From Housing to Green Spaces: How Labour Is Delivering for Ladywell

Ladywell candidates, outgoing councillors and Labour activitists in Ladywell

Originally published on Ladywell Live

Your Labour candidates in Ladywell understand the real power of local government and what it can deliver for residents. Together, my running mates bring deep roots and proven commitment to our community. Collet Hunter founded a local charity following the tragic loss of her son to knife crime, transforming personal grief into lasting support for others. Ayesha Lahai‑Taylor has served as a councillor in neighbouring Brockley Ward since 2022, is a school governor at St Mary’s Primary School in Ladywell, and works within another London council—giving her invaluable frontline experience. My own background is in trade unions and the charity sector, where I successfully campaigned to keep vital helplines open for older people escaping abuse, ensuring they had someone to listen and a real route to safety and support.

Local government is easy to overlook — but it has more impact on our daily lives than almost any other level of politics. It’s responsible for the rubbish and recycling we put out each week, the pavements we walk on, the parks our families rely on, and the planning consent that decides what gets built in our neighbourhoods. Lewisham Council takes decisions every day that shape our streets, our homes and our quality of life. That’s why who represents us matters — and why we need local councillors who are prepared to stand up for residents, understand the powers they hold, and use them to make Lewisham a better place to live.

Labour is delivering real results for Ladywell. Your Labour council is building 100 genuinely affordable homes at Ladywell Park Gardens, taking action to tackle London’s housing crisis and help local people stay in the borough. Labour councillors fought to secure an extension to the Lewisham Donation Hub lease, protecting vital support for refugees, asylum seekers and residents facing extreme poverty. We stepped in to save the much‑loved Ladywell Pre‑School nursery from closure, keeping an essential community service open for local families. And Labour has brought in funding for new tennis courts and gym equipment in Hilly Fields, alongside major upgrades to the Lewisham Park playground — visible, practical improvements that are making a difference to everyday life in Ladywell.

Recently, Collet, Ayesha and I joined local volunteers at a River clean-up in Ladywell Fields — a reminder that protecting our environment takes both community action and political leadership. Under Labour, Lewisham Council is backing residents with real action, including cutting the cost of bulky waste collection to just £5 per item. This Labour‑led change is already helping residents dispose of waste responsibly, tackling fly‑tipping at its source and protecting Ladywell’s streets, green spaces and waterways.

But there is more to come. Labour has launched a campaign to save the Ravensbourne Arms as a vital community space at the heart of Ladywell. Developers want to convert the building into yet another House in Multiple Occupation. While we recognise the urgent need for more housing in London, it cannot come at the cost of losing the community spaces that bring neighbourhoods together. Whatever the outcome of this election, Labour will continue to stand with residents and fight to keep the Ravensbourne Arms as a community asset for Ladywell. You can sign our online petition here: https://survey.labour.org.uk/protectravensbournearms

Our opponents in this election are only just putting forward a local manifesto for Lewisham, despite it being just days before the election. Instead, their focus is on issues well beyond the powers of the council, offering simplistic slogans on complex international conflicts while ignoring the everyday decisions that matter here in Ladywell. Far from “sending a message to government”, all this does is show a fundamental misunderstanding of what local government does — and of what it takes to do the hard work of delivering for residents locally for the next four years.

By contrast, your Labour candidates understand both the responsibilities and the possibilities of local government. Labour has set out a clear and ambitious manifesto rooted in fairness, community and practical action — focused on protecting what makes Lewisham special while investing in its future. From defending valued community spaces to improving services and opportunities for local people, Labour’s plan is about building a borough that works for everyone.

Our Manifesto – Lewisham Labour Party – Lewisham Labour

Contributions from other candidates can also be viewed on Ladywell Live

Labour – Investing in Green Spaces and Healthier Communities

Recently, alongside Ayesha Lahai‑Taylor and Collet Hunter, I visited Ladywell Fields in Lewisham, a much‑loved Green Flag park and vital green space for local residents. In the clip below, we talk about some of the great things happening here:

Lewisham boasts some of the finest green spaces in London, and ongoing investment is enhancing them for everyone. The improvements to the skate park at Ladywell Fields are a clear example of this commitment in action.

Green spaces are essential to both physical and mental wellbeing. Trees and plant life help clean the air we breathe, while parks enhance our quality of life in countless ways. That is why protecting and investing in Lewisham’s green spaces continues to be a priority for Lewisham Labour.

Lewisham shopping centre redevelopment – taking the borough forward

Crowd walking outside Lewisham Shopping Centre with red double-decker bus on road

The role of the opposition is to hold government—including local government—to account. That role comes with responsibilities to voters: first, to be truthful, and second, when opposing a proposal, to put forward a credible alternative.


Sadly, in Lewisham, the campaign opposing the redevelopment of Lewisham Shopping Centre does neither. As demonstrated in the video and Instagram post linked below, the opposition relies on misinformation rather than facts, and protest rather than practical solutions:

What Has Actually Been Agreed


Lewisham Council, under Labour leadership, has spent three years consulting residents, community groups, traders, and local businesses on the future of the town centre. This has not been rushed or imposed; it has been shaped through sustained engagement.


The outcome is a redevelopment plan that keeps the shopping centre and market open, while delivering significant long-term benefits for Lewisham:

  • 344 genuinely affordable homes, delivered at no cost to the council, including homes with a key worker discount scheme
  • A new 600-seat, community-owned cultural music venue
  • Around 2,000 new jobs and training opportunities for local people
  • A publicly accessible elevated garden and meadow, at least the size of two football pitches—creating a major new green space in the heart of Lewisham
  • Sub-market rent retail and workspace, with flexible terms to help local start-ups and small businesses grow
  • Ring-fenced funding for town centre improvements, including better transport, streets, and public facilities

Setting the Record Straight

Despite repeated claims from opponents, no residents are being displaced. The site currently provides no homes at all. Assertions to the contrary are simply untrue.

Claims that this redevelopment represents “gentrification” of the shopping centre also fail to stand up to scrutiny. Lewisham Shopping Centre is a tired, 1960s-era mall. Like many high streets across the UK—and globally—it has suffered from rising vacancy rates, a trend accelerated by the pandemic.

Lewisham is a Zone 2 town centre, well connected by the DLR and rail. Residents already travel outside the borough to shop, work, and socialise. The choice facing Lewisham is not between redevelopment and preservation of a thriving centre; it is between investment and managed decline.

A False Alternative

Opponents claim they want to “save” the shopping centre, yet their only proposal is to scrap the current plans and reopen consultation yet again. After three years of engagement, this is not a serious alternative—it is a recipe for delay, uncertainty, and eventual closure.

Far from protecting Lewisham town centre, this approach risks accelerating its decline.

A Positive Vision for Lewisham

I am proud to be standing on a Labour ticket that supports job creation, affordable housing, and investment in our local economy. The redevelopment of Lewisham Shopping Centre is about building a town centre that works for today’s residents—and for the next generation.

Lewisham deserves ambition, honesty, and solutions. That is what this plan delivers.

Local Action to Clean the River Ravensbourne at Ladywell Fields

Yesterday the Labour team joined the Ladywell Fields River Clean-Up. These events are regularly organised by local volunteers to clean the River Ravensbourne. These volunteers are the unsung hero’s of our community who ensure that our local parks and waters ways are protected. It was a privilege to spend time with them yesterday.

Ayesha Lahai-Taylor, Collet Hunter and Nick Kelly, Labour candidates in Ladywell Ward, Lewisham, walking back from the River clean-up in Ladywell Fields, Saturday 11 April 2026.

That London, the third‑largest city in Europe, has an urban waterway teeming with wildlife and plant life is something truly extraordinary. It is a shared asset we must actively protect as a community. Although it was a privilege to be part of the clean‑up, it was also a saddening insight into how poorly some still treat this precious environment.

Ayesha Lahai Taylor and I in our waders cleaning the River Ravensbourne.

In Notes from a Small Island, published in 1995, Bill Bryson wryly described what he called Britain’s “annual festival of litter,” observing how people seemed to find time to scatter crisp packets, empty cigarette boxes, and plastic bags across the landscape. That line stayed with me as I stood by the Ravensbourne.

Talking with Robert, a local volunteer who has been cleaning the river for more than 25 years, put things into perspective. He told me the river is in far better shape than it was two decades ago, when it was common to haul out mattresses—and even the occasional moped. Listening to him brought back memories of the Hutt River in Upper Hutt, where I grew up in New Zealand, which suffered from similar problems years ago. It struck me then that this isn’t a London problem, or even a UK problem. Litter and pollution are human problems, and the difference comes down to whether enough people choose to care.

Colette Hunter, Ayesha Lahai-Tayer and me in the River Ravensbourne.

In the river we found car hubcaps, bike parts, piles of CDs (perhaps the aftermath of a messy breakup and an act of revenge?), vape components, crisp packets, wine and beer bottles, and an assortment of other discarded rubbish. What felt particularly ironic was that, along much of this stretch of river, you have to walk past several clearly placed litter bins just to reach the water—making the decision to throw waste into the river a conscious choice rather than an accident.

Above: Collet snapped a photo of me and the real estate sign I found at the bottom of the river.

Clearly, more needs to be done to prevent fly‑tipping—especially the dumping of rubbish into our rivers. One positive step is the Labour Lewisham Council’s recent decision to reduce the cost of bulky waste collection to £5 per item, replacing the previous flat rate of £42 for up to four large items. By making it easier and more affordable to dispose of bulky household waste responsibly, measures like this should help reduce both fly‑tipping on land and the thoughtless dumping of rubbish into our waterways.

But ultimately, the small minority to chose to discard their rubbish in this way need to be held to account. Labour have promised to install more CCTV at fly-tipping hotspots and fine those who blight our Lewisham borough. Lewisham Labour also promise to reintroducing town-centre managers who will work directly with the police to make our town centres safer and more welcoming places to visit. To find out more read our manifesto: Our Manifesto – Lewisham Labour Party – Lewisham Labour

Our park volunteers are community champions—but they can’t do it alone. Clean rivers and healthy green spaces depend on all of us stepping up.

Save the Ravensbourne Arms | Protect Community Spaces in Ladywell

We’re calling on residents across Ladywell Ward and the wider Lewisham community to stand together and oppose any planning application that would result in the Ravensbourne Arms never being able to be used as a community space

📍 There is no clear evidence that it cannot be used as a public/community space

📍 Planning policy at every level (local, London-wide, and national) requires this to be proven – and it hasn’t been

📍 A similar proposal was already refused, with no meaningful change to justify approval now

📍 Claims of “no interest” are unproven and lack transparency

📍 Other venues nearby are thriving and expanding, showing clear demand

📍 Losing this space would damage Lewisham Town Centre and its evening economy

Yes, we need housing. But not at the cost of erasing community infrastructure.

✍🏾 Add your name. Make your voice heard.

Let’s protect what makes Ladywell… Ladywell.

🔗 Click link to support – https://survey.labour.org.uk/protectravensbournearms

We know there is a housing crisis in London, but ultimately we need to retain community spaces like the Ravensbourne Arms.

A great model for this is Catford House where the old pub has reopened and is now being used by the community for a variety of events such as art exhibitions and community meetings. And for the real ale drinkers like me, have Timothy Taylor’s Landlord on tap.

Ravensbourne Arms is a magnificent old building, and it is important that its kept as a community space for now and into the future.

Nick Kelly for Ladywell – From Commentary to the Arena

Readers of this blog over the past eight years will know that I am, first and foremost, a commentator — someone who analyses and critiques policy and politics. That role matters. But, as the saying goes, it is not enough merely to interpret the world in various ways; the point is to change it.

Or, as Theodore Roosevelt put it more memorably:

It is not the critic who counts; the credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena.

Today, I am stepping into that arena.


I am standing as a Labour candidate for the Ladywell Ward in Lewisham, alongside my running mates Collet Hunter and Ayesha Lahai‑Taylor. The question I’ve been asked most often is a simple one: why?


You can hear part of my answer here:

Nick Kelly explaining why he is running for Labour in Ladywell.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister said everyone needs “Someone to Love, Somewhere to Live, Somewhere to Work, Something to Hope For”. In this sentence he summed my Labour values. My values.

In one sentence, he captured my Labour values — and my own.


Throughout my working life, I’ve stood alongside bus drivers, security guards, and trade unions, fighting for stability, justice, and respect. I’ve worked to keep helplines open for older people escaping abuse — ensuring that when they needed someone to listen, someone was there, and that there was a pathway to safety and dignity.


Lewisham matters deeply to me because it reminds me of Upper Hutt, where I grew up: vibrant, alive, shaped by the strength of its communities. But I also see familiar challenges — particularly the shortage of safe, secure, genuinely affordable housing for everyone who calls this place home.


Over the coming weeks, I’ll be using this blog to set out how Labour can help build a Lewisham that works for everyone — and to explain why I am asking for your support for Collet, Ayesha, and me in Ladywell.


Watch this space.

Why the Your Party project serves The Reform Party

The Zara and Jeremy project will help Nigel Farage

Former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and Coventry MP Zara Sultana, both former Labour MPs who lost the whip, are threatening to start a new party on the left.

I use the word threaten, as that is what this project will do. It will threaten the NHS, threaten employment rights and threaten to destroy what little faith the public has in politics.

Why?

Because, under the First Past the Post electoral system, splitting the progressive vote will help Nigel Farage become Prime Minister.

Corbyn, in his four-year tenure as Labour leader, failed to advocate for proportional representation. Instead, he was happy to maintain a system which essentially reduces politics down to a two-horse race.

Jeremy and Zara know full well that by forming another left party under the current electoral system, they will split the vote and help Reform come to power. Yet, this is what they are doing.

Things are not easy now, in the UK or global politics. But things will get so much worse if a split progressive vote puts the Reform Party into Government in the UK.

Trump – not fit for public office.

On the eve of the US Presidental, it is worth reflecting that this is now the third election where Donald Trump has been on the ballot. Initially dismissed as a joke candidate who would not make it past the primary, his brand of post-truth and divisive politics has dominated the last decade of US politics.

In the six years since I started this blog, I have written various posts about Trump’s politics and its negative influence on the world. These are listed below:

Genius Trump

Guns

Qasem Soleimani: murdered by the United States

Pandemics are no time for inward-looking nationalism

The US election – why sometimes voting for the lesser evil is right

Trump loses the Presidency, but Trumpism lives on

The ugly finale of the Trump Presidency

The US withdraws from Afghanistan and the inevitable happened

Democracy is on the Ballot – watershed US midterms this week

The 2022 midterms and what happens next in US politics

Trump is not, and never has been, fit for public office. Yet he remains a force to be reckoned with. He has never won the popular vote, and the majority of Americans, including many in ‘red’ states, oppose him. But to beat him, people need to vote……

2024 UK Election – the Tories finally lose power

Welcome to my 200th blog post, the first since the 2024 UK General Election.

In what came as a shock to absolutely no one, the Conservatives lost. Badly.

Today the corridors of Westminster felt like the first day of school. 334 new MPs have come in to get their passes working, set up their email and find a desk. A couple of freshers nervously asked if they were allowed on the red carpet/ the House of Lords end (they are). Many were walking around steering in awe at the statues and artwork and excitedly looking around the Commons.

The election result was a massive swing against the Tories. 121 MPs will be the lowest number of Conservative MPs elected in the party’s history. Labour is by far the largest party and will govern with a majority of 172. Below are the full results showing the results for all MPs and parties elected:

PartySeatsSeats (change) Total VotesShare of the Vote
Labour412+2119,704,65533.7%
Conservatives121-2516,827,31123.7%
Liberal Democrats72+643,519,19912.2%
SNP9-39724,7582.5%
Sinn Fein70210,8910.7%
Independent6+6564,2432.0%
Reform UK5+54,117,22114.3%
Green4+31,943,2656.7%
Plaid Cymru4+2194,8110.7%
DUP5-3172,0580.6%
SDLP2086,8610.3%
Alliance Party10117,1910.4%
UUP1+194,7790.3%
TUV1+148,6850.2%
The 2024 UK General Election results

In 2019, Labour received 10,269,051 votes and won just 202 seats. In 2024, Labour received 9,704,655 votes but won 412 seats. In 2017, Labour won 12,877,918 or 40% of the vote, compared with 33.7% of the vote in 2024.

I will come back to the elephant in the room, the lack of proportionality in the First Past the post-electoral system.

The feedback on the doorstep is reflected in the numbers above. Many voters were undecided leading up to the election and unenthusiastic about either main party. When pressed, it became clear many former Conservative voters would not be supporting that party again. 2024 was the election that the Tories lost, and badly.

On the surface, 33.7% may not seem like a strong result for Labour, in terms of overall support. We need to consider some of the following factors:

  1. Tactical voting played a significant role in this election. Many would-be Labour voters living in places like Devon voted Liberal Democrat to stop the Tories. Curiously, the Liberal Democrats went from 3,696,419 votes, equating to 11.6% in 2019, whereas on Thursday their total votes went down to 3,519,199, but due to lower turnout, this equates to 12.2% of the vote. The Lib Dems now have 71 MPs, instead of the 8 they got in 2019.
  2. The voter coalition built by Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour in the 2017 election of younger progressive voters, has now moved to the Greens. On Thursday the Greens received 1,943,265 votes equating to 6.7% of votes cast. In 2019, the Greens received 865,715 votes or 1.1% of the vote.
  3. In New Zealand or other countries with more proportional voting systems, it is common to look at the centre-left and centre-right bloc rather than just what the parties received. Labour and the Greens together received 40.4% of the vote compared with the Conservatives and Reform who received 38%. The Liberal Democrats were largely targeting Tory seats this election. They stood on a broadly social democratic platform and made it clear that unlike 2010 they would not support a Conservative Government after the election. So adding their 12.2% to the Centre-left bloc we get to 52.6%.
  4. So while First Past the Post has produced a result that is not proportional, and in my view is an appalling voting system, a different voting system like the one used in Germany and New Zealand would have still resulted in a Labour Government (though almost certainly in coalition) and a crushing defeat for the Tories.

The UK Electoral Reform Society have put together modle showing what the result would have looked like using the Additional Member System used in Scotland and Wales:

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/how-the-2024-election-could-have-looked-with-proportional-representation/

The problem with this is that if there were a different voting system, people would likely not vote the same way.

The broader problem with the proportional representation debate in the UK is they tend to advocate only specific alternative voting systems like AMS or AV. This election result will rightly see more people call for proportional representation. Just as New Zealand did before changing voting systems in 1993, UK voters need the opportunity to explore all viable alternatives to First Past the Post.

Those who blame the rise in Reform for the Tory Party’s misfortune need to look at the bigger picture. In 2015 UKIP, Farage’s old party, received 3.8 million votes compared with Reform’s 4.1 million last week. While Farage’s new political vehicle certainly cost the Tories votes in key marginals, there is evidence of former Labour voters also switching to Reform.

The Conservative Party lost because their vote went from 13,966,454 votes or 43.6% in 2019 to 6,827,311 or 23.7% in 2024. The number of people who voted Tory halved in just five years. Why? Their response to the pandemic, party-gate, the Liz Truss mini-budget and their failure to manage the small boats crisis in the channel. They were terrible at managing the economy allowed public services to decline.

In terms of the two major party’s vote share, in 2019 the Labour and the Conservatives together received 75.% of the vote, and in 2017 82.3%. Last week the two combined received 57.4% of the vote.

One feature in this election is the 6 independent candidates, many of whom ran on the issue of Gaza. In one case it caused former Labour front-bencher Jonathan Ashworth to lose his Leicester South seat. Other senior Labour MPs such as Wes Streeting or Jess Phillips saw their majorities reduced drastically as many Muslim voters abandoned Labour for Independent candidates, or refused to vote. Starmer’s Labour Party was initially reluctant to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Had there not been a significant swing against the Conservatives, Labour losing support from large sections of the British Muslim community could have been very damaging.

Former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn was also elected as an Independent MP in Islington North. Again, his position on Gaza was a factor in Corbyn’s success.

In Scotland, support for the embattled Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) collapsed. Labour now has 37 of Scotland’s 57 seats, compared with one seat in 2019. It would be a mistake to view this as a collapse in support for Scottish Independence as a cause. A Norstat/Sunday Star Times poll published just a fortnight ago found that 47% of Scots still support independence, while 47% support staying in the union. Other recent polls on Scottish independence have also been quite close. The election result, rather than spelling the end for Scottish Independence, instead may result in the SNP being the main political vehicle for this cause.

In Northern Ireland, Sein Fein won the most seats. This is consistent with the most recent Stormont and local government elections in Northern Ireland. The decline of the Democratic Unionist Party post-Brexit has in part fuelled division on the Unionist side with two other rival parties challenging them.

Wales no longer has any Conservative MPs. Labour has controlled the Welsh Senedd since it was created in 1999. Despite the recent scandal surrounding Vaughan Gething the new Welsh First Minister, Labour continue to dominate politics in that nation.

This was a change election. Not only is there a new Government, but politics will be different. After this election, there are 264 women MPs, a record in Westminster. The Cabinet will also have more women than any before it. There will also be more MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds, though there is some concern that this diversity is not fully reflected in the cabinet.

Britain has been in decline in recent years. It will be difficult for the incoming government as they inherit a poor economy, crumbling public services and a country whose standing internationally has diminished considerably since Brexit. It is no wonder voters lacked enthusiasm during this election.

For Labour, the next five years will be an opportunity to show the country they can be trusted with power. Things will be tough and any honeymoon could be short-lived. That said, voters will take time to forget, let alone forgive the mess left by the previous Conservative administration. While people may not yet be enthusiastic about Labour, they can could no longer stomach the Tories.

UK Tories fend off challenges both left and right

Opinion: It was with a strong sense of déjà vu that I watched Rishi Sunak announce that if re-elected, he would introduce compulsory national service for all 18-year-olds. I remember an equally embattled former National Party Prime Minister Jenny Shipley making the same outlandish promise during the 1999 election campaign.

Read my full column at Newsroom NZ: https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/07/03/uk-tories-fend-off-challenges-left-and-right/