A curry with the developers
PLUS: More leafletwatch, a campaign launch that never was and The Times comes to Camden
NORTH LONDON BUBBLE
The NLB is our weekly politics column on NewJournal+ for Camden and Islington. It’s written by Richard Osley (Camden) and Isabel Loubser (Islington). You can control which of our emails you receive in your Substack settings.
29 DAYS TO GO…
YIMBIRYIANI
THERE was uproar this week after it was revealed that the government’s housing secretary, Steve Reed, had attended a £2,000-a-seat “curry night” with major developers — just as he plans to slash affordable housing requirements that could otherwise limit their profits.
Look a little closer at the photos and you can spot one of Islington’s own rising stars in a prime seat at the table. Councillor Shreya Nanda donned the obligatory “build, baby, build” hard hat for the event, which she had helped organise as a member of the Labour YIMBY (Yes, in my backyard) alliance.
The group is funded by construction firms, trade bodies, and large-scale property managers, and is supportive of Mr Reed’s vision of fast-track housebuilding, even in cases where significant local opposition emerges.
That could be an awkward spot for Cllr Nanda, as her colleagues in the Town Hall are publicly firm in their desire to retain the current 50 per cent affordable housing obligation for new builds.
That said, this percentage has sometimes been more of a starting point for negotiation — and Islington Council has signed off on projects that don’t meet those requirements if they are deemed otherwise ‘financially unviable’. They may have to ask Mr Reed whether a curry with developers can help make discussions run smoothly.
MARTIN HAY
OUR condolences go to the family of Martin Hay, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Highgate who passed away suddenly last week.
The party’s group leader, Councillor Tom Simon, said: “Martin was a very warm, friendly and intelligent man who had been very much involved in the activities of both Camden and Haringey Lib Dems for many years and he will be much missed.”
And his family said in a statement: “The family of Martin Hay are deeply saddened to confirm his sudden death on April 1, 2026. Martin was a much-loved husband, father, stepfather, grandfather and friend, and his loss has been felt profoundly by all who knew him. The family ask for privacy at this time as they grieve together.”
There are more important things than local politics and we mean not to intrude on the grief being felt by Mr Hay’s family, but his passing has led to checks about what it means for the May 7 council elections and a potential delay to voting in the ward. Some interpret the rules as meaning that it must be put back, but Camden’s elections office told agents yesterday that it would not be countermanded.
LEAFLETWATCH
EVEN the Tories seemed to see the funny side of the chart they put out in the Belsize ward of Camden, after we shared it in last week’s Camden New Journal. It’s probably the biggest stretch Leafletwatch has seen during this year’s campaign: the label ‘only a vote for the Conservatives can stop Labour winning again’ next to a graph which shows the Lib Dems in the lead.
Meanwhile, if you’re a resident in South Hampstead, you have some detailed cartography to study. Both Labour and the Lib Dems have drawn up maps to show exactly what they say they have done at each reference point. The labels include ‘enlisted Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey to clear litter from Harben Estate'.
NO FIZZ
WE know there is still a sizeable readership of our paper in Camden that votes for the Conservatives, or at least has been inclined to in the past. Those people may fairly wonder where our coverage of the Tory election campaign launch is, after reading about the recent events at which the Labour and Lib Dem manifestos were released.
NLB has to tell it to you straight: for the first time in forever, the Conservatives are not organising a manifesto launch or holding a kickstart public event to rally the troops. Despite this, party organisers say defiantly that the Tories will have more councillors after May 7 than they do now. The starting figure is three.
IN THE PINEAPPLE
HIC… for those playing ‘backyard bingo’ — a drinking game bound to need pumped stomachs if you partake every time somebody uses the term ‘backyard’ in relation to our council elections. This time it was The Times, which sought out Camden’s sole Green councillor, Lorna Jane Russell, for predictions on what will happen in the prime minister’s patch on May 7. To complete the recipe, the interview took place in The Pineapple — famously Sir Keir Starmer’s favourite pub.
We weren’t flies on the wall for the questioning, so we don’t know how much policy was discussed or what was edited in or out — but the final article was all centred on people voting for the Greens to punish the PM.
Cllr Russell told the paper: “A lot of this backlash is actually personal against Keir. A lot of the decisions that are taken nationally by his government will reflect even more strongly on the doorstep here because there is that personal connection to him.
“And I think when voters want to punish the Labour government, they will be trying to punish him directly by getting some of his councillors out. And there are some good Labour councillors in Camden who will lose their seats.”
Meanwhile, Mail on Sunday columnist Dan Hodges, former Labour MP Glenda Jackson’s son, somehow managed not to use the word ‘backyard’ when he wrote: “Current polling shows that as many as 19 of the party’s 21 councils in the capital could now be under threat. What’s more, Zack Polanski’s insurgents aren’t simply at Keir Starmer’s gates - they’re at his front door. One of the Green’s key aims is snatching away control of Starmer’s own Camden Council, even though they currently have only a single councillor.”
We have the nationals watching closely.
THE NLB continues below.
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