It’s official!  Lambeth is now the fastest improving council not just in London, but in the country.   Since Labour was elected to run the council in 2006, Lambeth has leapt from the miserable one-star rating inherited from the Lib Dems to three stars - in one go!  For the first time ever, Lambeth is now in the upper perforamance bands nationally. 

Not only that, but the council's finances have been stabilised.  The Lib Dems left the council on the brink of bankruptcy with close to zero financial reserves despite years of record-breaking tax hikes.  Today, Labour has built up reserves to the level required by the independent financial auditors by targeting waste rather than tax-payers, meaning there's a firm foundation to build on for the future. 

The three-star rating marks a turning point for Lambeth.  It brings to a close the period that began with the hard-left ‘loony’ councils of the 1980s and continued through the do-nothing inertia of Lib Dem and Tory rule that residents brought to an end in the elections of May 2006.   Today, Lambeth has an engaged, sensible Labour administration that listens to residents and acts on what they say.

Labour's Steve Reed, Leader of the Council, commented:  "I’m proud that I led Labour to our only election gain in the country in the last set of council elections.   I’m even prouder that, after just two years, our council is now the fastest improving in the country.  I'm proud because this means better services and better life chances for the people we're here to serve.  This is real team work, and it shows just how effective a good Labour council can be."

The improvements delivered by Labour have been dramatic.  Lambeth's benefits service, once the worst in London, is now the best.  Lambeth is the first council in London to start building new schools under the Government’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme.  The council has the most ambitious carbon-reduction targets in the capital, and Labour has put in a bid for the biggest investment to improve social housing in Lambeth’s history.  In addition, the council is bringing new leisure services to Brixton, Clapham and Streatham in the biggest regeneration programme the borough's ever known. 

Steve Reed added: "Three stars is a great achievement, but this is not a job finished it's a job that's just been started.  Things are finally going in the right direction, but we will use this good news as a spur to drive the council harder and faster until we have the excellent services that our residents deserve."

Secretary of State for Communities, Hazel Blears MP, said:  "Labour inherited an underperforming council from the Lib Dems and Tories and turned it around.  This is real evidence of what a Labour Council can achieve by working with local people and delivering on their priorities. I offer my congratulations to our Labour councillors in Lambeth, and to Steve Reed for his first class leadership, and look forward to further progress in the coming years."