Southwark has more than 14,000 households on the waiting list for a council home and 3,000 in temporary accommodation.(1) The Labour-led council’s plan to tackle its housing crisis includes building new homes on green spaces and other communal areas on its council estates, a practice known as “infilling”.

It’s now over three weeks since the Green Party’s record results in the London elections, and we’ve been reflecting on what the gains mean for us as a party, and on the changing political landscape in our city.

Green Party candidate for Lambeth & Southwark celebrates a game-changing result with GP Lambeth Councillor, Scott Ainslie.

First and foremost a massive thank you to Green Party campaigners and candidates across Southwark and London. These monumental efforts saw voters seize their chance to vote Green outside the usual first-past-the-post system, where Labour and Conservatives inevitably dominate. The London List vote in the Assembly elections is proportional, making a Green vote far more than a gesture of support. Greens came second on this ballot paper, ahead of the Tories and with more than double the votes of the Lib Dems. This helped to give us a third member on the London Assembly: Zack Polanski now joins Siân Berry and Caroline Russell at City Hall, where he’s hit the ground running, pushing mayor Sadiq Khan on proposals for a Citizens Assembly for London.

Even in the first-past-the-post constituency vote, the Green Party in Southwark and Lambeth secured brilliant results. Our candidate, Southwark Greens’ Claire Sheppard, gained 19.7% of the vote, overtaking the Conservatives, to come second to Labour. Ours was one of only two constituencies where the Labour-Tory stranglehold was broken, the other being North East London, where Caroline Russell was in second place to Labour.

% of votes for the Green Party Constituency Candidates in London and in S&L constituency, 2012 - 2021

% votes for Green Party ('List Vote') in London and in S&L constituency, 2012 - 2021

The vote for mayor – under the supplementary vote system – consolidated the Greens’ position as London’s third party. Siân Berry received 11.5% of first-choice votes compared with 8.8% in 2016, and a massive 28% of second-preference votes – the most for any candidate, clearly indicating that Siân and the Green Party can and do get support from across the political spectrum.

Let's all make our homes a billboard for Siân Berry's inspiring campaign for London Mayor.

The London Young Greens made these brilliant VOTE SIAN posters for everyone to print at home and post in our windows!

We look forward to seeing these around the borough in the next few weeks. Take a snap when you see one and let the Young Greens know @LondonYGs (twitter) and @londonygs (instagram).

Which one for your front window? Green or White? Or both?

Since declaring a Climate Emergency two years ago the Council has frequently stated its desire to engage with residents and community groups, to hear their ideas for tackling the environmental problems we face and to work together with people to create ’a cleaner, greener, safer’ Southwark.

In practice, however, very little has been achieved during these two years. There has been plenty of greenwashing but hardly any meaningful action. It’s true that the Council’s intended approach to engagement with the public on the issue, planned for April to June 2020, was dealt a severe blow by the rapid spread of Covid-19; instead of face-to-face consultation, residents and businesses had to be invited to air their views via an online portal. Inevitably the restricted contact meant that most of the comments received were contributed by people used to engaging with the Council, while the average person remained out of reach and in the dark.

In the week that Southwark Housing cabinet member and Labour councillor Leo Pollak resigned from his post, here at Southwark Green Party we have been focusing on more positive news.

Landing in our inbox today was a snapshot of the positive and responsible impact that elected Green Party representatives are having around the country.

Rather than hiding behind anonymous twitter accounts (see Southwark News for details), elected Greens make good things happen for the communities they represent that are also good for the planet.

Almost every single organisational review taking place in 2021 will likely start along the lines of ‘2020 saw a complete change to our ways of working and great challenges’. At our AGM, we too recognised 2020’s upheaval, change and challenges – but recognised the many achievements we have had as a local party. It has been a difficult time since lockdown first started in March 2020, but our members have been vigilant members of the community and continued to campaign on vital issues, such as the climate emergency.

Overall, since November 2019 (the last AGM) our ambition has stayed constant: secure the representation of elected Greens

Southwark Green Party welcomed the declaration of a Climate Emergency by the London Borough of Southwark in March 2019 but councillors and council officers are not acting in a way that responds to the gravity of that declaration.

We call for action that recognises the emergency.

Southwark Green Party members have responded as individuals to the draft climate strategy, and some are also members of the council’s Partnership Steering Group (established in March 2020) and have contributed detailed comments on policy through that process. This response will not duplicate that work, but rather highlights some key failings of the draft strategy and these nine points that define how we would approach the task.