Cllr Sagal Abdi-Wali is new housing lead
Councillor Sagal Abdi-Wali has taken over as Cabinet Member for Better Homes – and will make resident participation key to her approach to the role.
Councillor Abdi-Wali’s portfolio includes specific responsibility for leading on improving council homes and estates, tenant and leaseholder participation and promoting quality private rented accommodation.
Councillor Abdi-Wali will lead on Camden’s Estates Mission, which focuses on ensuring Camden's estates and their neighbourhoods are healthy and sustainable. She will continue the progress being made to deliver the highest level of safety in Camden’s housing and will have oversight of the council’s landlord services and its ongoing programme of repairs and maintenance, working closely with tenants and leaseholders to achieve better outcomes.
This is an area which is so close to my heart - a significant portion of my experience working in Local Government was in various areas of the Housing department, motivating me to drive improvement of our services for the benefit of our residents and leaseholders.
“I’m under no illusions about the scale of the challenge – we’ve suffered years of chronic underinvestment from Government, which has left us patching up our homes and unable to fully meet the growing need in Camden for housing support. What we have seen in response is a powerful refusal from our tenants and leaseholders to settle for this – and together with them, we’ve been able to make real progress on improving how their estates look, feel and work, and on critical issues like fire safety, as we look to establish the highest standard of safety in our homes.
“Resident participation, scrutiny and involvement is built into our housing process. I am committed to working closely with our tenants, leaseholders, representative groups and all residents to be a champion for social housing and co-design solutions to on the ground issues.
Councillor Georgia Gould confirmed Councillor Abdi-Wali’s role on the council’s Cabinet at the council meeting on Wednesday 15 May.
Councillor Patricia Callaghan remains Deputy Leader and Councillor Adam Harrison is the Second Deputy Leader.
Camden’s Cabinet is now as follows:
- Cabinet Member for Safer Communities – Councillor Pat Callaghan
- Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing, and Adult Social Care – Councillor Anna Wright
- Cabinet Member for Finance and Cost of Living – Councillor Richard Olszewski
- Cabinet Member for Best Start for Children and Families – Councillor Marcus Boyland
- Cabinet Member for Young People and Culture – Councillor Sabrina Francis
- Cabinet Member for New Homes, Jobs and Community Investment – Councillor Danny Beales
- Cabinet Member for Voluntary Sector, Equalities, and Cohesion – Councillor Nadia Shah
- Cabinet Member for a Sustainable Camden – Councillor Adam Harrison
Councillor Samata Khatoon was appointed as the new Mayor of Camden. This is an apolitical role with a civic and charity focus and means she is the borough’s first citizen. Councillor Eddie Hanson was appointed as the new Deputy Mayor.
ENDS