Brixton Buzz

Lambeth Council has released its Quarter 2 2025/26 Budget Monitoring Report, and once again the picture is bleak.

Updating these stories each quarter gets no easier: the headline categories for overspends remain the same, but the figures are only going one way – up.

The Council’s already-fragile reserves remain “significantly below recommended levels”, leaving Lambeth on the thinnest of financial ice.

Lambeth Council has seen a dramatic rise in income from its parks and open spaces – up from just £150,000 in 2015 to around £1.8 million in 2025.

The turnaround follows the decision to bring the Parks Service back in-house in 2016, ending a long period of outsourcing and private contracts.

A new report to the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee praises the in-house model as a success story.

Lambeth Council has declared themselves delighted to announce an outstanding performance at the London in Bloom 2025 awards, securing more accolades than any other borough this year.

They say that this remarkable achievement is a testament to the dedication of our staff, volunteers, and the strength of partnerships across the wider Lambeth community.

Key awards and achievements:

Large City of the Year: London Borough of Lambeth – Gold

Common of the Year: Clapham Common – Gold; Streatham Common – Gold

Lambeth Council is set to sign a ten-year, £5.8 million leasing deal with private landlord Woodstar Capital to provide 30 studio units for homeless residents in Streatham, as part of a push to cut its spiralling temporary accommodation bill.

Under the plan, approved in a Cabinet Member Delegated Decision Report, the council will take on five properties under Full Repairing and Insuring (FRI) leases at rents set at 90 per cent of the Local Housing Allowance rate.

Lambeth Council has announced that Lambeth Assembly Hall will open on Sunday, 16 November, to collect donations for communities affected by Hurricane Melissa.

The powerful storm caused severe destruction and tragic loss of life across Jamaica, prompting local efforts to support those in need.

Held in partnership with the Jamaica Homeless Charity Foundation, who are supporting the Official Jamaica Disaster Relief & Recovery Fund, the Hall will be open from 10am to 7pm.

Once one of south London’s most beloved old-school boozers, the Crown & Sceptre on Streatham Hill is now back before the Council – this time under its new name, Tu Pub Latino (“Your Latino Pub”) – seeking to keep the lights on a little later into the night.

The next Lambeth Licensing Sub-Committee on Tuesday 11th November 2025, sees the operators asking to extend opening until 3 am on Fridays and Saturdays, hoping to reposition the long-standing Streatham Hill pub as a more vibrant late-night venue.

Lambeth Council is set to make the Kennington Oval Reimagined traffic scheme permanent – the latest in a line of “Healthy Neighbourhoods” quietly rebranded across the borough.

The move follows an 18-month trial that saw a series of road filters, planters, benches and widened pavements installed around Kennington Oval, Bowling Green Street and Clayton Street, in an effort to cut through-traffic and create calmer, safer streets.

A series of Remembrance Sunday events are taking place across Lambeth on 9 November, with the Mayor of Lambeth and the Leader of Lambeth Council joining our communities to mark the day and ensure the sacrifices of those who served are never forgotten.

The day will start with a parade from Lambeth Town Hall to Windrush Square Brixton for a wreath laying. A public event being run in partnership with the Ministry of Defence and community partners will also be held in Windrush Square from 2pm at the African and Caribbean War Memorial.

At Sunday evening’s packed Your Party assembly in Peckham, independent MP Jeremy Corbyn turned his fire on Streatham MP and cabinet minister Steve Reed. Reed had recently dismissed public ownership of Thames Water as too costly. Corbyn however, pointed out the privatised water industry’s £72bn in shareholder dividends and executive pay, as household water bills sky-rocket.

Your Party continues its South London expansion with a Regional Assembly and rally in Peckham on Saturday 2 November, headlined by Jeremy Corbyn alongside trade unionists and local campaigners.

The event is part of a nationwide series of Regional Assemblies building toward Your Party’s Founding Conference in Liverpool on 29–30 November. It follows a run of sell-out South London meetings in Brixton, Southwark and Lambeth, where Zarah Sultana MP and anti-apartheid veteran Andrew Feinstein helped launch the movement’s first local branches.