Leader's update - Friday 28 November 2025

Published: 28 November 2025 Councillor Kam Rai, Leader of Redbridge Council

Last weekend, many of us attended the Christmas tree light‑up, talent show, food market, and drone show in Ilford Town Centre, organised with Cyril Bekoe and the Ilford BID Team.

Despite the weather, it was a pleasure to see so many people enjoying the different events and coming together at the end to switch on the lights and watch the rest of the show.

There are still more light switch‑on events: Seven Kings tonight and Barkingside tomorrow evening, with celebrations already held in Wanstead, Valentines Park, and Hainault earlier this week.

Over the weekend, I also had the pleasure of attending the annual Christmas market at St Peter’s Church in Aldborough with Wes Streeting MP. It was lovely to enjoy a cuppa and mince pie, browse the stalls, and meet so many local people.

On Tuesday I attended the Redbridge Business Forum, which was a great opportunity to meet businesses invested in our borough. We discussed how we can help create more opportunities, improve our support, and listen to their concerns and ideas to bring inward investment into Redbridge.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, I joined Cllr Khayer Chowdhury, Claire Hamilton (Chief Executive), and Metropolitan Police Officers on a major operation targeting criminals across the borough, following intelligence from residents that helped lead to arrests. I regularly meet with Borough Commander Stuart Bell to discuss crime and how we can work together to make Redbridge an even safer place to live.

This week we also held our 16 Days of Activism Conference in the Main Hall, with speakers including Wes Streeting MP, David Challen (Domestic Abuse campaigner), and Daniel Mandel (Executive Director of the Safe and Together Institute).

As part of our Reach Out service, we stand alongside survivors, offering the support they need while working relentlessly to prevent violence and abuse. We know that no one can tackle this issue alone. Gender‑based violence affects us all, and it will take collective commitment to drive meaningful change.

This year, our focus is on:

  • The impact of coercive control on children and young people
  • The ongoing harm caused by post‑separation abuse
  •  Digital harm
  • The importance of male allyship

Women’s safety is a priority for the Council, not just during the 16 days of Activism campaign, but all year round.

We want everyone to feel safe in our borough, whether walking home, commuting, or enjoying public spaces.

We can all help by downloading the Council’s Love Clean Streets app and reporting any broken streetlights we come across. Every report helps us fix issues quickly and keep our streets well-lit, welcoming, and safer

This week, the government announced the removal of the two‑child cap, which will lift many children in Redbridge out of poverty and improve their lives.

We also await the announcement of the fair funding review, a battle we have been fighting for over a decade. Over the past year, I have met with ministers and government advisers to make the case for our borough, and I’m hopeful our strong case will lead to an improvement in funding after years of unfairly low government grants.

Wishing you all a great weekend!