Changing cabinet roles from 25th May to Health & Adult Social Care

Mayor Damien Egan has asked me to take on the cabinet role of Health & Adult Social Care in the new council administration. This will take effect subject to the Confirmation Hearing at Full Council on 25th May.

I've enjoyed the cabinet role of Cabinet Member for Housing since May 2018 and then Housing & Planning (including regeneration) from July 2020. I have huge respect for officers in Housing, Planning and Regeneration. Housing management and delivery is a very difficult challenge, but Lewisham Council and Lewisham Homes are delivering. There are always areas of improvement. That work to improve everything we do has started and will continue under the leadership of Cllr Sophie Davis and Cllr Brenda Dacres.

So, as a new role beckons, I thank officers in Housing, Planning, Regeneration and Lewisham Homes for their work on behalf of residents in Lewisham, but also for putting up with the intensity of working with me. I won't name names, but there are a few officers who I regularly work with who are such humanitarians and whom care and do the right thing. Doing so has costs and consequences, but without the guiding moral principles that are the foundation of caring decision making, it would be an impossible ask.