“We’re giving Hackney back to its people”: Mayor Garbett’s first 100 days
The recently-elected Mayor of Hackney on her new administration's achievement so far.
I walked into the town hall as the mayor 100 days ago with a plan to fight back against the status quo. Since then, I’m proud of the start that my cabinet and I have made in delivering on that message of hope and a plan.
What Hackney residents tell me they need most is local services that work for them – getting the basics right that people depend on. So we’ve hit the ground running on that, speeding up housing repairs while cutting costs, repurposing underused buildings to provide council services, cracking down on rogue landlords by recruiting the first of 51 new enforcement officers and maintaining the best parks in London.
As your Mayor, I’ve been a voice for our borough – working with other boroughs to force the Mayor of London to scale back affordable housing cuts, leading calls nationally for rent controls, and calling out guidance that works to exclude trans people from public life.
It’s not just what we’re doing; it’s how we’re doing it. My Cabinet is smaller, meaning we work more efficiently and at less cost to you. I’ve brought about more collaborative ways of working, meeting a huge range of people from faith partners to renters unions to community organisers.
What’s more, I’ll let you make your mind up on who I’m meeting, by putting my diary online for you to for yourself who I’ve met with. And I’m making sure that people with unique and important perspectives are representing themselves and speaking up for some of our most marginalised communities, such as by appointing Hackney’s first ever migrant champion.
And at the same time as we put in measures to protect Hackney in the short term, we’re beginning work to change the system for the long-term. That means building a more ethical pension fund, reviewing our global partnerships, and investigating property ownership in Hackney to put power back into the hands of communities.
After decades of the government cutting funding for council services, changing what we do for Hackney is an uphill fight, that will not happen overnight. But our work in my first 100 days is a statement of intent for the next four years, during which we’ll work tirelessly to give Hackney back to its people.
Zoë Garbett, Mayor of Hackney