Caroline Russell, Green Party councillor in Highbury since 2014, has announced that she will not be standing for re-election at next year’s local elections. Caroline will have served 3 terms, for a total of 12 years. She will continue to serve on the London Assembly.

Islington Green Party has selected Dr Talia Hussain to stand in Highbury in 2026. Talia is a designer, researcher, consultant and entrepreneur, specialising in (un)sustainability and social impact in the garment industry. She has a PhD from Loughborough University and an MBA from Imperial College, London. She is an active community volunteer, campaigning for people-friendly streets – particularly chairing a local charity to help set up resident-led street associations.

Cllr Caroline Russell said “It has been the honour of my life to serve my local community. Working with residents, councillors can and do make a real difference to people’s lives, and it’s been a joy to help our community, tenants’ and residents’ groups and my neighbours.

“I will have been a councillor for 12 years in 2026. After the Green Party’s brilliant local election results up and down the country last week, this is the right moment to let a new generation of voices come up in Islington. I will be stepping back from the council to focus on my role in the London Assembly, but also to work hard to deliver more Green councillors than ever at the next local elections, in Islington and across London.”

Talia Hussain added “I’m really grateful to Green Party members for selecting me to run in Highbury. I’m lucky to have been working with Benali, Ernestas and Caroline for a decade now – helping with both community and council campaigns. Caroline’s will be huge shoes to fill but I promise to bring the same hardworking and focused spirit to the Town Hall and the local community that she has brought every day of the week.”

“The next local elections promise to be another big shift. Last week’s local election results showed how unhappy and disappointed voters are with Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. I believe people in Islington want to see constructive solutions to issues like housing and reducing emissions. I’ll be working hard, alongside the rest of Islington Greens, to provide that positive vision for the borough.”

Caroline was elected by an eight vote margin in 2014, in an election where the Lib Dems were wiped out of the council and the Labour Party won every other seat. For eight years Caroline served as the only opposition councillor, working hard to hold the Labour administration to account. This was until 2022 when Cllr Benali Hamdache and Cllr Ernestas Jegorovas-Armstrong were elected to join her in Highbury ward. 

Some of Caroline’s successful achievements as a councillor to date include:

• Achieving (last year) a fairer council tax policy by proposing budget amendments for many years so the least well off in the borough are not asked to pay bills they can’t afford,
• Pushing for a just approach to collecting council debts from residents, avoiding council summons and bailiffs,
• Lobbying to make it always cheaper to keep a bike in a council hangar than to park a fossil fuelled car in the borough, and for heavier and more polluting cars to pay higher parking fees,
• Supporting older people campaigning for more public toilets and to save day centre facilities,
• Raising awareness about the dangers of air pollution in the borough, and winning better policies on delivering clean air,
• Championing policies and changes to make it safer to walk, wheel and cycle around the borough, from new zebra crossings to accessible pavements,
• Persuading the council to reopen cemeteries during the pandemic, to allow residents to grieve, 
• Working with young people across the borough, winning support for the council to declare a Climate Emergency, via a cross-party motion with a binding promise to deliver net zero by 2030,
• Campaigning for council meetings to be livestreamed, to allow for greater participation in local democracy,
• Exposing the council’s installation of thousands of non-fire safe doors across Islington’s estates,
• Consistently opposing the building of the new Edmonton incinerator and pushing the council to reduce overall waste,
• Working constructively, cross-party on council committees and resident casework.

The post Caroline Russell not re-standing at next local elections appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Carne Ross is the Green Party spokesperson for global solidarity, and is standing for Islington South and Finsbury. He said: “It’s time to end politics as usual, in Islington and nationally.  I want to put power in everyone’s hands, and end our ‘elective dictatorship’ where all the decisions that matter are taken by a tiny few in Westminster. The people of Islington know their circumstances best, and they should be in charge. Their needs will be my only priority if I’m elected.”

As the party’s candidate for Islington North, Sheridan Kates wants to put discussions of the economy front and centre: “Too often our government hides behind claims that ‘there’s no magical money tree’ and ‘we need to make hard decisions’ to justify underfunding crucial public services. The economic plans coming from the incoming Labour shadow government are based on continued economic growth, which widens inequality and harms our planet. We need political leaders who understand that we can already find the money, so we should be using it to eradicate poverty and build opportunity and a fairer society in Islington and the whole country.”

Candidates were invited to put themselves forward from the entire member base, and selected using free and fair member voting (including online hustings). 

With the latest polling data showing that Greens are the second most popular political party in both constituencies¹, the opportunity is real to show an incoming Labour government that they must not continue the Tory austerity of the last fourteen years.

Full bios for candidates can be found at https://islington.greenparty.org.uk/2024-ge-candidates.

1: Full polling results:

The post Announcing the 2024 General Election Candidates for Islington appeared first on Islington Green Party.

• Alex Nettle (Green Party): 1095 votes (24.4%)
• Ollie Steadman (Labour Party): 2824 votes (62.8%)
• Rebecca Elisabeth Taylor (Liberal Democrats): 577 votes (12.8%)

Voter turnout: 47.3%. Full details are on on the Islington Council website.

If you’re interested in standing as a councillor in future, come and talk to one of us at a future members meeting (listed on our events page) – we’d love for you to get involved.

The post Hillrise by-election 2024 – Greens build an even stronger second place result appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Find out more about Alex from his bio here, and his announcement post on Twitter.

The post Hillrise by-election update appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Looking back, I’ve found that the first fifty homes I surveyed, in 2008, averaged an energy rating of 57, which was a low D on the A-G, green-to-orange graph readers may be familiar with (similar to the labels you get when you buy an electrical appliance). The last fifty before I retired, on the other hand, averaged 67, which, while an improvement, is still only a D. Just a higher one. We’ve still got a lot to do if we want to achieve net zero carbon targets and make people’s homes affordable to heat!

As it happens, the last survey I carried out was a flat on one of Islington council’s own estates. The flat was on the top floor, so it makes a big difference to the energy performance if the roof above it is insulated or not, and, running the survey through the computer, I could see that if the roof is insulated the flat rates as a C but if not, it’s only a D. Unsurprisingly the leaseholder, who is selling the flat, was keen to know, one way or the other, but, unfortunately, Islington wasn’t able to tell her. The likelihood is it is, because Islington has been pretty good at insulating its estates, over the years. The trouble is it’s been a lot less good at recording what it’s done and where.

The council’s own housing stock is one of the few areas where it has direct control over buildings’ energy performances. If Islington is to achieve its net zero carbon target by 2030, it needs to know urgently what the current energy ratings are for these and what can be done to improve them. Over the years, though, I’ve met dozens of cases where council leaseholders have been unable to get information from their freeholder, undermining the accuracy of their EPCs and so the council’s own route towards Net Zero.

To have any hope of achieving its Net Zero targets, Islington needs accurate data on the energy performance of its existing housing stock. And to get a much better grip on its own information.

Andrew Myer

Islington Green Party

The post Letters to the Papers: Achieving net-zero depends on Islington Council understanding its own housing stock appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Hundreds of thousands of UK households are affected unfairly by the ‘Two Child’ benefits cap, which restricts universal credit and child tax credit to a family’s first two children and provides less or nothing for any others. It is one of our country’s biggest causes of child poverty, which has increased significantly among families with three children, for example, since the cap was introduced in 2017, and bigger families considerably more likely to be using food banks. 

More than half of those affected are in work and nearly half are single parent households, often for reasons beyond their control, such as death of a partner or a job loss. The poverty faced by many families doing everything right that they can, with parents working as much as they can, is shocking. 

Whatever the intention of the policy, it is creating deep divisions in young people’s development, which will affect lifelong outcomes in their health, education and employment. Many of the current generation are missing out on educational and recreational activities to develop their bodies and minds, which are simply out of reach.

Closer to home, though, Islington Council applies the same Two Child Cap on its council tax support for lower income households as the government does nationally, even though Labour, who currently have the majority on the Council, have expressed opposition to the policy at both national and local levels.

The Two Child Cap should be scrapped, nationally. But, while it’s only part of the wider picture, Islington should play their part to support struggling families, by scrapping it here too.

Cllr Ernestas Jegorovas-Armstrong, Islington Green Party

The post Letters to the Papers: Islington and the National Government must end two-child caps on support appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Admittedly the government’s decision to make Poole Park an academy was wrong-headed and ideological, as Cllr Ngongo suggests, and it’s to be hoped that the council’s appeal against this succeeds. But the council’s process for managing around declining numbers of school-age children in the borough has gone poorly. Another primary school is already at risk of academisation, in the south of the borough, and ramifications of the council’s choices have not been considered for other schools. Drayton Park, for example, has been federated with Montem for several years, following the council’s encouragement and considerable commitment by staff, parents and governors, and its financial stability is threatened by the changes too.

In particular, parents and unions feel unlistened to on this and we are unapologetic about wanting to give them time in council for the changes to be debated properly. It’s time to pause Stage 2 of the council’s school reorganisation plan and fold this into Stage 3, ensuring that the student places crisis is considered in the round and as constructively as possible.

Your article mentions that this is the first time in ten years that a council decision has been called in. That’s because Islington’s constitution requires a call-in to be submitted by at least five councillors and until recently Islington has been effectively a ‘one-party state’, with an all-powerful Labour super-majority. It is only after two councillors resigned from the Labour party, on matters of principle, that they and the three elected Green Party councillors now have the power to work together, as an opposition, to call in poor decisions.

Super-majorities are bad for democracy, bad for financial management and notoriously reluctant to listen to other views than their own. The aggrieved tone of Cllr Ngongo’s letter is recognition, perhaps, that Islington Labour’s super-majority is no longer quite as invulnerable to challenge as it was. Perhaps, instead, they should now just start listening to people a bit more.

Cllr Benali Hamdache

Leader of the Opposition (Green Party)

The post Letters to the Papers: Labour’s weakened super-majority means more accountability appeared first on Islington Green Party.

The great majority of scientists now recognise that Climate Change is real, is already happening, and is largely caused by human activity, but ‘climate sceptics’ still exist, some in positions of considerable influence. I recently met two, myself, and would encourage any among your readers to present their viewpoints within your pages, to allow the community to engage in full debate and discussion.

For any readers who wish to find out more, locally based environmental charity, Greenpeace, has a wealth of data on its website. People who want to be actively involved in the climate struggle locally could visit the Islington Climate Centre pop-up space at Angel Central. Or any wishing to help stand more widely for environmental and social justice are, of course, welcome to join Islington’s second biggest party, the Green Party!

Robert Tollemache, Islington Green Party

The post Letters to the Papers: Tackling the Climate Emergency appeared first on Islington Green Party.

The signatories admitted that taxing them would not affect their standard of living, deprive their children or harm their nations’ economies. It would, however, “turn extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment for our common democratic future.”

A poll of over two thousand of the wealthiest people in the G20, furthermore, has found that more than half of them think extreme wealth is a threat to democracy, and almost three quarters support higher taxes on their own wealth, to improve public services and help address the cost of living crisis.

In the UK, a YouGov poll last year showed that three quarters of us would support wealth taxes on millionaires, too, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Conservatives have no intention to implement such a thing, while, more disappointingly, Labour have confirmed they have no plans to do so either.

If our largest two parties are so out of touch with public sentiment, the damage inequality causes, and the benefits a wealth tax could bring, who can people vote for in the coming year’s elections, if they think this issue is important? The Green Party, as it happens, is proposing a tax on the wealthiest top 1%, which could raise £21-43 billion a year. Just saying…

Andrew Myer, Islington Green Party

The post Letters to the Papers: Vote Green to see popular wealth tax become a reality appeared first on Islington Green Party.

For many years Islington Green Party have been campaigning to exempt Islington Council’s poorest residents from paying council tax.

It used to be the case that people on the lowest incomes were given a 100 per cent discount from council tax, but the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition handed over the discount scheme to local authorities without enough money to protect people on the lowest incomes.

Council budgets are strained, but chasing people for council tax they are too poor to pay simply pushes residents into growing arrears, desperation, and financial distress, which may lead them to need more council support.

The health and the finances of the borough are best served by discounting as many residents on low incomes as possible from paying council tax. Labour’s new council tax reduction scheme extends a total discount to more households than ever, but the Green Party would go further.

Our upcoming budget amendment will find the money to protect more residents in this cost of living crisis. That’s why we abstained on Labour’s proposals. They’re a welcome step forward but we need to go further.

Cllr Benali Hamdache
Leader of the Green Party Opposition Group

The post Letters to the Papers: The low-paid need protection from council tax appeared first on Islington Green Party.