Brixton Buzz

We are shocked and appalled at the terror attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester yesterday.

That this happened on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it even more horrific.

In Lambeth, we stand united with our Jewish community in rejecting all forms of violence, terror and hate, including antisemitism.

With this incredibly devastating news, our hearts go out to everyone affected by this appalling terrorism, particularly those who are grieving for the loss of loved ones.

Lambeth’s Deputy Leader, Cllr Rezina Chowdhury, has quietly deleted her X account over the weekend – just as the Council finally responded to months of complaints about her social media behaviour.

At first glance, ditching X might look like an act of principle. Who wants to hang around on a platform run by a tech bro who has openly called for a UK race war?

But the timing tells another story.

Cllr Chowdhury’s disappearance from the site looks far more like an attempt to erase the evidence – a digital cover-up with the May 2026 local elections looming.

It’s not every day you see Streatham and Croydon North MP Steve Reed relaxed and smiling opposite Michael Gove.

Yet that was the scene in a recent Spectator interview, with Reed – now Starmer’s Housing Minister – talking through his big new plans for communities and housing with the ex-Tory Minister turned editor of the right-wing rag.

What stood out wasn’t just Reed’s ease in explaining his vision to a right-wing audience, but his choice of words. “Power has to be taken, not given,” he declared.

Local MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) will be a headline speaker at an emergency South London zoom meeting on Friday 26 September at 6pm, called in response to the biggest far-right march in recent British history.

After the 110,000-strong Unite the Kingdom rally which Brixton Buzz described as “Christian fascism” (see our film below), the Rt Rev Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Southwark, publicly denounced “racism as sin” ahead of a cross-denominational church statement released on Sunday.

When Steve Reed was leader of Lambeth Council back in 2010, he sold us a bold vision: the Co-operative Council. It promised residents more control, more say, and more power over the services they used. Lambeth, he claimed, would be at the cutting edge of a democratic revolution.

Lambeth has issued £96,500 worth of fines to landlords operating unlicensed Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) since 2020, according to findings seen by Brixton Buzz following a Freedom of Information Request.

In Lambeth, landlords who rent out their properties to at least three tenants forming more than one household who share facilities, such as a toilet, bathroom and kitchen, are legally required to obtain a licence. Landlords who fail to licence a property could face prosecution or financial penalties of up to £30,000.

Lambeth Council’s finances remain in crisis, with the latest Quarter 1 Budget Monitoring Report forecasting a £20.38 million overspend for 2025/26.

The grim figure, due to be signed off by Cabinet on 22nd September, lays bare the scale of the borough’s continuing struggle to balance the books.

A major contributor is the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which is forecast to overspend by £4.65m.

Former Lambeth Labour councillor Martin Abrams has defected to the Lambeth Green Party in a move that reshapes the political map at Lambeth Town Hall and leaves the Greens as the official opposition to Labour’s overwhelming majority.

Abrams will be formally welcomed to the party later this morning by the newly elected Green Party leader, Zack Polanski, at the Town Hall.

Met Police detectives have launched a murder investigation following a double shooting in Clapham in which one man sadly died.

On Monday, 8 September at 20:50hrs police were called to reports of a shooting on New Park Road, Clapham.

Officers attended alongside the London Ambulance Service who treated two men, aged 20 and 27, for gunshot wounds before taking them to hospital.

Despite the best efforts of medical staff, the 27-year-old sadly died in hospital in the early hours of Tuesday, 9 September.

The Streatham Free Film Festival has announced its 10th-anniversary edition, and is promising an unparalleled cinematic experience that’s “bigger, bolder, and more vibrant than ever before.”

To mark this milestone, the festival is extending its run from two weeks to a full four weeks of free films, events, and community celebration, kicking off on Tuesday, September 9th with the annual Film Quiz at the Rebel Inn.