Inside Croydon

Steve Reed will probably feel more at home at MHCLG, but is the former leader of Lambeth Council who as an MP was a bystander over ‘slum-like’ conditions at Regina Road and the bankrupting of Croydon up to the job of delivering on housing targets and local government finances?

The government’s intervention in Croydon Council’s £1.4billion toxic debt has now been placed in the hands of a Croydon MP, after Steve Reed was last night named as the new Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The Metropolitan Police has made further arrests in the investigation into the murder of Leroy Mitchell at a silent disco in South Croydon in 2021.

Issa Souleman, 28, of Achilles Street, SE14, and Kwabena Ofori, 28, were charged on August 13 with perverting the course of justice.

“This is in relation to the investigation into the death of Leroy Mitchell,” a Met spokesperson told Inside Croydon this morning.

“The charges follow arrests on Tuesday August 12. They will next appear at the Old Bailey on September 26.”

Labour-controlled Lambeth is in trouble yet again over housing standards in the borough, with the council criticised in an independent report that, according to opposition councillors, “shows a pattern of neglect, incompetence and a complete disregard for the wellbeing of… residents”.

It was in 2023 that Lambeth became the first local authority to be subjected to close scrutiny by the Housing Ombudsman over what the watchdog described as “maladministration” and mistreatment of council tenants.

Inside Croydon – If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is actually based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: click here for more details

Inside Croydon has moved to Bluesky. Click here to join us there for latest updates and insights

PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates

Two men have denied murdering Leroy Mitchell in a shooting at a silent disco in South Croydon in 2021.

Mitchell, 35 years old and a father of three, was shot as he left the party on Birdhurst Road just before 5am on October 2 2021.

A £20,000 reward was offered by charity Crimestoppers later that year, but it wasn’t until 2025 that any arrests were made.

Cimarron Dume-Gooden, 32, of no fixed address, was charged in June this year with the murder of Leroy Mitchell and perverting the course of justice.

Inside Croydon – If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is actually based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: click here for more details

Inside Croydon has moved to Bluesky. Click here to join us there for latest updates and insights

PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates

Rivers charity begins a Judicial Review, accusing the environment secretary of having ‘no policy at all’ for solving the crisis around Thames Water

Environment secretary Steve Reed, the MP for Streatham (and Croydon North, if he can ever be bothered) could be dragged into court by a rivers charity which has accused him of an unlawful failure to publish his policy on taking failing water companies into temporary nationalisation.

With backing of London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, Labour’s Leonie Cooper calls for water utilities ‘that put the needs of the public and the environment ahead of private profit’

Senior figures in the Labour Party in London have joined calls for the urgent re-nationalisation of Thames Water, in the latest push-back against environment secretary Steve Reed’s soggy mess of a water reform review.

Environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey on live TV this morning called for the immediate resignation of the environment secretary, as the government’s Cunliffe Review is derided as a ‘joke’

Today’s announcement from environment secretary Steve Reed promising the “biggest overhaul of water since privatisation”, following the Cunliffe review of the water industry, went down about as well as a turd in a blocked toilet with environmentalists, campaigners and customers judging by the reactions to his weekend media round.

While Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney was conducting his latest purge in Westminster, back in his old stomping ground of Lambeth, a Labour councillor was suspended yesterday after being charged with a criminal offence.

Irfan Mohammed has been a Labour councillor at Brixton Town Hall since 2018, having been elected to represent Clapham Park ward in 2022.

A statement issued by Lambeth Labour said: “We have been made aware by the police that Councillor Irfan Mohammed has been arrested and charged.