Brixton Buzz

Bell Ribeiro-Addy is the first confirmed candidate in Labour’s 2025 Deputy Leadership contest, announcing on social media last night that she would stand to give members a genuine left choice.

Condemning the party’s “short and undemocratic” three-day nomination window, her announcement capped a week of sharp interventions on Gaza, poverty and protest rights.

Steve Reed, MP for Streatham and Croydon North, and former Leader of Lambeth Council, has been appointed Labour’s new Housing Minister.

This promotion comes after 14 months as Environment Secretary – a post Reed, a lifelong city-dweller, has always appeared somewhat uncomfortable with.

The new role follows the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and former Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, who admitted failing to pay enough tax on her second home.

Zarah Sultana MP announced last night on her social media, the first Your Party event in Brixton, taking place at Brixton Jamm on Friday 12 September.

The Coventry South MP recently quit the Labour Party to co-found Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn, declaring it “a new kind of political party… one that belongs to you.” Their launch statement on the Your Party website pledges to tax the richest, bring energy, water, rail and mail into public ownership, build council housing, defend the right to protest for Palestine, and campaign for climate justice.

Lambeth is introducing its own landlord licensing scheme in all but two wards of the borough where it says it is unnecessary.

It is Phase 2 of a scheme which began in September 2024 in four wards: Knights Hill, Streatham Common and Vale, Streatham Hill East, and Streatham St. Leonard’s. Only Vauxhall and Waterloo & South Bank wards are excluded from the new requirements for landlords.

The next local elections in Lambeth aren’t until May 2026, but the Labour Party has already started lining up its candidates.

And in true Town Hall fashion, it’s proving to be less about finding the best people for the job and more about who’s in favour, who’s fallen out, and who can be relied upon to clap loudly enough when Council Leader Claire Holland finishes her speeches.

Lambeth Council’s spending on legal fees has increased dramatically in recent years, rising from around £10 million in 2019 to £30 million in 2024, Brixton Buzz can reveal.

The costs are largely to extend leases on properties Lambeth manages in Streatham.

Cabinet papers in 2020 noted that “The cost of individual lease extensions was estimated as c.£13.6m in 2018 and will now have risen to an estimated £15m due to the reduction in the remaining unexpired term.”

Lambeth Council’s leisure centre service Active Lambeth has launched a brand-new three-lane bowling alley at the Brixton Recreation Centre.

The new alley which is open for walk-in slots, as well a private bookings, adds to Brixton Rec’s family-friendly leisure centre offer alongside karaoke, food and lots more.

Cllr Donatus Anyanwu, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities, Leisure and Sports, said:

Lambeth Council is to implement a new planning mechanism to help manage smaller Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the two Streatham wards, after concerns were raised by residents.

The ‘Article 4 Direction’ will give the council greater control over the creation of new HMO properties occupied by more than one household, in Streatham Common & Vale, and Streatham St. Leonard’s.

Lambeth Council has confirmed plans to sell off 20 housing assets, including five empty homes and 15 non-residential sites, in a move designed to plug gaps in its troubled Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

The Council expects to raise £13.7 million from the sales – but critics are warning that the strategy risks stripping local estates of vital amenities while failing to address the roots of the crisis.

The asset disposal programme is part of a sweeping five-year Housing Asset Management Framework (AMF).

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Member of Parliament for Clapham and Brixton Hill has joined over 50 parliamentarians in signing a letter to Daniel Zeichner MP, Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, urging the government to move swiftly from consultation to decisive action on banning hunting with hounds.