ethnic minority groups add an unpredictable factor.

Fiaz has made it known she would like to see more council housing built in the borough. She has tweeted consistently on this theme, stating her desire to ‘drive up social and genuinely affordable housing in Newham’, and it links with her approach on the Strategic Development Committee where she has been one of the most vocal proponents for mixed communities in Newham. It is this policy platform that is seeing her attract support from the left wing of the party, with the activist and commentator Owen Jones tweeting his support.

In response Sir Robin Wales has come out fighting, promising to build more council housing if he wins the election and highlighting his past achievements on housing: he led the council’s clampdown on criminal landlords and Newham’s recent developments are deliberately ineligible for right to buy.

Both candidates have given long interviews to Dave Hill for the OnLondon website: first Robin Wales then Rokhsana Fiaz. With both candidates stressing their housing credentials and promising to build more council houses, it is clear that whoever wins the Mayoralty Newham is likely to see a greater focus on building council housing and in Fiaz’s words, ‘genuinely affordable housing’.

The electorate is comprised of individual Labour party members in Newham who joined before October 2016. The candidate who best captures the prevailing mood amongst members on key issues such as council housing, urban regeneration, jobs and skills will win. Whoever wins the Labour selection is effectively guaranteed to win the Mayoral election in May. If Fiaz wins, it is possible she will keep personal responsibility for regeneration as she is a skilled member of the Strategic Development Committee. If she chooses to appoint a cabinet member, then it may be one of her allies on that committee, who are Julianne Marriott and Rachel Tripp.

May the best man, or woman, win.

Reader Interactions

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What people say about us…

Smooth operation

Many thanks for last night: a very smooth operation!

Message was very welcome

Was a great result – especially to receive unanimous approval! Many thanks also for you and your team’s work in the run up to the committee. Getting those messages across really helped and was evident by the feedback given by members on both sides of the political spectrum … notably on the successfully engagement with residents and how the scheme responded accordingly. Message was very welcome!

On point

Harry was on point and has been the whole way through. We are all very chuffed. We are already preparing for another rather testing application on another site and you can be certain that we will engage you

Appreciated

Thanks Richard, your help has been much appreciated. Will let you know when the next job comes up!

Big guns!

Thanks for your and the team’s help. It was good to know we had the proverbial big guns in our armoury!

You kept calm

Many thanks for that: your team did very well, and kept a lot calmer than me! Matt was a sensible wise head, as was Alex, but he also made me think succinctly for the questions and how to answer, which is a great skill to try and acquire. Especially for someone as verbose as me!

A unanimous approval

Councillors praised both officers and the developer on their work and engagement.

A unanimous approval 5-0

With your help

Really pleased to hear the news this evening

With your help, we got it through !!!!

Best Regards!

Truly excellent example

Great news that we approved 60 houses on green belt last night.

It was tremendous that the Chair said that this was a “truly excellent example of good consultation…”

Gave me more confidence

Thank you – we were both somewhat surprised given the level of objections but in fact the committee hardly discussed the scheme at all before consenting it.

Thanks to your team for preparing me well for the committee which certainly gave me more confidence.

A big relief

Thank you. A big relief. As I am sure you can appreciate, we are delighted!

Your team did a great job, especially Matt who was integral.

I look forward to catching up soon.

Unanimous

196 flats approved unanimously, thanks to all involved.

Professional and effective

I wanted to thank you and all at Thorncliffe for managing the consultation process so professionally and effectively. This, without doubt, played a crucial role in gaining the approval.

Once again, all our thanks.

Was a good result

Cant remember the last time I got anything through unanimously!

Was a good result, it’s the right scheme for the site and of course we had a great team including yourselves working on it,

First class troops

Richard. Your troops did a first class job as always. Many thanks

Praise for communityUK

Well done for the way you presented tonight’s online consultation. I thought it was an excellent format.

Great result last night

I just wanted to say thank you again for all your help with the great result last night.

You have been tremendous and it is much appreciated.

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