Islington Labour’s 2026 Manifesto

Islington Labour has always stood for fairness, compassion, and action, that improves people’s everyday lives.

We believe in a borough where everyone has the same chance to live well — where no one is left behind, and where residents are given the opportunity to thrive.

Islington is London’s beating heart. We are proud of our borough and proud of what we have achieved here together. Despite some challenging times, we have been standing up for local people: tackling inequality, building new council homes, protecting vital services, bringing communities together, and improving our local environment.

But we know that life is still too hard for too many. Families are feeling the cost-of-living crisis; many struggle to find decent and secure homes, and our public services show the scars after 14 years of Tory mismanagement and neglect.

That’s why our plan for the next four years focuses on what matters most to local people: decent homes, clean and safe streets, secure incomes, strong communities, and creating a healthier, more liveable borough for everyone.

We will achieve this the Islington way: through compassion, care and working together. Islington’s strength lies in our communities: the residents, 4 volunteers, local organisations, and frontline workers who make this borough what it is. When we work together, we achieve more

We won’t allow our communities to be divided by those who seek to stoke fear . and cause division, or resort to empty gesture politics. Islington Labour believes in bringing people together and finding common ground, not pitting one group against another. We are all equal, and we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

This manifesto sets out Islington Labour’s five core missions over the next four years for our council and our borough. They are:

1. To ensure all Islington residents have a decent, secure and genuinely affordable home
2. To create a safer, cleaner and healthier borough
3. To tackle the cost of living and support local businesses
4. To make Islington a great place to grow up and to grow old
5. To continue delivering for residents and empowering our diverse communities

Only we have the experience to deliver on local people’s priorities and make Islington a fairer place for all. We are asking you to put your trust in us once more, by voting for Islington Labour on Thursday 7th May 2026.

Through difficult times – austerity, the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis – Islington Labour has been standing up and delivering for our residents.

Over the Past 16 years here is some of what we have achieved:

We have taken action to tackle the housing crisis:

We’ve delivered the largest council house building programme Islington has seen in a generation. We’ve bought back hundreds of council homes lost through right-to-buy to accommodate those in most need. We’ve taken on rogue landlords, and tackled homelessness through early intervention and prevention. We’ve secured hundreds more genuinely affordable homes by holding developers to account like at Holloway Prison and the Barnsbury Estate.

We’ve made our borough safer, healthier, and more liveable:

We have introduced a 24/7 anti social behaviour team, proactively patrolling the borough to keep our communities safe. Our councillors helped to secure a dedicated Finsbury Park town centre policing unit to address the need for visible and proactive policing in the area. We’ve planted thousands more trees across Islington and invested in our parks. We have been independently ranked by Climate Emergency UK as the best single tier Council in the country for our work to tackle the effects of climate change and have been making our neighbourhoods better places to live in and visit. 7 Our Record

We work to help residents to claim millions of pounds worth of benefits that they are entitled to. We’ve helped six thousand local people into jobs and training.

We have supported our local economy and helped with the cost of living:

Islington Council was the UK’s first local authority to become an accredited Living Wage employer in 2012 and the first London borough to be a designated Living Wage Place in 2021. We’ve provided a strong safety net for our least well off residents, with one of the most generous council tax support schemes anywhere in the country reducing bills for 20% of our residents.

We have invested in Islington’s children and young people:

All Islington schools are now rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’, and Islington’s Children’s and Youth Justice Services are ‘Outstanding’ too. When the previous Conservative Government axed the national Sure Start programme, we protected Bright Start, our comprehensive early years’ service delivered through Children’s Centres, Family Hubs and school nurseries. We were the first council anywhere in the country to provide universal free school meals for all primary school children, and we’ve made sure all students going into Year 7 have a laptop or tablet.

We have supported our diverse communities and stood up for residents:

Taking back in-house services like Partners housing and refuse services that were disastrously outsourced by previous administrations. Campaigning to save the Whittington Maternity Unit, the Number 4 bus route and keep private interests out of the NHS. Showing solidarity with Palestine by twinning with the West Bank town of Aizariyeh and divesting from companies contributing to breaches of international law. Setting up the pioneering Young Black Men and Mental Health Programme, becoming recognised as a Borough of Sanctuary, and always making clear that Islington is no place for hate.

Islington Labour has always provided strong and responsible financial management of our council. Because of this, our 2026 Council Budget has created a £5 million ‘Making it Happen’ fund to invest in the things that matter most to local residents. Over the next four years, this fund will enable investment to build safer communities, create great places for children and young people to play, deliver events & activities that celebrate our borough and its communities, empower residents to take ownership of shared spaces and make decisions about how we improve our neighbourhoods, and tackle poverty across our borough.

Despite the challenges that all councils across the country have faced, we have been standing up for Islington and delivering local people’s priorities. If you put your trust in Islington Labour once more and elect us to lead your council for another 4 years, we have a plan to continue to deliver for our borough.

Everybody deserves a decent, secure and genuinely affordable home. But after 14 long years of Tory failure, we are still living with a housing crisis. We know that one of the prime drivers of inequality is housing injustice, so if we are to deliver a fairer Islington, then we are going to have to build it brick by brick, home by home.

Skyrocketing construction costs have made it harder than ever to build the homes which local families desperately need, home ownership remains out of reach for so many, and there are some rip-off landlords who have continued to push up rents for often substandard private accommodation.

Despite a very challenging context, Islington Labour has shown what is possible. We have used every available resource and power at our disposal to tackle the housing crisis: by building hundreds of new  council homes; launching the most ambitious scheme in the country to buy back homes lost through right to-buy; cracking down on housing fraud; assisting hundreds with downsizing; going after rogue private landlords, improving housing repairs and securing the maximum possible proportion of genuinely affordable homes in all new developments.

Since taking office in July 2024, the Labour Government has also taken decisive action: reforming the planning system to get the homes we need built, making up to £11.7 billion available to deliver the London Social and Affordable Homes Programme, and passing the landmark Renters’ Rights Act to ban no-fault evictions and introduce new protections for private renters.

A huge amount done, but much still to do to ensure that everybody in Islington has a decent, secure and genuinely affordable home.

Over the Next four years:

Islington Labour will continue to tackle the housing crisis and increase the supply of genuinely affordable homes for local people by building, buying-back, tackling housing fraud, and holding developers to account.

To Increase the Supply of genuinely affordable homes at social rent in Islington we will:

• Work with residents to shape proposals, and secure planning permission for new build housing projects on council land across the borough which maximise the proportion of genuinely affordable homes.
• Spend more than £58 million to buy back even more ex council homes which have been lost through right-to-buy, and use them to house those in the greatest need.
• Support new house building in Islington whilst maintaining our planning policy of 50% genuinely affordable homes in all new developments – one of the most ambitious across London – to hold private developers to account to deliver genuinely affordable housing
• Clamp down on illegal sub-letting and tenancy fraud, which reduce our ability to house those in real need.

To ensure that local people have homes which meet their needs we will:

• Make it easier for existing council tenants who are living in homes which are larger than they need to downsize. We will expand our dedicated downsizing team so it can provide more support to residents open to downsizing, as well as providing financial incentives and help with moving costs.
• Maintain our New Generation Scheme and local lettings policies to help the next generation of Islington residents to get their own genuinely affordable home, as well as providing secure homes for Islington’s care leavers.
• Enable families who want to grow in their existing private homes, by developing a ‘Making space for families’ Supplementary Planning Document and toolkit. This will aim to make it easier for family homeowners who want to extend their existing properties through changes like mansard roof and side return extensions.
• Clamp down on illegal sub-letting and tenancy fraud, which reduce our ability to house those in real need. their existing properties through changes like mansard roof and side return extensions.
• Ensure our planning policy robustly protects against the loss of family homes, for which there is a high level of need locally, by introducing a presumption against the loss of family homes to large Houses of Multiple Occupation, supported through planning policy or supplementary guidance, alongside strengthened inspection and enforcement. We will also work with partners to tackle anti-social behaviour often associated with this type of tenure.
• Seek to end homelessness through prevention and partnership. We will lead a whole system approach with the NHS, criminal justice, social care, youth services and the voluntary sector so people get help early, and we will campaign for a stronger national duty on all public services to prevent homelessness.
• Reduce time spent in temporary accommodation by increasing housing supply and expanding rapid rehousing and Housing First, with wraparound health and support so tenancies last.
• Continue to ensure no families in Islington are placed into unsuitable Bed & Breakfast accommodation.
• Strengthen survivor-centred housing responses to domestic abuse and exploitation.
• Investigate and enforce against homes illegally being used as short-term lets, whilst lobbying central government for more powers to tackle Airbnb-type rentals that reduce the availability of homes for local people and can be poorly managed.
• Always charge the maximum permitted council tax on second properties and empty homes.

To build on the landmark Renter’s Rights Act and protect private renters locally we will:

• Expand our selective landlord licensing scheme to cover even more of the borough and recruit more officers to undertake inspections to ensure decent standards for privately rented homes.
• Continue to take tough action against rogue letting agents.
• Ensure that private renters living on Islington Council estates are consulted on estate management and improvements in the same way as any other tenants and leaseholders would be.
• Support private renters to understand their new rights and provide information to ensure they are fully informed in negotiations with their landlords.
• Campaign for central government and the Mayor of London to introduce rent controls in the private rented sector.

To ensure the council is a responsive and responsible landlord we will:

• Roll out our ‘Report a repair on WhatsApp’ service across the whole borough, enabling council tenants to report repairs more easily. ◊
• Make our tenancy and estate services teams more accessible, by providing a named and directly contactable officers, with each officer serving no more than 550 residents each.
• Between 2026 and 2030, we will invest £388 million in Islington’s existing council housing stock, delivering major works and improvements like fitting new kitchens and bathrooms, upgrading lifts and investing in energy efficiency.
• Achieve a 100% decent homes standard across all of our council housing stock by 2030.
• Invest in improvements to shared spaces on our estates, by investing further in our Thriving Neighbourhoods programme from 2026 to 2030.

To empower tenants and residents, and ensure a fair deal for leaseholders we will:

• Continue to support Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations across our estates so that residents have the resources, recognition and voice to influence the decisions that affect them. Where TRAs don’t exist but enough residents want to establish one, we will provide practical help to set one up.
•  Support leaseholders through the Council’s dedicated Home Ownership team, by developing a leaseholder handbook, continuing to offer a range of payment options for major works, and providing clear and transparent explanations of charges and bills.

• Achieve 100% decent homes standard across council housing by 2030
• Maintain 50% genuinely affordable homes in all new developments
• Invest £388 million in existing council housing stock over the next four years
• Expand selective landlord licensing and recruit more officers to enforces standards

We want all Islington residents to feel pride in our borough. That means ensuring people feel safe in our communities, protecting and enhancing our local environment, and taking action to support the health and wellbeing of all our residents.

A safer Islington

Despite falling rates of serious and violent crime, we know that too many people still don’t feel safe on our streets, or have their quality of life blighted by serious anti-social behaviour. That’s why we’ve introduced a 24/7 anti- social behaviour team, proactively patrolling the borough to keep our communities safe.

We have undertaken pioneering and nationally recognised work to prevent violence against women and girls, such as the council’s safe and effective housing interventions in domestic abuse. We have also worked closely with the police and other partners to tackle crime and improve community safety in hotspots like Finsbury Park, Angel, Old Street and Archway. We recognise that we cannot improve community safety and tackle anti-social behaviour alone. We need the police to address criminal activity, and we will always hold the Metropolitan Police accountable for doing so. But we will ensure that council services work in close and effective partnership with the police, homelessness outreach teams, mental health services, drug and alcohol support and other specialists to tackle these issues and their complex causes.

We have been backed in our efforts to create a safer Islington by action at a national and London-wide level. The Labour government has made it a central mission to increase public confidence in policing and in the criminal justice system, including by halving knife crime and violence against women and girls within a decade.

Across London, record investment from City Hall has helped reduce neighbourhood crime by 14.6 per cent in 2025/6, with 16,000 fewer offences – driven by a reduction in personal robbery, theft against the person and vehicle crime.

Over the next four years, we will focus relentlessly on our goal of making Islington safer.

A cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable Islington:

In 2019, Islington’s Labour-run council declared a Climate Emergency. We are committed to taking decisive action on climate change: because it’s what is needed to protect our environment, but also because of the opportunity it presents to create a fairer, healthier and more liveable borough.

Islington has already been named the best single-tier council in the country for climate action, and we will not stop there in continuing to work towards our long-term goal of achieving net zero in our borough. We have planted thousands of trees, created new liveable neighbourhoods, implemented School Streets to keep our children safe and clean up our air, and created hundreds of bike hangar spaces and e-bike parking bays. This action is complemented by Sadiq Khan’s bold action across London to clean up our city’s toxic air.

We know the health of our residents is of paramount importance. This is why Islington Labour is proud to have invested in our leisure facilities, delivering a multi-million pound refurbishment of the Sobell Centre in Finsbury Park, alongside upgrading facilities at Barnard Park, and resurfacing games areas and sports pitches across the borough. We have offered opportunities for our older residents to stay active through free over-60s tennis and swimming.

We have also partnered with the NHS to deliver a pioneering Young Black Men and Mental Health programme. We’ve defended our local NHS services by campaigning to save the Whittington Hospital’s Maternity Unit, and to stop local GP surgeries from being taken over by multinational companies.

Over the next four years, our plan includes more trailblazing work to make Islington a cleaner and healthier borough.

Over the next four years:

To help design-out crime, prevent anti-social behaviour, and intervene earlier we will:

• Strengthen early intervention and prevention through joined up working between youth services, public health, schools, housing, drug and alcohol services and the police so that problems are addressed before they occur or escalate.
• Continue to invest in drug and alcohol services and outreach, recognising substance misuse as both a public health and community safety issue.
• Adopt a ‘three strikes’ before escalation approach to anti-social behaviour on our estates, committing to formal investigation and tenancy action against residents on our estates who persistently harm their neighbours’ quality of life through anti-social behaviour.
• Launch a £1.9million ‘Safer Communities’ fund to improve community safety and tackle anti-social behaviour across the borough. Through this fund we will invest in resident- led improvements to lighting, sightlines, shared space design, play areas, and safer routes to stations and schools to enhance residents’ sense of safety in our neighbourhoods.
• Make effective use of CCTV to improve community safety. The council will invest in more temporary CCTV vehicles and deploy them rapidly to emerging hotspots, ensuring swift deterrence and evidence capture, as well as linking CCTV monitoring with Neighbourhood Patrol deployment, so patrols respond in real time to incidents flagged by cameras.
• Expand our anti-social behaviour team so that we are able to use all available powers to tackle persistent perpetrators whose behaviour damages community life.
• Support vulnerable residents by building on Islington’s existing Cuckooing Panel, working with housing associations, police, health, and drug and alcohol services to protect those whose homes are exploited for criminal activity.
• Develop and implement a borough-wide anti-social behaviour action plan, combining support, prevention, enforcement, and environmental improvements to improve residents’ quality of life. This plan will include measurable outcomes, and we will regularly update residents on our progress.
• Extend our 24/7 Neighbourhood Patrols which are proactively patrolling the borough to keep our communities safe, so that they cover council estates as well as our streets and other public spaces.
• Introduce new, targeted, Public Space Protection Orders to tackle issues in known hotspots such as Finsbury Park, Old Street and Archway, and on wider sexual harassment and harmful street behaviour.
•  Implement targeted community safety patrols and estate walks: focussing on keeping young people safe, robbery prevention, hate crime, women and girls’ safety and other community safety issues reported by residents.
• Campaign for TfL to improve lighting and design around Finsbury Park station so that those using it feel safe – the next step in our work in Finsbury Park that includes the establishment of the Finsbury Park Town Centre Police.
• Provide regular “You Said, We Did” updates so residents across Islington can see clear progress on community safety priorities.
• Launch a new Night Angels scheme – coordinating trained volunteers to provide practical support at night in our town centres, especially for women and vulnerable residents.
• Continue to grow and promote the Council’s ‘Safe Havens’ scheme– where public premises such as shops, cafes, pubs, libraries and other places of interest provide help and reassurance.

To help achieve the Labour government’s landmark goal of halving violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade:

• Continue our trailblazing work to tackle VAWG, building on what we have achieved thus far with the backing of national Government to develop a new Islington Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy that raises awareness of this serious issue whilst prioritising prevention, protection, and long- term support to continue our already trailblazing work to tackle VAWG.
• Protect advice, support and refuge services for women in Islington, and continue to deliver initiatives like the existing daily safeguarding meeting to tackle domestic violence amongst all of our communities.
• Continue to work with men and boys, including through schools, to prevent domestic violence and abuse. Highlight acts committed by perpetrators and continue to hold them to account.

To tackle gambling-related harms we will:

• Oppose new gambling venues on our high streets where there is evidence of an overconcentration of betting shops and gaming centres, or there is evidence that new premises will pose a risk of increased gambling harm.
• Strengthen the Council’s collaboration with gambling support charities and the wider voluntary sector, enabling residents who have been impacted by gambling harm to access debt management and financial advice services that are led by expertise and experience.
• Campaign for central government to scrap the “Aim to Permit” new gambling licence applications and introduce stronger controls of gambling advertisement.

To Protect and enhance our local environment we will:

• Continue to work towards our ambitious long-term goal of making Islington net zero in terms of carbon emissions.
• Further reduce the carbon footprint of investments in the Council’s £2.2 billion Pension Fund so the Fund is net zero by 2035.
• Continue our work in making the Council’s vehicle fleet environmentally friendly by introducing zero and low emission vehicles and introduce 400 more electric vehicle charging points across the borough between 2026 and 2030.
• Commit to filling potholes within 72 hours of being reported, while investing an additional £12m in repairs, alongside our programme of work investing in our roads and pavements.
• Increase the number of Islington residents who benefit from our Seasonal Health Intervention Network (SHINE) energy support service – providing practical, environmentally friendly support to help reduce energy bills, access grants and energy-saving schemes, help with energy debt, and stay warm and healthy in a way that is also beneficial to the environment.
• Install more solar panels on council-owned buildings and encourage local community groups to develop and deliver energy projects.
• Make it easier for residents, landlords and local small and micro businesses to implement retrofitting measures in their buildings, through the Council’s Retrofit Handbook and free planning advice for retrofit works to reduce carbon emissions.
• Develop plans for more local energy centres like the Bunhill Heat and Power network, which recycles waste heat from the London Underground to provide cheaper heat and power to local people.
• Lobby central government for more funding to enable the retrofit and decarbonisation of Islington’s council housing stock.

To create a more liveable and sustainable borough we will:

• Work with residents to create ‘Liveable neighbourhoods’ across the borough: adding greenery and outdoor seating, widening pavements and improving accessibility, reducing traffic and tackling air pollution to make our streets healthier and more pleasant.
• Implement more planting, grow canopy cover, improve drainage and create rain gardens to increase resilience against extreme weather like heatwaves and flooding.
• Continue to invest in our parks and greenspaces, ensuring that they encourage physical activity, support wellbeing and enable connection.
• Work with the police to take more action against any dangerous and irresponsible cycling behaviour, like running red lights, riding on pavements and modified e-bikes.
• Deliver more cycle parking hangars on our streets, and more on our estates, so that wherever you live, there is a secure place to store a cycle.
• Implement more ‘School Streets’ to help to improve air quality, reduce road danger and create a safer environment near Islington’s schools.
• Where residents want to take ownership of spaces on our streets and estates for community wellbeing – for example by planting in tree pits or establishing community gardens in underutilised spaces – we will work with Friends of Parks groups and TRAs to enable and encourage this.
• Create more safe spaces for cycling across the borough and work with Transport for London to ensure Islington’s roads are safer for people who are walking and cycling.
• Work with e-bike providers to prevent the riding and parking of dockless e-bikes in inappropriate areas. Where bikes are left obstructing pavements, roads or other public spaces, we will remove them or move them to mandatory parking bays.
• Improve access across the borough for people with disabilities, by campaigning for Transport for London to make all its stations in the Borough fully accessible, and continuing to support London-wide schemes such as Dial-a-Ride, the Freedom Pass, and the Taxi Card.
• We will protect the Freedom Pass for older and disabled users and oppose any changes to schemes that provide concessionary travel for those that benefit from it, including Zip Cards for children and young people.

To keep our streets clean and tidy we will:

• Continue to provide weekly bin and recycling collections, regular litter collections, and aim to become the lowest waste borough in London.
• Keep our streets clean ensuring that all streets are cleaned four times per week, including a cleaning visit after refuse collections
• Expand the ‘Love Clean Streets’ app, which allows residents to easily report street cleaning issues, to cover an even wider range of waste, recycling and public realm issues. We will use data collected through the app to make our services smarter and more responsive.
• Make it easier to recycle, to tackle lower recycling rates and contamination, and improve recycling infrastructure.
• Remove fly-tipped waste from public land reported to us within 48 hours, and take stronger enforcement action against fly-tipping, littering and dog fouling.
• Explore and pilot a mobile or pop-up reuse and recycling facility, to improve access to reuse and recycling options not included in regular collections.
• Explore establishing a physical hub to support reuse, repair and upcycling in Islington.

• Lauch a £1.9 million safer communities fund for resident-led safety improvements
• Expand 24/7 neighbourhood patrols to cover estates and public spaces
• Invest £12 million in roads and pavements to fill potholes in 72 hours
• Install 400 EV charging points and expand cycle parking hangars

Islington is a place of great hope and opportunity. Our borough sits as the beating heart of our capital city, bordering the financial centre of the City of London. Our night time economy brings people from all over London, and we have some of the most renowned cultural and entertainment venues in the UK.

But despite our proximity to great wealth, too many Islington residents struggle to make ends meet, can’t access secure and well-paid employment, or are unable to access the opportunities that they deserve.

Islington Labour is focused on spreading wealth and opportunity to every corner of our borough by creating a truly inclusive local Tackling The Cost-of-living Crisis And Supporting 26 27 Tackling The Cost-of-living Crisis And Supporting economy – one which delivers secure incomes, helps local businesses to thrive, and where help with the cost of living is available to those who need it most.

We have helped thousands of local people into good jobs and apprenticeships, and helped our residents to claim over £12 million in unclaimed benefits that they are entitled to each year. We have secured £4 million in social benefits through our affordable workspace programme, and £1.4 million from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to support emerging social businesses and entrepreneurs in public health and life sciences. We have already been leading the way, showing how a pioneering local authority can build wealth for its communities and support a dynamic local economy. Islington was the UK’s first local authority to become an accredited Living Wage employer in 2012, and the first London borough to be a designated Living Wage Place in 2021.

We now have a Labour Government which is also taking decisive action to build a more inclusive economy and increase wages for local people. The Employment Rights Act has ended exploitative zero-hours contracts, banned “fire and rehire” practices, strengthened sick pay and improved rights to family leave. And Labour have raised the minimum wage to give millions of people across the country a pay rise.

Our plan for the next four years will help spread wealth and opportunity across our borough, ensuring that all residents can benefit from a strong local economy.

Over the next four years:

To help local residents to secure decent jobs and training opportunities we will:

• Support 1,000 local people into work, targeting those who struggle most to secure decent jobs through the Islington Working Partnership.
• Support 1,000 local people into apprenticeships, targeting those who find it most difficult to access quality training opportunities.
• Expand opportunities for young people to secure work experience, paid internships, and all pathways into employment.
• Continue to secure affordable workspace through our progressive planning policies, securing spaces to help local people start or grow businesses.

To support local businesses to grow and thrive we will:

• Continue our progressive procurement approach, making sure that as much of the Council’s £650million of spending each year is spent within the borough. We will aim for one third of council contracts to go to local suppliers by 2027, and ensure that our contractors are providing good pay and conditions for workers.
• Support our local markets, helping traders to thrive and ensuring they receive the support and advice they need.
• Lead the way in London by using new powers to prevent and reduce empty high street properties and bring them back into use wherever possible.
• Work with the police to establish more ‘ShopWatch’ schemes for our town centres – a network of local businesses that come together to tackle shoplifting.
• Use our licensing policy and other powers to support pubs, live music and cultural venues in the borough to thrive, whilst managing the residential environment.
• Publish an Islington Growth Plan to drive growth in Islington and ensure that all communities benefit from opportunities in key sectors such as digital, science, culture, and the green economy.
• Help grow Islington’s small and micro business community by connecting them to opportunities and supporting wider ownership through cooperatives and social enterprises.
• Support more local businesses to implement ethical practices – promoting trade union membership, good pay and conditions, and investing in Islington.

• Make Islington Council a Living Pension employer. This builds on the foundation of the Living Wage, ensuring that everyone has the financial security they need to live with dignity in retirement.
• Work with the Mayor of London’s new nightlife taskforce to ensure that our night-time economy is supported through a period of unprecedented difficulty for the sector.
• Lobby the Government to allow Islington to retain 50% of the proposed overnight visitor levy that could be generated in the borough, to allow us to reinvest the benefits of tourism in our borough

To provide targeted help with the cost of living for residents in need we will:

• Continue to offer one of the most generous council tax support schemes in the country to support low-income residents. Thousands of households in need will continue to see their council tax bills significantly reduced – and in some cases removed entirely.
• Introduce targeted council tax support for low-income households where someone is living with a terminal illness, helping to ensure they are supported financially at the end of life.
• Expand the Council’s Income Maximisation team to support residents to claim the benefits that they are entitled to.
• Continue to provide a safety net for residents who may be experiencing financial hardship through our resident support scheme and crisis and resilience fund.
• Launch an Islington Poverty Truth Commission, which will develop a strategy to ensure that nobody in our borough goes without food, shelter or warmth.

• Support 1000 residents into work and 1000 into apprenticeships
• Launch an Islington Poverty Truth Commission to tackle food, fuel, and housing insecurity.
• Aim for 1/3 of local contracts to go to local suppliers by 2027
• Introduce London Pension Employer status for the council

Our goal is to create a more equal borough where everyone, whatever their age or background, has the same opportunity to live a fulfilling life and reach their full potential.

All of Islington’s children should have the best possible start in life. We have consistently sought to equip every child and young person with the learning and skills for life and the world of work. But we are a borough where many children start life at a disadvantage: through racism and prejudice, poor health and disabilities, abuse or neglect, youth crime and exploitation, low incomes and over-crowding. Islington Labour is determined to give all children, regardless of their background, the help they need to fulfil their full potential.

We have consistently delivered excellent schools, early years and childcare, play facilities and children’s support services. Ofsted has rated Islington’s children’s social care, including our early intervention services, as ‘outstanding’, and all our primary and secondary schools are rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. Islington children achieve above the national average at all levels from early years to post-16. We were the first council anywhere in the country to provide universal free school meals for all primary school children, and we’ve made sure all students going into Year 7 have a laptop or tablet.

Our Labour Government is already delivering for families. Six thousand children in Islington will benefit from the two-child limit being scrapped, helping to lift them and their families out of poverty. Free breakfast clubs are opening at Laycock and Vittoria, primary schools, giving families practical support at the start of the school day. Labour is delivering 30 hours of free childcare every week for working parents, and will extend free school meals to more children in secondary schools from September 2026.

While the majority of our local population is under 36 years old, the fastest growing group within Islington is the over-65s. We are also determined to ensure that Islington is a great place to grow old. As local people age, we want to ensure that they are empowered to live healthy and fulfilling lives, connected to our communities.

To help make Islington a great place to grow up and grow old, we will establish an Islington Intergenerational Fairness Commission. This will gather views from residents, local organisations and other experts to explore what is needed to ensure that everyone in Islington, whatever their age and circumstances, has an opportunity to thrive.

Over the next four years

To ensure that every child in Islington has the best possible start in life we will:

• In partnership with health services, expand our integrated maternity and baby support services in our family hubs and children’s centres; as well as high-quality early education and childcare provision to set every child up for success.
• Help ensure that children are school-ready by the time they start school, aspiring to learn, achieve and succeed.

To ensure that all children and young people in our borough receive a high-quality education we will:

• Further raise standards, reduce gaps in educational attainment, improve attendance and reduce detentions, suspensions and persistent absence, for all children and particularly those with SEND, so that all our pupils’ exam results will be in the top 25% in London.
• Work with schools and families to improve school attendance and ensure students are better supported both at school and at home. To do this, we will implement comprehensive support for children and families that address the underlying causes of absenteeism, such as mental health services, school culture, family support, and community engagement initiatives.
• We recognise the damage that exclusions can cause for at risk children in the borough. That is why we will work with our schools and academies to reduce exclusions and will target schools that impose disproportionate levels of detentions, suspensions and exclusions. We will continue to ensure that every Islington young person moving into Year 7 has access to a laptop or tablet at home.
• Accelerate Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessments so that children with additional needs are able to access the vital support and care that they are entitled to.
• Ensure that Islington has a local school system which delivers the highest standards and is financially sustainable in a context of falling birth rates and shrinking pupil numbers.

To ensure that all of Islington’s children and young people have access to culture and play we will:

• Continue to deliver our 11 by-11 programme – offering 11 outstanding free cultural experiences for all children and young people in Islington by Year 11 of school.
• Ensure that the borough’s children and young people continue to have open access to a range of safe, inspirational and nurturing play spaces by continuing to invest in Islington’s playgrounds to provide safe, welcoming, fun and free play for children aged 6+.
• Only 1 in 6 homes in Islington has a garden or back yard, so we will establish a play park improvement fund to upgrade play facilities in our parks and on estates across the borough.

To support Islington’s young people to thrive and prepare them for the future we will:

• Continue our universal youth offer, ensuring that all young people have equal access to opportunities and networks of support to help them thrive, be safe, enjoy good physical and mental health and realise their ambitions.
• Work with charity partners and community spaces to expand our youth services, building on successful examples such as Brickworks, Rosebowl and Copenhagen Youth Project.
• Provide targeted support for young people at risk of being drawn into crime and serious youth violence, providing mentors and independent caseworkers to provide positive role models and help young people develop.
• Strengthen the multi-agency approach to youth crime, youth safety, knife crime and exploitation to enable earlier intervention and prevention of serious youth violence.
• Continue to ensure that every child in the borough has 100 hours of experience of the world of work by the time they are 16, and provide help for young people aged 16 to 25 to get into employment, education or training through our youth employment hubs.

To support families facing cost-of-living pressures, alongside helping our most vulnerable children and young people we will:

• Guarantee free school meals for all primary school children– a policy that Islington Labour introduced in 2010.
• Ensure that every Islington young person moving into Year 7 has access to a laptop or tablet at home.
• Provide financial support for low-income families through the Islington Bursary and School Uniform Grant.
• Support our most vulnerable children and families by treating ‘care experience’ as a protected characteristic.
• Bringing care-experienced children and young people into the heart of local government to enable their rights, voices, and views to be heard and acted upon at the highest level.

To ensure that Islington is a great place to grow old we will:

• Develop and promote a ‘six for over 60s’ offer of free and low-cost culture and leisure opportunities to support older residents’ health and wellbeing.
• Continue to ensure that Islington is an age-friendly, dementia-friendly and carer friendly borough.
• Work in partnership across the statutory, voluntary and community sectors to tackle loneliness and social isolation as a public health issue.
• Work with residents to make our community spaces welcoming and supportive hubs for older residents- whether through making them available as warm spaces during the winter, running older residents’ coffee mornings and lunch clubs, or by bringing vital services closer to residents through pop-up advice sessions and health checks.
• Continue to offer free swimming lessons and sessions for over-60s at all Council-run pools, to help older residents to live healthy and active lives.

• Ensure all year 7 students have a laptop or tablet for education
• Maintain free swimming for over 60s and for children during holidays
• Establish an Intergenerational Fairness Commission to ensure all ages can thrive.
• Launch “6 for over-60s” to offer free and low cost culture and leisure

Islington Labour is driven first and foremost by a desire to create a fairer and more equal borough. But we are also laser focused on running a council that delivers effective services and provides value for money for local people.

Despite over a decade of Tory austerity, we have protected frontline services and invested in creating a fairer, safer and healthier borough. We have fought, and won, on behalf of residents: campaigning to save the Whittington Maternity Unit, keep the Number 4 bus route and ensure private interests don’t take over our local NHS services.

Delivering For Residents And Empowering Our Diverse Communities 39 One of Islington’s greatest strengths is our diversity. We are proud to be a place which people of all nationalities, ethnicities, ages, sexualities and identities can call their home. But we know we live in difficult times, with increasing attempts to divide us. That’s why we must celebrate the contribution of all of our communities: the residents, volunteers, local organisations, and frontline workers who make this borough what it is. When we stand together, we are stronger. Islington Labour will never shy away from our goal of tackling inequality. That’s why we have been declared a Borough of Sanctuary, showing that Islington is a place of welcome and safety for refugees and asylum seekers. It is why we opened a Black Cultural Centre, working with local organisations to tackle racism and injustice. And it’s why this Labour run council obtained the Stonewall Housing accreditation for our work with the LGBTQ+ community – one of only two councils in the country to do so.

Over the next four years, we will work in partnership with local people and community groups, to deliver for our residents and empower our diverse communities.

Over the next four years

To deliver effective and accessible services for our residents we will:

• Maintain our Access Islington Hubs across the borough, providing a wide range of help and support in person for residents. Seek to widen these to include a range of other public services here, and fully integrate community support, to create a ‘one-stop shop’ for residents.
• Streamlining the Council website to make it easier for residents to access the services they need in a quick and understandable way. Introduce an ‘Islington In Touch’ guarantee – if you contact the council with a routine service request, it will either be resolved or you will receive a plan to do so within 10 working days.
• Continue an ‘in-sourcing first’ approach – delivering services in house, rather than outsourcing, where it will provide a quality service for residents and value for money.
• Pilot the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) where it has the potential to deliver better services for residents and help our staff to do their jobs more efficiently.
• Proudly work in partnership with trade unions to ensure that the council’s workforce is empowered to deliver effective and accessible services for our residents.

To ensure that Islington council offers value for money for local tax payers we will:

• Always be a campaigning council – standing up for our borough and working with all levels of government to secure the best deal for Islington.
• Maintain vital support, strengthen frontline services, and invest in a more equal borough through sound and responsible financial management.
• Continue to monitor and drive down expenditure on agency and interim staff across the council.
• Expand our fraud teams to include financial investigators, to reclaim money which has been lost because of crime.

To support a thriving voluntary and community sector we will:

• Co-produce a new Islington Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Strategy with our VCS partners, supporting them to become more resilient and protecting their funding by maintaining their grants. The strategy will set out how we will work together to reinvigorate the sector, empower our diverse communities, and help make Islington a fairer, more equal place with a strong, sustainable voluntary and community sector.
• Commit £2.7 million per year of funding to launch a new voluntary and community sector grants programme with a further guarantee to maintain existing levels of funding for our core VCS grants programme until 2030.
• Continue to offer Discretionary Rates Relief for non-profit organisations, forgoing up to £410,000 per year in income from business rates that would otherwise be collected, to support our local voluntary and community sector.

To stand up for equality and human rights, against hatred and division we will:

• Ensure that Islington’s pension fund continues to be a trailblazer in ethical investment – seeking to deliver full divestment from companies profiting from conflict, genocide or human rights abuses anywhere in the world, as well as decarbonising the fund.
• Apply the highest possible ethical standards to Council procurement.
• Proudly continue to be a national leader as a Borough of Sanctuary through our work to promote the rights and welfare of all people seeking safety and protection. Help refugees, migrants and residents seeking asylum to feel and be part of the borough, and support those with No Recourse to Public Funds to secure their rights and entitlements.
• Give people with experience of seeking sanctuary the opportunity to work with the Council, and support initiatives enabling integration and connection for refugees, migrants and people seeking asylum.
• Take a stand against hate crime and make it clear that there is no place for racism or discrimination in our borough.

To promote civic pride in our borough and empower our diverse communities we will:

• Develop and promote projects and events across the borough that build community pride, bringing communities together to address the issues that matter to everyone.
• Establish a ‘Celebrating Islington’ programme, backed by almost half a million pounds of funding, to celebrate all of the culture, arts, sports and community activities available across our borough each summer.
• Mark events and commemorations like Pride Month, Black History Month, Islamophobia Awareness Month, Holocaust Memorial Day, LGBT+ History Month, and International Women’s Day in ways which reflect the priorities of our diverse communities.
• Continue piloting our approach to community budgeting, building on work done on the Boston, Nailour and Loraine Estates, to empower residents to make choices about how funds are spent to improve their local area.
• Set up an ‘Empowering Residents’ fund, to meet one-off costs if residents, a community group or a VCS organisation want to take ownership of an underutilised Council-owned space.
• Hold Peabody to account to make sure they secure sustainable funding for the Women’s Building on the former Holloway Prison site.
• Build a brand new library at Vorley Road in Archway and consult residents on how all of our libraries can meet the changing needs of local people in a digital age.
• Maintain our network of 7 new council-run public toilets across the borough, while also encouraging more local businesses and other public buildings to make toilet facilities available for public use.

• Maintain £2.7 million voluntary sector grants and protect core funding to 2030
• Pursue full divestment from companies linked to conflict, genocide, or human rights abuses
• Build a new library at Vorley Road, Archway and consult on modernising our libraries
• Establish an Empowering Residents Fund for community-led use of under-utilised council spaces

• Ensuring Islington residents have a decent, secure, and genuinely affordable home.

• Creating a safer, cleaner, and healthier borough

• Tackling the cost of living and supporting local businesses