Labour critics accuse Hackney’s Green mayor of ‘vibe’ politics and blast Garbett’s ‘waffle’ on targets
Hackney’s new Green mayor Zoë Garbett has been accused of “vibe” politics by Labour critics, after pledging to de-prioritise key performance indicators (KPIs) in favour of measuring “what people feel and experience”.
The criticism — including from a sitting Hackney Labour councillor — has been sharpened by the awkward fact that, just two days before Garbett made her remarks, her own administration signed off a £2.2m contract to tackle a backlog of electrical safety inspections that will rely heavily on the very KPIs she dismissed.
Hackney Labour councillor Ben Lucas (Hoxton West) led the criticism, writing on X: “Focusing on real-life impact is right, but you can’t govern based on vibes alone. That’s why targets exist. They might not be sexy — but they have a clear purpose. Worrying that Green Mayor @ZoeGarbett is downplaying this already!”
Former Labour cabinet member Jon Burke went further, accusing the new administration of “waffle”.
“Hackney was transformed for the better by people willing to be judged on what they did, not what they said,” he wrote. “The Greens will no more improve the borough with waffle than the Tories solved child poverty by not counting hungry kids. If you don’t measure it, you can’t solve it.”
Former London Assembly Member Darren Johnson, who left the Greens for Labour in March, added: “The vibe-ometer is high with Hackney Greens. No wonder they don’t want to properly measure anything.
“Sadly, I believe a not insignificant slice of their voter base will be perfectly happy with vibes, rather than them actually delivering anything.”
A KPI (key performance indicator) is a measurable value used to track how well something is performing against a defined goal or target. KPIs translate a broad ambition into something trackable.
The row was sparked by Garbett’s maiden speech as executive leader on 28 May, at the first full meeting of the council since the Greens’ historic landslide election victory. The new mayor pledged to do things “differently” and “get the basics right”.
“We don’t want an administration clinically delivered based on KPIs. The metric of success is what people feel and experience in their day-to-day lives,” Garbett told the chamber. “To make that possible, we need to be right there beside you as partners, mutually learning and learning together.”
But just two days earlier, the council had approved a £2.2m contract to tackle a backlog of electrical inspections, with KPIs to be monitored throughout the contract covering customer satisfaction, safety inspections and social value delivery.
The contract was prompted by serious failings identified by the Regulator of Social Housing in 2024, after 15,000 council properties were found not to be certified as having safe electrics — and 7,000 property systems had never been inspected at all.
Currently, the council’s direct labour organisation carries out 1,300 electrical tests a year. Under the new plan, that figure is set to rise to 7,000 in a bid to make homes safer across the borough.
Responding to the criticism in a statement to the Citizen, Garbett rejected the suggestion that her approach amounted to governing on vibes.
“Across the public sector, I’ve seen first-hand that there is too often a focus on numbers on spreadsheets rather than lives and experiences. For this administration, it’s Hackney residents who are going to set our benchmarks of success,” she said.
“We were elected with a huge mandate, on a manifesto containing a vast number of ways we will materially improve Hackney residents’ lives. Already we have a cabinet in place, making decisions that are making a difference.
“We don’t want to tweak the details and tick boxes: we want to change Hackney in a way that people across the borough can feel and see.”
The Greens took control of Hackney Council last month after winning 42 seats of the 57 total, ending Labour’s long-held grip on the borough.
The new administration faces its first electoral test on 25 June, when voters in Hackney Central and Dalston go to the polls in two by-elections — contests in which the Greens will be paying close attention to the numbers.
I think the previous administration was judged on what they did whether they were willing or not. Jon Burke should give the newbies more time before jumping on the sore loser bandwagon.
And former cabinet member Jon Burke (for nods towards greenish things) moved out of Hackney how many years ago is it now?
So what this story appears to actually be saying is that, despite a dedication to tick-box KPIs, Hackney Labour’s previous administration nevertheless managed to miss vital safety targets so badly that it left a legacy of over £2m worth of outstanding backlogs for the incoming Greens to deal with … together with a reprimand from the Regulator! And how did Labour’s “unsexy” monitoring of KPIs fare during that years-long cyberattack I wonder? I guess Labour found out what the ‘public vibe’ of their own overall performance was in May! Those in glass houses perhaps?
Hi Steve,
If you think a publicly-owned energy company, switching the council to 100% renewable electricity on £6.5m of annual supply, the largest home-owner decarbonisation grant programme in Britain, eliminating 6,000 tonnes of black bag waste from incineration annually, preventing the North London Waste Authority from exporting waste materials outside Europe as the Chair of the Members’ Recycling Committee, delivering the first estate-based reverse vending machine in the country, delivering the first local authority-hosted Library of Things, delivering the first zero single-use plastic running event in the U.K., delivering the Hackney Council plastics reduction strategy, delivering the largest urban tree planting programme in the U.K, cutting glyphosate use by 90%+, delivering the U.K’s first zero chemical spraying zone, delivering the Hackney Emergency Transport Plan, delivering the U.K’s largest number of LTNs, delivering the U.K’s largest number of School Streets, delivering 24-hour bus lanes, aligning the Hackney Air Quality Strategy with the WHO’s most challenging targets, and delivering kilometres of segregated cycle lanes was a ‘nod towards greenish things’, I fear you might be in for a surprise.
For the record, I wish the new administration every success in their custodianship of the wonderful borough of Hackney. I’m sceptical, however, that this will be achieved with empty platitudes.
If you don’t measure it, you can’t solve it.
I am very much optimistic that the new administration of the Hackney Greens will do day to day running of the Council far more better than the previous one. I wish all the best to the new LBH Cabinet and to the Green Councillors in our Borough.
I am also sure that the Hackney Greens will win two more Councillor vacancies on the 25 June 2026 by elections in our Borough. Thank you.
Dear Jon,
You fear I “might be in for a surprise”. “DON’T RISK IT”…”DON’T WAKE UP TO CHAOS IN HACKNEY TOMORROW” was what your lot put out in all caps in their leaflet. All in all you do seem to express a lot of angst. Project Fear perhaps didn’t give out the best of vibes after all?
Also you ducked the question of when you made your career move and left Hackney? Maybe it’s the Citizen at fault for seeking comment from former cabinet members long past their sell-by date?
The Greens will, in time, prove themselves to be what they are – charlatans with no real clue about how to successfully run a council. Speaking of ‘vibes’, this sorry lot don’t pass the vibe check!!
The Labour regime of Phil Glanville and Jon Burke forced through the giant towers of luxury flats in Shoreditch against local residents opposition.
We were called selfish and other awful things.
We, a local group trying to defend the Britannia Leisure centre from demolition had support from experts in planning and development. We warned that this development of the city academy, new Britannia and luxury flats, all underwritten by Council Tax payers was a financial disaster waiting to happen. Well now it’s happened…Ardmore has gone into administration and left the Council with enormous debts and a part constructed site. Whose services will be decimated by this? It will be Hackney residents services.
The Labour Mayor and Labour Cllr’s and senior officers are all largely gone leaving disaster in their wake. The hubris and trumpian determination to gentrify Shoreditch will cause real pain to already poor people. No wonder in a Council where they used to weigh labour votes people chose the Greens
Use this version. It is sharper, clearer, and keeps the Ombudsman quote doing the heavy lifting.
This is exactly why Labour has lost trust locally.
Despite overseeing what many residents would describe as an absolute disaster in housing services, Hackney Council still appears to rely on targets and internal performance measures that do not reflect residents’ actual experience.
Anyone who has read the Housing Ombudsman’s Special Report on Hackney Council will recognise the problem immediately. The Ombudsman found that:
“the landlord continued to measure itself against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that lacked meaning and impact for residents because the outputs did not necessarily produce the outcomes required to address the themes seen in complaints.”
The report also said:
“In general, we found the internal challenge was at times ineffective and limited at addressing the issues we are seeing in complaints, including decisions about the housing management system, stock condition, response to damp and mould and outdated policy and procedures.”
That is the issue. Hackney Labour keeps pointing to internal targets, but those targets are not delivering meaningful outcomes for residents.
Residents do not need more self-congratulation, more process language, or more meaningless KPIs. They need repairs completed, complaints answered properly, unsafe areas fixed, damp and mould addressed, and housing services that actually work.
This is exactly why Labour has lost trust locally.
Despite overseeing what many residents would describe as an absolute disaster in housing services, Hackney Council still appears to rely on targets and internal performance measures that do not reflect residents’ actual experience.
Anyone who has read the Housing Ombudsman’s Special Report on Hackney Council will recognise the problem immediately. The Ombudsman found that:
“the landlord continued to measure itself against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that lacked meaning and impact for residents because the outputs did not necessarily produce the outcomes required to address the themes seen in complaints.”
The report also said:
“In general, we found the internal challenge was at times ineffective and limited at addressing the issues we are seeing in complaints, including decisions about the housing management system, stock condition, response to damp and mould and outdated policy and procedures.”
That is the issue. Hackney Labour keeps pointing to internal targets, but those targets are not delivering meaningful outcomes for residents.
Residents do not need more self-congratulation, more process language, or more meaningless KPIs. They need repairs completed, complaints answered properly, unsafe areas fixed, damp and mould addressed, and housing services that actually work.