Councillor Steve Reed is a Labour Party councillor for Brixton Hill Ward [1] and has been Leader of Lambeth Council since May 2006 when Lambeth was the only council in the country Labour won back from opposition.[2] He led his party to a second successive election victory in May 2010 with an increased majority over the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats,[3] the first time any administration in Lambeth has been re-elected since 1990.[4]
Under Reed’s leadership Lambeth moved from a one-star rating in the Audit Commission’s annual inspection in 2006/7 to a three-star rating in 2008/9[5] making Lambeth the fastest-improving council in the country.
Reed holds a number of other significant positions in local government. He is:
In May 2010 Steve Reed launched a consultation on plans to turn Lambeth into the country’s first co-operative council [14][15] intending to deliver better services more cost-effectively by giving more control to communities and service users, reported in The Guardian newspaper as a possible new model for Labour in local government.[16]
The final report of Lambeth Council’s Cooperative Council Commission [17] laid out the plans for achieving this objective and Lambeth Council is now putting a transformation plan into effect.
Reed was named one of the three most influential council leaders in the country by the Local Government Chronicle in 2011 [18] and was the highest-ranked Labour politician in the 2010 Pink List compiled by the Independent on Sunday.[19]