The new leader of Redbridge Council has been elected after weeks of internal voting.
Labour councillor Kam Rai, who became deputy leader in 2018, was named Jas Athwal’s successor at a full council meeting last night (25 July).
Cllr Athwal announced he would step down after more than a decade in the top job following his election win in Ilford South.
He said his “deputy and friend” was determined to “deliver another decade of renewal”.
Cllr Rai said he felt “proud and humbled” and wanted to “repay the trust of the council”.
He said: “It’s a daunting task and a daunting role. It can be lonely and we have many challenges to overcome, but I have many good colleagues to lean on.”
He committed to completing the Wanstead pool, building 600 new council homes, refurbishing libraries and “regenerating” town centres to “boost our economy”.
Tributes were also paid to Cllr Athwal, who said leading the council had been the “honour of his life”.
Councillor Thavathuray Jeyaranjan described him as “Mr Redbridge,” while housing member Vanisha Solanki said he had “served residents selflessly”.
Speaking for the last time as leader, Cllr Athwal said: “Ilford gave me a future, brighter than I ever imagined.
“All I ever wanted to do was to repay that debt to the people of our borough, the place that adopted and raised me, and gave me the opportunity to rise from a frightened seven-year-old to be the leader of a great London borough and Member of Parliament.”
He described his central achievement as protecting residents from “devastating funding cuts” while working to build new libraries and a lido.
The Redbridge Labour Party is understood to have elected Cllr Rai by Monday 22 July, but changeovers can only happen during council meetings. The party has control of the council with 58 seats, while the Conservatives hold just five.
Cllr Rai has been the cabinet member for finance since 2014, the year he was elected a councillor for Goodmayes.
But he has inherited the mantle at a difficult time for councils nationally.
Redbridge is the third lowest funded of the 32 London boroughs and has seen its funding cut by 52% since 2010.
The neighbouring council in Havering declared effective bankruptcy earlier this year, and financial watchdogs have warned many will follow in the coming years.
In a statement issued after the meeting, Cllr Rai said: “We do have challenges, and the role of councillors is to bring our communities together, to represent everyone fairly and be the voice for those who have none.
“I commit to working tirelessly to improve the place we live in and to leave no one behind, but we cannot do this alone.
“Each one of us has a responsibility to make Redbridge cleaner, greener and safer, and if we all do our bit, we will succeed.”
While many councillors were full of praise for Redbridge Labour’s ten years in power, Conservative leader Paul Canal was critical of “slow” development in the borough, pointing to the Valentine’s Park lido.
In their final exchange, Cllr Canal quipped that Cllr Athwal was standing down because he “could no longer blame the [Conservative] government”.
But he commended Cllr Athwal’s journey from a seven-year-old immigrant, unable to speak English, to a member of parliament, calling it “nothing short of remarkable”.
