Newham mayor Rokhsana Fiaz has promised “action” and not “excuses” after a series of critical reports into how the council is run.
In May the government issued Newham Council with a ‘best value notice’ – an instruction to improve – citing serious issues and weaknesses in governance and culture at the council, as well as a damning inspection into its council housing in October 2024.
Speaking at a full council meeting yesterday (Monday 14th) Fiaz said the council had “accepted the non-statutory best value notice immediately because accountability is not something we avoid, it’s something we own”.
She said she wanted the council to make sure “every issue is met, not with excuses but action” and to become “a council fit for the decades to come”.
Councillors at the meeting debated their response to the best value notice, which set out several government expections of the council. These included that it “improve its financial sustainability”, “implemenet and measure cultural change” by improving relationships between councillors and staff, and “deliver at pace” recommendations made in a series of recent inspections.
Councillors were asked to note the steps the council says it has taken in response to the notice, outlined in a report to the full council meeting.
The report said these included a plan to improve how decisions are scrutinised, a review of its constitution and setting up a “transformation and improvement board” with “independent experts” on children’s services, adult social care, housing, finance and property.
Fiaz said: “We are working closely with the ministry of housing, communities and local government to demonstrate how we are meeting the requirements, rebuilding trust, raising standards and delivering lasting improvements.”
Councillors voted unanimously to note the response. They also backed a report outlining expected behaviour from councillors, and approved unanimously changes to the council constitution that aimed to clarify roles and decision-making processes.
However, councillors from opposition groups raised criticisms and concerns.
Green group leader Nate Higgins said the transformation board needed a “clear cross-party role”, and argued that the council should ditch its mayoral leadership model in favour of “a council where power is shared”.
Cllr Higgins went on to argue that fixing the problems also needed “meaningful change in how local government is funded in this country”.
He said: “The government right now seems content to let council after council go to the wall instead of properly taxing wealth to provide resources to those who need it the most. It cannot be right that our wealthiest people earn more in their sleep than our average residents will ever earn from work.”
Newham Independents group deputy leader Sophia Naqvi criticised the council’s housing service.
She said: “In housing, in repairs in temporary accommodation and how we use public funds. Too many residents are not seeing that value – they are seeing delays, neglect and poor communication.
“When families are living in damp homes, when complaints go unanswered, when millions are spent on nightly paid accommodation without long term solutions we are not delivering best value.”
She added: “I urge the council to review not just what we do but how we do it.”
