Major political parties in Wandsworth have outlined their visions for transforming the borough over the next four years, as the local elections draw near. Voters will head to the polls on Thursday, May 7, to elect councillors who will represent them until 2030. All 58 seats on Wandsworth Council are up for grabs across the 22 wards in the borough. Labour has controlled the authority since 2022, when it ended the Conservatives' 44-year hold on power.
Candidate Lineup
Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, and Reform UK are each fielding 58 candidates in the local elections, while the Green Party has put forward 53 candidates. Additionally, six Independent candidates are vying for seats. A full list of candidates by ward is available in a separate dedicated article. Below are the manifesto pledges of each party.
Labour's Pledges
Housing and Cost of Living
- Build another 1,000 new council homes, on top of the 1,000 already being delivered
- Campaign for rent caps and drive out rogue landlords
- Step up street homelessness prevention action
- Make it faster and easier for tenants to report repairs
- Support leaseholders with better deals for major works bills, including longer interest-free repayment periods
- Create an online tool with a breakdown of service charges
- Extend the Cost of Living Fund
- Exempt care leavers from council tax until age 25
Environment and Transport
- Keep weekly bin collections and double street cleaning on residential roads
- Roll out "same day sweep" to pick up litter left after waste collection on the same day
- Increase crackdown on fly-tipping with more enforcement, fines, and CCTV
- Expand mega skip days
- Bring all pavements up to a good standard by 2030
- Remove street clutter and 1,000 unnecessary road signs
- Deliver a parks improvement programme
- Plant 1,000 new trees a year
- Connect up the Wandle River trail
- Invest £1 million every year for new green corridors
- Provide better lighting along public walkways and parks
- Make all bridges and tunnels lighter, brighter, and safer
- Continue to campaign for the reopening of Hammersmith Bridge and Albert Bridge
Communities
- Introduce neighbourhood wardens in all town centres
- Invest in landmark violence against women and girls prevention programmes in schools
- Run more listening exercises in town centres
- Oppose new betting and vape shops on high streets
- Invest in more school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
- Auto-enrol all children in libraries
- Roll out e-reader tablets to young people
- Provide free swimming lessons for all children eligible for Access for All
- Bring back Tooting Food Festival
Economy and Finance
- Keep the same low council tax
- Launch a new Wandsworth Card to provide discounts around the borough
- Maintain strong financial reserves
- Only borrow to deliver smart long-term assets
- Require ethical investment by the council, including the pension fund
- Create a growth plan for every high street
- Work with high street businesses to extend opening hours and attract night-time footfall
- Embed targeted support for those at risk of not being in employment, education, or training
Conservative Pledges
Housing and Cost of Living
- Give more renters a chance to own their home
- Restore service levels for tenants and leaseholders on council estates
- Hold housing associations to account for poor service standards
- Encourage private homes to be built in the borough
- Cancel Labour's plans for the Ashburton and Lennox estates
- Support the completion of Nine Elms' regeneration
- Offer generous major works repayment terms for owner-occupier leaseholders
- Deliver better service charge transparency
- Complete a full stock condition survey
Environment and Transport
- Zero-tolerance approach to fly-tipping, graffiti, dog mess, and dirty streets
- Protect weekly bin collections and take tougher action on missed collections
- Improve recycling with clearer signs, better bins, and more consistent collections
- Retender waste and recycling contracts to secure better value
- Protect parks and commons by putting community use first
- Invest in well-maintained parks, safer play areas, and protected sports pitches
- Begin negotiations to buy Springfield Park
- Rule out the introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs)
- Partner with Transport for London (TfL) to improve bus journey times
- Expand Wandsworth's quiet cycle routes
- Introduce a "fair use charter" for e-bike and e-scooter operators
- Deliver an increase in bike hangars
Communities
- Fund extra police officers using developer levies
- Introduce more street wardens
- Crack down on anti-social behaviour on estates
- Expand the CCTV network and control room
- Toughen council's approach to excessively disruptive protests
- Continue cross-party work to prevent violence against women and girls
- Ensure footways are properly lit at night
Economy and Finance
- Keep council tax as low as possible
- Restore value for money and cut all unnecessary spending
- Bring down the council's planned debt
- Protect core services
- Adopt AI technology to improve services and reduce spending
- Set up a business and family-friendly high streets fund to improve safety, accessibility, and appearance of town centres and parades
- Reduce the number of long-term empty commercial properties
- Reinstate and expand pedestrianised schemes, including on Northcote Road and Battersea High Street
Liberal Democrat Pledges
Housing and Cost of Living
- Establish a tenants' champion to fight for tenants and leaseholders and improve housing conditions
- Support the national campaign to abolish leasehold tenures for all properties, scrap ground rents on existing leases, and cap service and management charges
Environment and Transport
- Fix pavements and potholes, including resurfacing broken roads instead of temporarily patching up potholes
- Stand up for Wandsworth's parks and green spaces
- Stand firm against over-commercialisation of parks, ensuring they are accessible for sports and leisure
- Fill empty tree pits across streets and parks
- Crack down on fly-tipping hotspots with mobile CCTV and stronger enforcement
- Move street cleaning days to coincide with bin collection days
- Put more bins on busy streets
- Introduce regular power cleaning of high streets
Communities
- Fund more visible neighbourhood policing
- Reduce CCTV blackout spots and poorly lit areas
- Challenge Met Police to keep officers on streets
Economy and Finance
- Improve high streets to keep them clean and attractive
- Work with business improvement districts
- Use council powers, including high street rental auctions, to tackle empty units
- Pressure the Government to scrap business rates
Green Party Pledges
Housing and Cost of Living
- Ensure council homes are safe, insulated, and cheap to run
- Champion community-led housing and shift power back to residents
- Further increase tax on empty second homes
- Drive out rogue landlords
- Introduce a radical acceleration of deep retrofitting measures for council tenants
- Support the national demand for a "living rent," where median local rents would take up no more than 35% of local median take-home pay
- Push for inclusion of sexual abuse, modern slavery, and PTSD in priority need criteria on housing applications
- Expand the council's letting agency to cut costs and improve transparency
- Introduce a council advice channel on ways to cut energy usage
Environment and Transport
- Issue local climate bonds for residents to invest in sustainable projects
- Install solar panels and battery storage across all suitable council assets
- Generate the borough's own power to shield from global energy shocks and slash the cost of living
- Revive community car clubs
- Carefully manage e-bikes and e-scooters
- Introduce a kerbside strategy to create fairer, greener, and healthier streets
- Provide more bike hangars
- Help residents rewild their gardens
- Rid Wandsworth of toxic pesticides
- Halt the spread of pavement crossovers
- Plant new trees and take care of existing ones
Communities
- Introduce participatory budgeting for residents to vote on how cash is spent
- Set up regular ward citizen assemblies to identify problems and take action
- Create a refugee navigation hub to help with housing, benefits, employment, training, healthcare, and integration
- Slash petition threshold for council debate from 10,000 to 3,000 signatures
- Identify and target crime hotspots
- Protect right to protest and freedom of expression
- Push for increased funding for NHS dentists
- Restrict new fast-food outlets near schools
- Champion restorative justice programmes
- Develop support service for unpaid carers
- Invest in services to reduce isolation
Economy and Finance
- Conduct a referendum on council tax
- Work with trade unions to defend pay and rights
- Lobby the Government for fairer funding
Reform UK
Reform UK has not published a manifesto for Wandsworth. However, at a rally in Leeds in March, leader Nigel Farage promised that if his party took control of more authorities in May, it would ensure lower council tax rises than councils run by other parties. Nationally, Reform has also said it would place mass immigration detention centres in areas where people voted for a Green Party council or a Green MP, while keeping them out of areas that voted Reform. The party also said it would make it mandatory for schools to display the Union Flag and a picture of The King.
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