A Lot Done - Westminster Labour Councillors

Over the last four years Labour has worked hard to build a better and fairer Westminster and we’ve done a lot to deliver on the commitments we made to residents in our last manifesto, while responding to challenges posed by the post-Covid recovery and cost of living crisis. Here are just some of the important initiatives we have delivered in Westminster.

Fairer Communities

Delivered a new 200-camera public realm CCTV network after the Tories scrapped the previous system.
Created a new 18-strong team of 9 ASB specialist City Inspectors and 9 police funded by the council to tackle the crime and ASB that concern residents the most.
Introduced new Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) on antisocial behaviour across the city and targeting Pedicabs in the West End, giving our enforcement teams more powers and fines, while expanding the nuisance from vehicles PSPO to cover Soho and Mayfair.
Led the way on expanding Free School Meals so all Westminster children aged 3-14 in our schools get a healthy, free lunch.
Opened seven new free breakfast clubs in local schools thanks to government funding.
Introduced free swimming for all children and parents/carers during school holidays, and maintained free swimming for over-60s.
Delivered a £26 million investment in cost-of-living support for those most in need, including direct financial support such as vouchers and activities for families on free school meals in the holidays and support for the over 65s such as the Winter in the City Programme, along with help for foodbanks, rent support, law centres and advice services.
Raised the income threshold for paying for home care, which increased the proportion of residents receiving free care from 49% to 65%.
Increased pay for all staff delivering home care so that it’s always above London Living wage, and ensured staff get paid properly for travel time between appointments.
Opened six new community hubs: The Exchange in Maida Hill, Brunel Happy Hub in Westbourne Park, Lilestone Street in Church Street, Rampayne Street in Pimlico and mini hubs in Victoria and Charing Cross libraries, creating new spaces for residents to get together and to access support from the council and local charities.
Increased funding for over 100 projects run by local charities and youth clubs to make sure everyone has access to affordable activities and services. We also used participatory budgeting to help residents decide which projects should be funded.
Tackled areas of community need through our North Paddington Programme, Church Street Regeneration and the Pimlico Programme.
Expanded the existing Community Champions programmes and started new programmes on the Brunel Estate in Westbourne and Lillington & Longmore.
Upgraded our leisure facilities across the city, making them easier to access and increased the number of inclusive and accessible playgrounds.
Opened two new public parks with landscaped gardens, biodiverse planting, play equipment and flood defences at Westbourne Green and Queen’s Park Canalside.
Delivered our £12.7m public toilets programme – renovating eight of our sites across the City to be functional, attractive, sustainable and future-proofed.
Transformed Maida Hill market square with new paving, lighting, rain gardens, state-of-the-art public toilets, regular community events and a rebranded street market.
Launched the council’s first Culture Strategy, created the 10 by 10 activity scheme in schools to give enriching opportunities, and launched the Theatre for Every Child programme with the Society of London Theatre.
Created the new West End Arts Library as a flagship space to promote health and education benefits from the arts, and opened the Library of Things in Pimlico.

Fairer Housing

Delivered 660 new truly affordable homes since 2022, with 16 fully affordable schemes to become the 5th largest council house-builder in England.
Secured £120m in external grants from the Mayor of London to maximise the delivery of affordable housing by reintroducing resident ballots the Conservatives had scrapped.
Reset planning policy based on independent evidence so that 70% of affordable homes in new developments are at social rent.
Opened four new local Housing Service Centres to improve face-to-face access to housing support.
Achieved a C1 rating by the Social Housing Regulator – the highest rating in London – as part of our service improvement journey.
Axed fixed-term tenancies to ensure all council tenants have secure tenancies again, whilst reducing the bureaucratic burden on housing officers.
Announced plans to end the poor performing 10-year contracts with repairs and major works providers such as Morgan Sindall, while creating a new directly employed handyman service.
Created an ongoing £1m a year Rent Support fund to help residents whose rent is not covered by housing benefit but who were struggling with paying their bills.
We have introduced some of the most generous major works repayment options in London to support resident leaseholders facing high bills. We have expanded interest-free payment options with the first eight years at zero interest for larger bills, made repayment plans more flexible (including 25 year loans and charge against the property options) and removed unnecessary barriers to accessing support.
Set up a new specialist Customer Advocacy Team to resolve thousands of complex and longstanding housing repairs issues including mould and damp.
Created a new dedicated in‑house repairs team (WCC’s Direct Labour Organisation) that has become a permanent part of the council and is already raising standards and improving resident satisfaction with smaller communal repairs.
Brought in-house and reformed the Housing Solutions Service that provides support to residents who become homeless and those in temporary accommodation.
Doubled the size of our Private Renters Enforcement Team, funded by landlords, through the new Selective Licensing Scheme.
Empowered private renters through access information within our new Private Rented Sector Tenants Charter and Private Rented Sector Forum.
Doubled the size of our Short-term Lets Enforcement Team to ensure houses remain homes, not hotels, in a bid to crack down on illegal short-term lets across our city.
Increased Westminster’s own investment in tackling rough sleeping to over £8m a year on outreach and support services.
Launched the Westminster Housing Compact – an agreement between the council and housing associations to raise standards and strengthen accountability for residents.
We brought back the council’s environmental health enforcement officers supporting housing association residents after the Tories moved them onto other duties.

Fairer Economy

Introduced Westminster’s first ever Economy Plan – focusing on sustainable economic growth, helping small businesses and giving residents the confidence, skills and connections they need to land the great jobs on their doorstep.
Founded Westminster’s first Design Review Panel, a team of independent experts giving impartial advice to developers, planning officers and the planning committee about new major planning applications.
Increased the weighting of social value in council contracting from 10% to 20-30%. It’s delivered 1,600+ jobs and apprenticeships for Westminster residents plus training, mentoring and career support, £12m spent with Westminster small businesses and £28m wages to Westminster residents, 63,0000+ hours of volunteering in the local community, £2.1m+ for community projects, 14,000 free breakfasts and 3,000 food parcels to local people.
Adopted our Westminster After Dark strategy in December 2025, setting out a blueprint for managing the City between 6pm and 6am. This included priority projects to improve public safety, encourage LGBTQ+ venues, and new nighttime opportunity areas on Oxford Street, Victoria Street and the Strand.
Run a high-profile crackdown on ‘American Candy Stores’ and other dodgy shops using trading standards enforcement, pressure on landlords and work with HMRC.
Set out ambitious plans to make the West End cleaner, greener and more friendly for people on foot and on bikes while keeping the traffic flowing freely – through a new public realm project tidying up Regent Street, remodelling Piccadilly Circus and making Regent Street St James (AKA Lower Regent Street) traffic-free.
Helped people get online through our Connected London pilot which has enabled OpenRoaming Wi-Fi in 50 Westminster locations, while boosting mobile capacity in high-footfall areas with 199 small cells on council lamp columns.
Created the Meanwhile On programme, which supported 51 small businesses to trade face-to-face across Westminster through 14 activations. Highlights included a department store of women’s sportswear brands on Regent Street and small business workspace in the former Job Centre on Lisson Grove.
Established a £10m High Streets programme focused on shopping parades beyond the West End, delivering 12 shopfront improvements on Harrow Road, with 13 more on Edgware Road and Praed Street arriving this March. We published place plans for Westbourne Grove, Praed Street and Lupus Street, ahead of major new public realm improvements to come. We have also expanded public art with commissions including Queen’s Park Canalside and Nutford Place, and secured new powers to bring long-term empty shops back into use through High Street Rental Auctions.
Invested in street markets with a named manager for each market backed by Westminster’s first ever Markets Development Plan.
Established the North Paddington Creative Enterprise Zone, where 100 small creative businesses have been supported with grants totalling over £250k and almost 5,000 people have attended 118 cultural events.
Opened enterprise workspace for local SMEs at affordable rents at Church Street Triangle and Lisson Studios, with 300 Harrow Road coming soon.
Ensured the Westminster Employment Service now only places people into jobs paying at least the London Living Wage, and created an employment hub with the DWP at 370 Harrow Road.
Set up Westminster’s first Education, Employment & Skills Board – bringing together employers, training providers and funders to ensure our colleges are teaching the right skills for tomorrow’s jobs.
Brought together over 100 stakeholders at Westminster’s first Skills Summit.
Helped 1,200 residents learn to use new digital technology including smartphones, laptops and broadband.
Set up the Westminster Anchor Alliance of largest employers working together on employment/skills projects to get Westminster residents into good jobs. Members include Microsoft, Imperial NHS, Kings College, British Land, Grosvenor and the Crown Estate.
Supported over 400 hospitality and leisure businesses to fill 480 London Living Wage vacancies through our Westminster Works scheme.
Launched Connect to Work, a £8.4m DWP funded programme to support 2,000 residents with health conditions or disabilities into work over the next 5 years.
Created the Digital Dash programme, where teams of local young people from North Paddington and Pimlico are mentored by execs from global companies based in Westminster.

Fairer Environment

Became one of the top-ranked councils in the country for climate action, and have cut council carbon emissions by 27%. The Conservatives only managed a 7% reduction. when they ran the council.
Declared an Ecological Emergency and developed a Biodiversity & Greening Action Plan.
Adopted a retrofit-first planning policy, obliging developers to properly consider reusing existing buildings before the council supports redevelopment. Findings suggest a 24% reduction in construction-related carbon emissions with 27,500 tonnes of CO2 saved, equivalent to the annual energy usage of nearly 3,700 homes.
Gathered commitments from 126 businesses (covering 43% of Westminster’s commercial floorspace) to our Sustainable City Charter to reduce emissions from non-domestic buildings.
Retrofitted almost 100 council-owned properties, including schools, leisure centres and libraries.
Awarded almost £6m in the first round of the Westminster Climate Fund, including supporting the first ever Community Energy scheme in Westminster.
Established the Westminster Climate Citizens’ Assembly.
Launched the Environmental Justice Measure data tool to underpin all environmental decisions.
Launched London’s first ever strategy to deal with heat-related risks.
Committed to WHO air quality targets.
Protected the Freedom Pass for 60+ Westminster residents with a £12.7M investment, rejecting calls from other parties to cut it, including local Conservative candidates.
Rolled out food waste recycling across the city, with 2,500 tonnes recycled.
Invested in converting the entire Westminster waste vehicle fleet to electric. ,Conservative RBKC is buying new diesel vehicles while Labour Westminster now has the largest electric fleet in the UK.
Delivered cleaner streets, halving the number of streets below standard for litter, from 4.99% to 2.81% according to Keep Britain Tidy.
Increased the number of Fixed Penalty Notices for dumping, with 2,800 FPNs issued in 2024-25 alone for a variety of waste offences.
Became the first council in the country to issue on-the-spot fines to Lime and Forest for badly parked e-bikes.
Quadrupled the jet-washing of our high streets. High footfall areas including high streets are now hot washed and deep cleaned four times a year instead of just once when the Conservatives ran Westminster.
Made hundreds of streets more accessible with dropped kerbs and zebra crossings, doubled the number of cycle hangars, and delivered 15km of new or upgraded cycle routes.
Awarded nearly £500,000 to community groups through Greening Westminster grants.
Set up the Green Live Learning Lab at the Westminster Adult Education Service, building awareness and skills in renewable energy and low-carbon technologies and co-creating resources for 3,000 future learners.
Building sustainable urban drainage into all new public realm work, including Maida Hill, Westbourne Green and Shepherd Market.

Fairer Council

Kept Council Tax the second lowest in the country and froze the core rate this year.
Delivered efficiencies and strong budget management while increasing investment in frontline services.
Achieved the highest possible credit rating from Moody’s, which cited the council’s ‘strong governance and prudent financial planning’ under our leadership.
Transformed the Report It platform, cutting reporting times in half and launching an innovative AI-powered tool to tackle fly-tipping and street cleanliness.
Expanded resident engagement and participation through consultation before we proceed with services and infrastructure. We have created the council’s Commonplace platform to put the council’s consultations in one accessible place and have held more community meetings.
Introduced the right for residents to question cabinet members at Full Council meetings.
Signed and implemented the Councils for Fair Tax Declaration, and became an accredited Council of Sanctuary by improving support for refugees and migrants from war-torn countries who spend time in Westminster.
Co-produced and launched the Westminster Against Dirty Money Charter with BIDs and national organisations to promote transparency, fair taxation and accountability.
Reformed the council pension fund through our Responsible Investment Strategy that, guided by the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, has done more to make ethical, social, and climate-friendly investments, whilst still delivering strong returns. After investment decisions in 2024 the Fund has not held assets located in Israel, Gaza, and the Occupied Territories. The council’s new Conflict Zones Policy will further protect against investments with exposure to global conflicts.