Labour attacks Green record as Garbett marks 100 days

Hackney’s Labour opposition has marked the first 100 days of Mayor Zoë Garbett’s Green administration with a scathing attack, accusing it of ignoring local issues while quietly overturning its own manifesto pledges.

The party said the Greens had no plan to carry out basic repairs, had failed to speak out over potential bus cuts or broken lifts, had reneged on a promise not to increase nursery fees, and had evicted a family from an illegally sub-let home after campaigning against the eviction.

It also claimed that the council’s decision to pursue de-twinning from Haifa in Israel, and Garbett’s apology over a “serious mistake” regarding the consultation deadline, had “tarnished the council’s reputation for fairness and long-held commitment to equality”.

A spokesperson for the mayor dismissed the complaints as an “inaccurate shopping list”. Two of the U-turns Labour alleges stem from decisions taken while Labour was still running the council.

The broadside follows an interview between Garbett and the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on 19 August, in which the mayor said her administration had already set a “new tone” and was determined to do things differently.

She suggested using compulsory purchase orders on Hackney property owned by offshore landlords as part of her flagship Who Owns Hackney scheme, ruled out pursuing a no-cuts budget, and restated her rejection of statutory guidance on single-sex spaces, having since clarified that she would welcome trans women using women’s toilets in the borough.

Repairs and drones

“Drones to tackle housing repairs are no substitute for the assessment of a fully qualified surveyor, and drones cannot tackle damp and disrepair inside homes which is one of the main problems in Hackney,” the Labour spokesperson told the LDRS, after Garbett flagged the council’s use of drones in place of scaffolding for routine inspections of council blocks.

Rooftop drone surveys take as little as 20 minutes and cost a few hundred pounds, against thousands for scaffolding erected over a prolonged period, according to Cllr Dylan Law, the deputy mayor and cabinet member for safer homes and housing services. Footage is used to determine what work is needed, with scaffolding installed only where repairs are required. Law, speaking to the LDRS, said scaffolding “will still be needed for carrying out any necessary repair work”.

Research published last June by academics at Cambridge, Reading and Bath, the first detailed study of council drone use in England, found the same pattern across 11 English authorities: drones cut scaffolding costs by identifying which parts of a roof need closer attention, a triage function rather than a replacement for inspection. None of the use cases recorded involved surveying conditions inside homes, the problem Labour identifies. The study was supported by ARPAS-UK, the drone industry trade association.

Nursery fees

The nursery fee rise Labour attributes to the Greens was agreed by the Labour-controlled council at its budget meeting on 4 March, more than two months before the elections on 7 May. The council wrote to families on 12 June confirming changes from 2 September, among them a 3.8 per cent rise for households earning up to £70,000 a year.

The Green manifesto had not promised to freeze fees. It pledged to review recent rises and work with families and providers on alternative fee structures. Garbett has said the increase was set by the previous administration with no opportunity given to change course, and that officers would expedite the review. Asked about fees in her LDRS interview, she said her administration would “do as much as we can to freeze or bring [fees] down”, while qualifying that she could not make a “crystal clear commitment”.

Campaigners were unpersuaded. Ella Whelan of Protect Hackney Nurseries, founded in April 2025 to oppose increases brought in by Labour, said Green councillors had joined protests outside the town hall and that the party was now “no different to Labour”.

Oppong case

No eviction has taken place in the case Labour refers to. The council denies that it has sought a warrant to reclaim the home, disputing LDRS reporting that one was granted on or around 6 July.

Charity Oppong has lived in the flat for close to 20 years, moving in when her sister-in-law, Janet Antwi, held the tenancy. The council classified the home as abandoned after its fraud investigation team contacted Ms Antwi in America in September 2021 and she confirmed she was not returning. It maintains she has never been its tenant, describing her as an unauthorised occupant paying use and occupation charges rather than rent, a characterisation her supporters dispute. Her seven-year-old son is autistic and attends school in the borough.

A warrant granted in 2025 was suspended by a judge in March, after two “eviction resistance” actions in which activists from the London Renters Union, joined by Green councillors, blocked bailiffs. An application by Ms Oppong to remain was dismissed at a hearing on 6 July. Before the elections, Cllr Law said a Green administration would “definitely amend the succession rules” to let the family stay; the mayor’s office now says it is working with the family to find a solution, without saying whether that pledge stands.

Bus routes

The bus cuts are planned by Transport for London (TfL), whose board is chaired by the Labour mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. TfL is consulting until 20 September on withdrawing route 67 between Wood Green and Dalston Junction, scrapping the 254 between Aldgate and Holloway, and diverting the 149 away from Stamford Hill towards Wood Green.

Hackney’s Labour group leader, Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, has written to TfL questioning its rationale, following Labour council leaders in Haringey and Enfield who wrote to City Hall. There is precedent for such lobbying working: in 2022, after objections led by the London Assembly transport committee, then chaired by the Green assembly member Siân Berry, Khan released unspent funding and only three of 22 proposed route withdrawals went ahead.

Labour’s record

Labour lost control of Hackney in May, when its 43-seat majority collapsed to nine amid a surge in support for the Greens. Its final term ended with a regulatory downgrade over the condition of its housing stock and a damning Ombudsman report on disrepair complaints, in which the watchdog judged Hackney an “outlier” compared with other local authorities. The broken lifts the party now raises plagued the council on its own watch.

Enforcement

“We promised to fix what’s broken and get the basics right, and are happy to hear that Labour now supports this too. As a result of our pledge, we have seen a massive uptake of people coming to the council with their needs, because they trust that this new administration is there for them,” the mayor’s spokesperson told the LDRS.

“And despite only being a few months in, we are delivering results, with a 37.5 per cent increase in enforcement action against rogue landlords, and a 38 per cent increase in enforcement staff to make sure renters are supported; a reduction of the use of scaffolding in our neighbourhoods whilst speeding up repairs; a review of nursery fees to make them fairer, and borough-wide work to take spaces back for our communities.

“Whilst much of this shopping list of issues is outright inaccurate, we nonetheless welcome scrutiny from our Labour colleagues and are always happy to work together constructively on ideas they want to suggest. Hackney asked us to deliver bigger, bolder change. As we begin that work, and with much more to come, they are welcome to be part of that change too.”