Brent Council Election 2026: Comprehensive Guide to Party Manifesto Promises
All fifty-seven seats on Brent Council are up for election on May 7, 2026, with polling projections indicating Labour will maintain control but with a reduced majority. The council has been under Labour leadership since 2010, currently holding forty-one of the borough's fifty-seven seats. While Labour is expected to retain control, marginal seats could deliver surprising results for other parties.
Labour, Conservatives, Greens, Liberal Democrats, and Reform are each fielding fifty-seven candidates across twenty-two wards. Additionally, eight independent candidates are running, along with one representative from the Workers Party and one from UKIP. However, only the main political parties have a realistic chance of securing sole control of the authority.
Polling company Poll Check projects Labour will win thirty-five seats, maintaining control, with the Greens becoming the official opposition with ten seats. The Conservatives are projected to secure seven seats, while the Liberal Democrats are expected to take five, though the polling company suggests this might be an underestimation.
Labour Party Manifesto Highlights
Housing: Labour pledges to deliver hundreds more genuinely affordable homes across Brent by 2030, establish a Healthy Homes team to tackle damp and mould in council properties, remove all "no ball games" signs on housing estates, work toward ending rough sleeping through a comprehensive Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, and invest in fire safety upgrades across council housing stock.
Communities: The party promises to double Waste Enforcement officers, host more Community Skip days, end "gambling and vape shop dens," bring back street markets, increase police officers at new Community Safety Hubs, install more cameras at fly-tipping hotspots, and implement a Brent Community Toilet Scheme for clean, accessible public toilets.
Economy and Finance: Labour plans to renew the Resident Support Fund for vulnerable residents, introduce discretionary Council Tax exemption for people with terminal illness, launch a Brent Community Wealth Building Strategy to incentivize local investment, support local cooperatives, and collaborate with developers and education providers to establish a new Brent Construction Academy.
Environment and Transport: Commitments include allocating at least £5 million annually for road and pavement upgrades, repairing at least 5,000 potholes yearly, lobbying for step-free access at more Brent stations, installing additional Electric Vehicle charging points, and delivering the Wembley to Willesden cycleway.
Council Leader Cllr Muhammed Butt emphasized: "Brent Labour is about action, not rhetoric. We are the only party with a proven track record of delivery in this borough, and now, with a Labour Government working with us, we have the backing to go further, faster and fix more of the problems that matter most to you."
Green Party Manifesto Highlights
Housing: The Greens promise to deliver more genuinely affordable homes by prioritizing social and affordable rent, stop the sell-off of social homes, rebuild council stock, bring repairs and housing management under stronger local control, get better value from Brent's housing companies, and maintain and expand the landlord licensing scheme.
Communities: Policies include spending developer funding rapidly where most needed, exploring closer integration between council and community libraries, ensuring full community consultation before disposing of council assets, increasing free youth activities, and securing the future of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre.
Economy and Finance: The party prioritizes insourcing local services, local procurement, and local supply chains, establishing a Brent Community Energy Fund for community-led energy projects, increasing scrutiny of decision-making, and piloting not-for-profit community supermarkets for affordable, healthy food.
Environment and Transport: Commitments involve protecting green spaces from sale and development, mandating biodiversity targets, adopting enhanced tree planting standards, reforming parking policy, and expanding active travel initiatives.
Green Party Leader Cllr Mary Mitchell stated: "This is a pivotal moment for politics in Brent. Our manifesto sets out our intent to change Brent for the better, rooted in transparency, accountability and fresh determination and ideas."
Conservative Party Manifesto Highlights
Housing: Conservatives pledge to challenge planning applications that constitute overdevelopment, fix the planning system, and help people get on the housing ladder.
Communities: The party promises to scrap the bulky waste charge, increase Community Skip days, protect schools, libraries, and youth facilities, maintain police officer numbers, and encourage community policing.
Economy and Finance: Policies include cutting waste and bureaucracy before increasing council tax, fighting business rates increases, scrutinizing budgets to expose overspend, focusing on uncollected council tax arrears, and freezing council tax at 3.99% for four years.
Environment and Transport: Commitments involve challenging planning applications that threaten green spaces, demanding consultations before disposing of open spaces, campaigning for one-hour free parking across high streets, and investing an extra £1 million in roads and pavements.
Conservative Leader Cllr Suresh Kansagra said: "Brent residents deserve a council that focuses on the basics and spends taxpayers' money efficiently. Our manifesto sets out practical priorities for the borough."
Liberal Democrat Manifesto Highlights
Housing: Liberal Democrats focus on delivering genuinely affordable housing, prioritizing council home building programs, holding housing associations accountable, setting higher affordable housing targets in new developments, and pausing all new applications for HMOs.
Communities: The party promises to reintroduce regular street cleaning, target fly-tipping and anti-social behavior hotspots with increased enforcement, launch a public health campaign on chewing tobacco harms, reduce bulky waste charges, and bring back street bins across Brent.
Economy and Finance: Policies include eliminating the Deputy Mayor role, removing the Mayor's office and associated costs, freezing councillor allowance spending, and increasing Scrutiny Committees to examine council decisions.
Environment and Transport: Commitments involve lowering repair thresholds for roads and pavements, using Community Infrastructure Levy consistently for maintenance, inspecting roads to ensure proper restoration, reintroducing a dedicated trees budget, and improving parks and open spaces.
Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Paul Lorber emphasized: "Brent is a borough with huge strengths, but after 16 years of Labour in charge, too many residents feel the council has lost touch with everyday concerns."
Reform Party Policies
Reform has not released specific policies for Brent but outlines national priorities including simplifying planning, ending poor repair services for council tenants, restoring visible policing, deploying stop and search, adding CCTV coverage, cutting red tape and business taxes, creating a pro-enterprise environment, keeping council tax low, and scrapping net zero targets.
The party's website states: "Reform UK stands for a confident, sovereign, prosperous Britain. A country that rewards effort, enforces the law, defends its people, and believes in its future."
