Hello Everyone,
I hope you are well and have had a good / productive week! I’ve been out and about doing all things to promote our wonderful borough as well as making sure that the Council is delivering on the Building a Fairer Newham agenda for our residents – in spite of the challenging financial situation facing the Council because of the soaring costs of temporary accommodation and social care costs. More on that below and here, because we want to hear your views. I wanted to start this week by letting you know about two massively important things. The first is an incredible serious issue we are investigating, and it’s linked to the high ethical standards that I demand from everyone at the Council in our commitment to public service. All of us have to adhere to the Nolan Principles and the Council’s Code of Conduct for elected representatives and all council employees. It also means demonstrating diligence, honesty, probity and being honest – and dealing firmly with corruption and fraud. It’s why I’m strident on behalf of Newham residents if anyone at the Council falls short of the standards I expect. And why I’m pleased that someone spotted suspicious behaviour of an officer in our housing services department and reported it to our internal fraud team. The person caught committing this housing malpractice which involved the allocation of 35 social rent homes no longer works at Newham Council. As well as criminal investigations continuing, the recovery of those homes is being robustly pursued, and understandably it's been covered by the media as well. I'd urge anyone, whether you are an employee, Councillor or member of the public, to report any wrongdoing you see at Newham Council as I want it stamped out immediately, and you can find out how to report by clicking this link here. Moving on to the other important matter I wanted to flag with you: we’ll be marking Remembrance Sunday tomorrow where For The Fallen will be publicly read again, alongside the Kohima Epitaph, including the words ‘When you go home, tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow, we gave our today’. These words are a stirring reminder of all the lives lost across the ages from our country and the Commonwealth in the defence of our freedoms. The significance of Remembrance Sunday is powerful in so many ways. For me, it’ll remind me of my father’s stepfather, whom I discovered this year was part of the British Army during the Second World War. He was from pre-partition India and posted to Italy, which at the time was under the rule of Benito Mussolini: a fascist dictator who established a totalitarian regime which promoted aggressive nationalism and imperialism; and allied Italy with Nazi Germany. That’s why I am proud of my father’s stepfather: my grandfather, who sadly I never got to know. Here in Newham, we have a proud tradition of marking both Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day (which takes place next Tuesday) at East Ham Cenotaph, over in Central Park which is in East Ham. Both moments will be a chance to honour all the men and women who paid the ultimate price defending our Country and the Commonwealth. Please do come if you can, it is such an important moment of national reflection to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian men and women in the two World Wars and other conflicts in our world. Their service and sacrifice in defending our freedoms and protecting our way of life is to be honoured – including all those who have served for the emergency services to protect our freedoms. It will be painful for many and surely a sobering moment for us all as we reflect on the futility of conflict and war. And of the millions of lives lost which has caused great pain to countless families across the globe in the past and in the present day. That’s why we say ‘Never again’ – which also begs us to ask of ourselves what are we doing each and every day to shift from conflict mode? Sometimes, as I go about the borough doing my Mayor of Newham ‘stuff’, I come across people who are angry, frustrated and agitated about what they are having to deal with in their lives. I get it, but I don’t get why people can’t talk to each other in gentler ways: to understand different perspectives and arrive at understanding that many differing views can be valid; and life is about give and take and learning to respect different points of view respectfully. Let’s do more of that! On to other stuff: I am pleased to report that the borough-wide rollout of our new weekly food waste collection service gets underway this month! It starts with a pilot phase involving some 10% of households in Newham, ahead of a borough wide roll-out next year which all Councils are required to have in place from the 31st March 2026 next year. It means we’ll have to start separating all our food leftovers, peelings and scraps from the rest of our rubbish and recycling waste. During the Food Waste collection pilot phase we’ll be rolling out in the coming weeks, households taking part will be provided a free food waste caddy for use in their homes. When full, the caddy is emptied to an outdoor food bin (provided for free again) – so that the lingering smelly food waste isn’t causing an unpleasant fragrance in your home! The food waste will then be converted into environmentally friendly bio-gas and fertiliser. Don’t worry if you don’t get your caddy and bin; this is only the first wave. Everyone should get one over the following months. It’s all part of our Let’s Love Newham campaign, mobilising everyone to play their part in making our borough cleaner and greener, and promoting civic pride. I talked about all the things we are doing in Newham to support the environment this week, when I spoke at a conference organised by Climate Emergency UK on Tuesday, ahead of the UN’s climate change conference COP30 which starts next week. We’ll be marking the week through high-lighting the things we are doing through our Climate Emergency Just Transition Action Plan – ahead of publishing our second annual report on progress this December. There’ll be some significant announcements on our People Friendly Streets and Healthy School Streets programmes too! It’s important that we protect the health and well-being of our children, elderly residents and communities who are breathing toxic air as it seriously impacts their health. In just two years, we have made great strides to improve the environment for all our residents, and our Newham wildlife! We’ve seen our air quality and biodiversity improve through our resident-led pocket forest schemes, where some 18,500+ trees saplings have been planted – including in eight schools, Newham University Hospital and Gooseley Playing Fields. We’ve also won £1.5m from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which we’ve used at three Newham schools to reduce their energy usage and install new low-carbon heating systems. Newham has become a champion of community energy through our partnership with Repowering London, and to date we’ve delivered five school solar arrays and three library arrays, as well as the borough’s first share offer open to all Newham residents so they can access cheaper energy! We also won £1.5m from the Warm Homes fund to deliver the retrofit of 359 social homes across the borough, which will reducing energy bills during this cost of living crisis moment we are in. And we have delivered the UK’s first place-based climate contract as part of our leadership through the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone, involving key organisations such as Excel London, University of East London, Lendlease, London City Airport, and Tate & Lyle Sugars. We’ve all signed an ambitious climate agreement to help us reach Net Zero by 2030, and all part of our Just Transition Climate Action Plan which has been nationally commended as well! We were winners in the Local Government Chronicle Awards 2025 for ‘Leading Local Government Cultural Shift for a Just Transition to Net Zero’! 👏 Talking about recognition, there’s still time to nominate your local heroes in Newham’s Civic Awards 2025. These are the Oscars of our community! A super recognition of awesomeness of Newham and our people. If you know about an exceptional person who is making a powerful difference in our borough – please nominate them! But don’t delay, as the deadline for nominations is Sunday 16th November! Finally, in other BIG award news, our Council owned housing company Populo Living has scooped another prize at the Housebuilder Awards 2025 on Thursday night for our exceptional Noele Gordon House housing development in East Ham – which supports independent living for residents over the age of 55 years - and I am over the moon!👏 As with everything that I do as your Mayor, I’ve tasked the Council and Populo Living to put our people first. We are being recognised, commended and winning for that. Until next week, have a restful weekend – and take care.
Best wishes, Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE Follow what I am up to via X/Twitter: @rokhsanafiaz | 
