Zoë Garbett, Hackney's first Green Mayor, has completed 100 days in office, facing a £53 million financial gap and vowing to balance the budget while pushing forward with her progressive agenda. In an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Garbett admitted to "huge eye-opening issues" as she grapples with the realities of power.
New Mayor settles into role
Garbett has made her mark on the Art Deco Town Hall office by reorganising, moving the executive desk from behind the expansive mahogany table, which she found too awkward and "overpowering". The wood-panelled walls are now much barer, reflecting her mindfulness of her newfound authority.
It has been just over 100 days since she led the Hackney Greens to victory at May's council elections, overturning Labour's huge majority and winning 39 more seats in the chamber. For the borough's first-ever Green Mayor, the relentless "24/7" nature of the job has made the first few months feel "more like twenty years", with a fully public diary packed with meetings, from faith roundtables to child poverty groups and unions. She has managed to find some respite in a brief hiking trip.
A former NHS commissioner with four mayoral runs under her belt (three times in Hackney, once against Sadiq Khan), Garbett sent Labour packing after two decades of uninterrupted control in Hackney. The Greens rode the wave of disenchantment with Labour, both nationally and locally, with their manifesto titled 'Hope for Hackney'.
Financial challenges and budget commitment
Garbett, who ran a people-powered campaign to "change the system" and promised to "start the fightback", now faces the stark reality of the council's finances. "Obviously, there have been some huge eye-opening issues," she said. "I knew the extent of the financial challenge faced by the council. I worked in the public sector 10 years ago when austerity was beginning. But being up close to facing our financial gap of £53 million over the next three years, the cuts that will have to be made this year, is a huge challenge."
Despite leading an upcoming anti-austerity summit at Hackney Town Hall, Garbett is clear that she will not take the borough down the route of refusing to set a budget. "We are committed to setting a balanced budget," she said, fearing that failure could let government commissioners in to sell off assets, jeopardising her flagship 'Who Owns Hackney' campaign to audit the borough's land and properties for community ownership.
The scheme includes finding out how many buildings are owned by offshore landlords, though it is unclear what the council could ultimately do about this. Garbett mentioned Compulsory Purchase Orders, though "obviously that costs money". The first order of business is to gather as much intel as possible.
She is clear about her "red lines" and the importance of not simply cutting one service to fund another. This means looking at new ways of raising revenue, though she is not ready to divulge details. It will also follow a "large engagement process" to gather resident feedback to ensure the council is "as transparent as possible".
Trans inclusion and governance
Garbett has drawn criticism for pursuing an end to the borough's twinning with an Israeli city and openly rejecting the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance, which she finds "horrifying".
"Trans women are women, and trans men are men. I want trans people to know that they are able to navigate public life," she said, raising the inequalities the community faces, such as over health. "If you start to police and exclude and make decisions about where people can and cannot go, you are questioning their identity at its core, and that's what I am rejecting."
This means that on her watch, there will be no single-sex spaces installed in council buildings, even if that means the council ends up in court. "We're working really closely with directors, the legal team to make sure that everything we're proposing from this principle of maximum trans inclusion is robust," she said.
Garbett describes herself as a "governance obsessive", a trait that has become an office joke. She harkens back to her decade as an NHS commissioner, which she says has moulded her into "the perfect blend" of passionate campaigner and boring managerialist. "I have this huge amount of respect for governance and legal systems, and it's really important that we're clear on how decisions are made," she added.
Housing and future plans
Garbett's pledge during the election was to "get the basics right", and she points to ways she is shaking things up, such as deploying drones instead of scaffolding to inspect council buildings. She faces wider structural problems, including an 8,500-strong housing waitlist, 4,000 children in temporary accommodation and the sluggish rate of housebuilding.
Asked if this has left her more sympathetic to her predecessor, she said: "I've always had huge respect for anyone in these elected roles, who works at this level of public office [with] the pressure and scrutiny we're under. But what we're trying to do is look at ways of doing things differently."
As Hackney residents wait to see what new revenue sources and approaches are in store, the key difference for now has been "setting a new tone". "It's about listening to residents, creating those spaces where community groups are able to tell us what they think," Garbett added.
On Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), she said: "Our criticism has always been about who has the power in that situation. At what point are you speaking to people, at what point do you go out to consultation? I want to listen to people and respond to the strength of feeling, and we'll reflect on our plans when we hear that."
Garbett remains ambitious, saying: "There's lots in the pipeline that will come to fruition over the next kind of three to six months I'm really excited about." The people of Hackney will have to wait a little longer to find out if her new tone can usher in true change.
