The Cabinet

Leader of the Council, Councillor Claire Holland

Councillor Holland is responsible for setting the overall political and strategic direction for the council; acts as the lead spokesperson and manages external relations including with Government, the Greater London Assembly and local and regional bodies; as well as managing the council’s relations with key stakeholders, partners and investors and holding the council’s Chief Executive to account.

She is responsible for driving forward the council’s response to the climate and ecological crisis, ensuring that this response is centred on the Administration’s commitment to equity and increasing the economic resilience and wellbeing of Lambeth's residents as part of a just transition to a net-zero future for the borough. She will lead on engaging, mobilising and working with partners and the community to facilitate collective action. This includes working with, and holding to account, partners to deliver Lambeth’s Climate Action Plan and the development of the low carbon growth strategy.

The Leader oversees communications and public awareness campaigns. She is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Administration’s manifesto commitments and core council strategies, including the Borough Plan. She leads on the council’s work to deliver the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and the support to survivors through the Lambeth Children’s Home Redress scheme. She also leads on investment and growth in the borough including the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area and the development of the life sciences sector through the SC1 partnership.

Deputy leaders

Working with the Leader of the Council, the Deputy Leaders work across all areas providing support in the political and strategic leadership of the council.

Deputy Leader (Sustainable Lambeth and Clean Air), Councillor Rezina Chowdhury

Councillor Chowdhury will be responsible for action on the climate and ecological emergency and for advancing sustainable urban mobilities in Lambeth. She will oversee the delivery of the borough's Climate Action Plan and Corporate Carbon Reduction Plan. She will oversee the day-to-day delivery of the work underway to decarbonise buildings and energy systems in Lambeth, as well as Lambeth's efforts to reduce waste and advance the circular economy. She will lead efforts to adapt Lambeth to and mitigate against the worsening impacts of our changing climate and prepare the borough so that it is fit for the challenges of the future.

Crucially, she will oversee the delivery of Lambeth's ambitious Transport Strategy, advancing active and sustainable mobilities in the borough by reshaping our streets and neighbourhoods in favour of sustainable modes of travel. This includes driving forward infrastructure changes such as delivering Lambeth’s healthy routes and low traffic neighbourhood strategies; working with and lobbying Transport for London and private rail providers to improve the frequency, reliability and accessibility of public transport as well as widening inclusion and access to active travel through enhanced cycle training, new grant programmes and the installation of 5,000 new cycle storage spaces. In addition, Councillor Chowdhury will lead the renewal of Lambeth’s Air Quality Action Plan in line with the borough’s commitment to stringent air quality targets.

Councillor Chowdhury will also lead on protecting and enhancing Lambeth's award-winning parks and open spaces through our multi-million-pound parks capital investment programme, working local communities to increase biodiversity and accessibility, as well as overseeing our ambitious targets to increase Lambeth’s tree canopy cover.

Responsible for:

Delivery and reporting of progress towards the actions in Lambeth’s Climate Action Plan.
Reshaping Lambeth’s streets to deliver equitable, healthy and safe neighbourhoods, including improving accessibility, walking, scooting, cycling and wheeling infrastructure by delivering Lambeth’s Transport Strategy including its healthy routes and low traffic neighbourhood strategies.
Improving air quality and overseeing the renewal and delivery of a new Air Quality Action Plan.
Increasing recycling rates and overseeing the council’s strategy to deliver a circular economy in Lambeth, as well as improving the cleanliness of Lambeth’s streets.
Overseeing the development and implementation of a Kerbside Strategy in Lambeth that promotes a more diverse use of kerbside space in the borough and gives more space to community uses in line with the Lambeth Climate Action Plan.
Overseeing the management of parking services in Lambeth including plans to prioritise disabled parking and expand controlled parking zones.
Strategic transport planning and transport infrastructure, delivering local transport schemes and lobbying for improvements and increased access to Lambeth’s public transport network.
Utilities and contractor relations.
Overseeing the development and delivery of the council’s sustainable urban drainage programme to reduce flood risk and increase biodiversity in Lambeth.
Overseeing community gardening and food growing in public spaces.
Maintaining and enhancing Lambeth’s award-winning parks and open spaces by overseeing the council’s £10 million parks capital investment plan and delivering the Biodiversity Action Plan and Pollinator Action Plan.
Oversee the development and delivery of Lambeth’s ambitious tree planting programme, with over 5,000 trees to be planted in the borough.
Registrars, cemeteries and crematorium services.
Public realm and open spaces in the borough.

Deputy Leader (Sustainable Growth and New Homes), Councillor Danny Adilypour

Councillor Danny Adilypour is lead member for planning and leads on strategic infrastructure and the delivery of new and genuinely affordable homes for Lambeth residents. He is responsible for ensuring that Lambeth’s planning policy delivers sustainable growth that meets residents’ needs, maximises the number of genuinely affordable new homes for local people, and alongside the Cabinet Member for Inclusive Economy & Equalities ensure that the benefits from growth are fairly shared and reinvested in areas across the borough.

The Council is committed to an ambitious programme of building new genuinely affordable homes at council rent. Councillor Adilypour is responsible for the council’s wholly owned housing company, Homes for Lambeth, and for delivering our estate regeneration schemes, strategic housing projects and the small sites programme.

Responsible for:

Lead member for Planning.
Housing delivery; including affordable housing and housing growth and exploring new models for financing and delivering more homes.
Working with partners, including housing associations, to deliver more affordable homes.
Investing in community-led projects in areas of increased growth through taxes on private development projects.
Leadership of the borough’s own house building programme; including estate regeneration schemes, building new council homes, Homes for Lambeth and delivery of all new housing schemes including the small sites programme.
Overseeing the borough’s strategic infrastructure needs; implementation of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and ensuring the proceeds of growth are fairly shared across the borough in line with resident’s priorities.
Joint delivery of our economic resilience strategy and attracting inward investment across our growth sectors including medical technology and life sciences, digital and creative sectors, and the new low carbon economy.
Regeneration schemes across the borough including Growing Brixton’s Rec Quarter, Waterloo, West Norwood and working with the Leader on Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea.

Cabinet member for Inclusive Economy and Equalities), Councillor Jacqui Dyer

Delivering a growing and inclusive economy is essential to supporting Lambeth’s residents after the impact of the Covid-19 and cost of living economic shocks over the recent years. Councillor Dyer will lead on spreading opportunities and building our economic resilience to make Lambeth the best place to live, work and do business for everyone regardless of their background.

Councillor Dyer is responsible for the borough’s economic development and growth, ensuring that Lambeth is a good place for all its businesses and residents to thrive, and is responsible for the council’s ambitious agenda to increase jobs, skills, training and apprenticeships for Lambeth residents.

Responsibilities include, working with partners across the borough and across Cabinet, Councillor Dyer will make Lambeth more equal by systematically embedding equalities into all parts of the council’s work including overseeing Equalities Impact Assessments. The emphasis on a systematic approach to equalities, equity and fairness advances upon the work previously undertaken by our Equality Commission and supports the delivery of our manifesto pledges. To effectively address the above priorities, robust attention to inequities, diversity and inclusivity are threaded throughout Councillor Dyer’s portfolio.

Responsible for:

Building upon the work of the Equality Commission, including delivering equalities at a neighbourhood level, overseeing Equalities Impact Assessments (EIA) and chairing the EIA panel.
Leading on the council’s Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion agenda to improve workforce equality and opportunities for all staff.
Working with the Windrush generation to continue to campaign and fight for justice for all those impacted by the Government’s cruel hostile environment policies.
Celebrating our borough’s diversity, including leading on delivering the annual Windrush Day.
Overseeing the review of Lambeth’s statues, monuments and street names, through engagement with residents through ‘retain and explain’, supporting and educating our young people about contested names, and building on the council’s pioneering work around naming of locations.
Leadership on economic development including boosting trade in high streets, town centres and working with BIDs to improve services for businesses.
Joint delivery of our economic resilience strategy and attracting inward investment across our growth sectors including medical technology and life sciences, digital and creative sectors, and the new low carbon economy.
Directing the council’s employment programmes and creating affordable workspace to provide increased opportunities for the long-term unemployed, those with complex needs, vulnerable adults, and people with disabilities.
Developing & delivering our apprenticeship programme in order to achieve our target of creating 2,500 apprenticeship opportunities over the course of four years.
Adult learning, training and skills and overseeing the provision of adult education courses, such as ESOL and maths
Post-16 education, training and skills for employment in schools, colleges and other settings.
The council’s commitments to make Lambeth a London Living Wage Place by encouraging all Lambeth businesses to pay the Living Wage.
Overseeing the implementation of the Employment and Skills Strategy, which includes collaborative oversight through the borough’s Employment and Skills Board.

Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness, Councillor Maria Kay

Councillor Maria Kay is responsible for the delivery of housing management and homelessness services. She leads on delivering the council’s Housing Strategy, including working with tenants and leaseholders, tackling homelessness, and delivering better and decent homes for all tenants. She will ensure that the Council delivers the best quality service to our tenants through a programme of investment and replacing repair contractors where they fall short.

Our vulnerable residents deserve to feel safe and comfortable in their homes. Councillor Maria Kay will have a renewed focus on the support we offer to our vulnerable residents and will oversee the introduction of a community support service for our elderly residents to support their needs.

She is responsible for delivering the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, which aims to prevent homelessness, improve the supply and sustainability of Temporary Accommodation and ensure that all people sleeping rough in Lambeth are supported off the streets and assisted in improving their lives. She is also responsible for delivering the council’s commitments to improving the quality and security of the private rented sector.

Responsible for:

Housing management services
Fire safety in Lambeth’s social housing stock
Managing the Decent Homes capital investment programme.
Overseeing the management of the Housing Revenue Account.
Tackling homelessness and rough sleeping by delivering our ambitious Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy and overseeing investment in better advice and support for people facing homelessness.
Improving the advice and support available to people living in the private rented sector.
Registered Social Landlords, House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) licensing, and the expansion of the Council’s landlord licensing and targeted selective licensing scheme as part of our package of measures to support and protect private renters.
Ensuring a high standard of tenant and leaseholder engagement, including rent setting and improving the performance of the major works programme.
Lobby Government to better protect leaseholders from the cost of fire safety works and replacement of dangerous cladding to their properties.
Overseeing the delivery of resident boards and estate action plans to give tenants opportunities to scrutinise performance of contractors and the housing service.
The council’s older people’s housing schemes sheltered housing and extra care housing across the borough.
Overseeing the delivery of estate improvements, making them greener, sustainable, safer and healthier for residents.

Cabinet Member for Finance and Cost of Living, Councillor David Amos

Councillor David Amos is responsible for oversight of the council’s strategic financial management and monitoring performance. This includes setting a balanced budget and monitoring the delivery of the capital investment programme.

The council faces significant financial pressure over the next few years as a result of continued central government funding cuts, the costs of Covid-19, and supporting our residents through the cost-of-living crisis. Councillor David Amos is responsible for ensuring the council’s financial strategy can meet reforms to local government finance, including business rates reform.

He will also lead the council’s ambitious commitments to support Lambeth residents through the cost-of-living crisis, lobbying the government for more support and co-ordinating efforts to increase support and advice for those struggling to make ends meet.

He leads on the capital investment strategy, ensuring investment supports the delivery of the key outcomes identified in the Borough Plan, and on generating new income through investment, opportunity asset sites and adopting a corporate commercial framework or trading approach where appropriate.

Councillor David Amos leads on the council’s commitments as a London Living Wage Employer and driving social value and opportunities for residents from the council’s investments in services.

Responsible for:

The council's financial strategy, including budget setting, budget monitoring, financial policy and performance.
Revenue collection, business rates, council tax and benefits and Council Tax Support (CTS) underpinned by the council’s Income and Debt Strategy.
Generating new income through investment, opportunity asset sites and adopting a corporate commercial framework or trading approach where appropriate.
Capital investment programme, property management and asset strategies.
The council’s commitments as a London Living Wage employer.
Supporting residents impacted by the cost-of-living crisis, including co-ordinating support across the council to increase resident’s financial resilience.
Ensuring the council’s commissioning and procurement strategies deliver value for money and high-quality services, including considering in-house delivery as a first option, and providing social value through all its activity and contracts, including the Social Value Fund.
Performance management across the council. 
Workforce matters including Human Resources and Trade Union relations.
Total Residents Services Transformation including customer services, improving residents experience by providing a responsive telephone and digital service and reducing waiting times.
Improving the council’s services and increasing digital inclusion through the council’s Digital Strategy.
Democratic Services, including electoral registration and legal services.

Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Councillor Ben Kind

Councillor Ben Kind is responsible for delivering our commitment to giving young people the best start in life. That includes the statutory role of lead member for children’s services, powers and duties in relation to looked after children, and our commitment to improving the care of the borough’s most vulnerable and at-risk children and young people.

Responsible for:

Statutory lead member for children’s services role, including responsibility for corporate parenting, child protection, children with disabilities and protecting children from sexual exploitation.
Commissioning Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) with Lambeth Clinical Commissioning Group.
Special Education Needs (SEN) services.
Tackling child poverty and increasing social mobility and opportunities for young people in Lambeth.
Overseeing the Raising the Game and Somos programmes to narrow the attainment gap and reduce the exclusion rate in some of our most disadvantaged communities, expanding the programme to more schools and other groups such as our Spanish-speaking and Latinx communities.
Commissioning of early years’ services, including children’s centres, one-o-clock clubs, and work to deliver Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) programme
Education and schools, including educational achievement and attainment, special educational needs, sufficiency of places and promoting inclusion.
Campaigning for fairer funding for Lambeth schools.
Leading on the council’s work towards becoming a UNICEF Child Friendly Borough.

Cabinet Member for Healthier Communities (Job share), Councillor Jim Dickson & Councillor Marcia Cameron

Councillors Dickson and Cameron are responsible for working to ensure safe, efficient and effective public health and adult social services that are as joined-up as possible with the local NHS. Their strategic focus is to reduce health inequalities so that more residents enjoy longer, healthier and independent lives.

They are responsible for deepening integration between adult social care and health services to deliver more efficient and joined-up services and leading on how the council and its partners work together to improve outcomes and reduce health inequalities.

They will lead on the administration’s manifesto commitment to make Lambeth an Age Friendly Borough. They are responsible for promoting public health in all polices, preventative healthcare, healthy lifestyles, preventing disease and improving general health.

Responsible for:

Statutory responsibility for adult social care of older people, people with disabilities and those with mental health issues.
Safeguarding and monitoring performance of all aspects of social care services for adults across the council and its partners.
Leading on the work to reduce health inequalities, as identified by the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.
Public Health services and promoting public health in all policies.
Leading on the Pan-London HIV prevention programme and the Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham sexual health strategy.
Delivering the carers’ strategy to improve the quality of life, health and wellbeing of carers.
Integrating health and adult social care with NHS bodies.
Overseeing nationally directed changes to adult social care.
Working collaboratively with partners on the provision of mental health services.
Supporting implementation of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, supporting how the council and its partners work together to improve outcomes and reduce health inequalities, with particular attention to mental health.
Implementation of the council’s Strategy to address Food Poverty and continuing action to develop further our successful Food Partnership.
Ensuring the council is effectively planning and delivering long term care for people with disabilities, including those children who require support throughout their lives.
Oversight of substance misuse services and implementation of the suicide prevention strategy.
Leading efforts to support organisations and community groups to tackle loneliness and social isolation across the borough and introduce a good neighbour befriending scheme to support older people and disabled people.
Ensuring the adoption and implementation of the Ethical Care Charter.
Leading Lambeth’s commitment to welcome refugees and those fleeing persecution, including asylum support, nationally directed refugee schemes and the administration’s commitment to becoming a Borough of Sanctuary.

Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, Councillor Mahamed Hashi

Keeping Lambeth resident’s safe is our top priority: Councillor Hashi will lead on our work with our communities, the police, our partners and the Mayor of London to combat crime in Lambeth. That includes violence which impacts our children and young people, community safety, crime reduction programmes, tackling violence against women and girls and tackling antisocial behaviour and hate crime.

Responsible for: 

Delivering the Lambeth Made Safer strategy using a public health approach to tackling the root causes of violent crime.
Supporting local communities to know how to report racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist and antireligious hate crime and harassment.
The Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (VAWG)
Overseeing the Youth Justice Service, gang intervention work and the Safer Lambeth Partnership.
Overseeing the council's enforcement functions including Licensing, anti-social behaviour, trading standards, public protection and noise nuisance.
Ensuring police are held to account by challenging unfair and discriminatory stop and searches and ensuring that appropriate training takes place to tackle discrimination in the police.
Build our community engagement, including area-based forums where local voices can be heard on crime, community safety and opportunities for young people.
Leading on consultation and the development of the council’s Youth Strategy. This includes overseeing commissioning and delivery of youth and play services including adventure playgrounds, working with voluntary and community sector providers to deliver excellent services and ensure that young people are at the heart of decision making on their services.

Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities, Leisure and Sports, Councillor Donatus Anyanwu

Councillor Anyanwu works with community groups to support the thriving arts and cultural communities. He is responsible for Lambeth’s library and leisure services.

Responsible for:

Lambeth’s voluntary sector strategy, support for the voluntary sector and community sector property strategy.
Support for community groups, including the Lambeth Forum Network and faith groups.
Ensuring the voluntary sector has the opportunity to thrive, increasing funds and resources into the borough, as well as overseeing the support service available for local groups.
Expanding the council’s volunteering offer and ensuring the appropriate support is available for Team Lambeth, the Council’s volunteering brokerage system.
Overseeing Sports and Leisure and the Active Lambeth Strategy, ensuring residents are healthier and have ample access to leisure and sports opportunities.
Overseeing the leisure provision insourcing to improve services for residents.
Protecting and investing in our libraries.
Overseeing the development of a new modern archives service for the borough.
Working with organisations in the borough’s thriving arts and cultural communities.
The council’s events strategy and reviewing the delivery of major events in the borough.

These are the principal responsibilities of the Cabinet Members. The Leader of the Council may delegate others to them.

Deputy Cabinet Members are responsible for working closely with the appropriate Cabinet Member, undertaking specific projects to drive process in these areas and deputising where agreed.

The role of Policy Leads is to support the delivery of the council’s key priorities. They support policy development and implementation and underpin joint working at Cabinet level by engaging with external stakeholders and backbench councillors on key policy areas.

Councillor Irfan Mohammed

Deputy Cabinet Member for Businesses; reporting to Councillor Jacqui Dyer.

Responsible for:

Working with Business Investment Districts to support local businesses, ensure the council’s services are responsive to business and build the economic recovery in our town centres.
Supporting Lambeth businesses to become Living Wage Accredited employers.
Delivery of Small Business Week and the Shop Safe, Shop Local campaign.

Councillor Marianna Masters

Deputy Cabinet Member for Children and Young People; reporting to Councillor Ben Kind.

Responsible for:

Working with Lambeth Schools Partnership to drive up standards in our local schools.
Campaigning for fairer funding and against government plans to reduce local accountability and oversight of education.
Working with the Cabinet Member to ensure sufficiency of school places in the borough.

Councillor Nanda Manley-Browne

Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Cost of Living; reporting to Councillor David Amos.

Responsible for:

Delivering the review of the council’s financial resilience work to support our efforts to protect residents impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.
Supporting the development of the council’s medium-term financial strategy.
Digital inclusion.

Councillor Maria Kay

Deputy Cabinet Member for Housing and Neighbourhoods; reporting to Councillor Claire Holland

Responsible for:

Ensuring estate action plans are in place and delivered across the borough to drive up the quality of housing for Lambeth tenants and leaseholders.
Ensuring stock condition surveys can drive improvements to resident's homes.
Working with tenants and residents' associations and local councillors to ensure the voice of tenants and residents is at the heart of our work to improve housing in Lambeth.
Increasing the visibility and responsiveness of our neighbourhood housing team to effectively meet the needs of residents across our estates

Councillor Tina Valcarcel

Policy Lead for Disabilities; reporting to Councillor Jim Dickson and Councillor Marcia Cameron

Responsible for:

Engagement with and advocacy for the sector.
Delivery and publicity on the disability strands of Lambeth Together and carers strategy.
Ensuring relevant aspects of the Equalities strategy are delivered.

Councillor Malcolm Clark

Policy Lead for Transport and Neighbourhoods; reporting to Councillor Rezina Chowdhury.

Responsible for:

Campaigning for public transport improvements, particularly in the south of the borough.
Ensuring highways and roadworks projects are delivered efficiently and with good communication with local residents.

Champions:

Councillor Adrian Garden, Transformation & Efficiency Champion

Councillor Martin Abrams, Public Transport Champion

Councillor Saleha Jaffer, Faith Communities Champion

Councillor Jackie Meldrum, Customer Service Champion

Councillor Issa Issa, Schools Champion

Councillor Jess Leigh, Armed Forces Champion

Councillor Henna Shah, Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Champion

Group Officers

Labour Group

Group Leader: Councillor Claire Holland

Deputy Leader: Councillor Jacqui Dyer

Deputy Leader (Statutory): Councillor Danny Adilypour

Chief Whip: Councillor Scarlett O’Hara Deputy

Chief Whip: Councillor Tom Rutland

Liberal Democrats Group

Group Leader: Councillor Donna Harris

Deputy Leader: Councillor Matthew Bryant

Whip: Councillor Ben Curtis

Green Group

Group Leaders:

Councillor Scott Ainslie

Councillor Nicole Griffiths