First sighting of Lesser Spotted Keith

EACH SPRING we have the competition to hear the first cuckoo of Spring – but when it’s an election year we have a parallel hunt for the first sighting of former Labour Councillor and Leader of the Council Michael Keith.

An anonymous reader has kindly forwarded a shot of a photo seen on Twitter which confirms that Michael Keith (back row, circled) has been seen out canvassing with veteran Labour Councillor Denise Jones, former Labour Councillor and founder of the annual Top 100 British Bangladeshis list Abdal Ullah, and two bearded Labour unknowns.

Professor Michael Keith – formerly known in political circles as the “Nutty Professor” championed stock transfer in Tower Hamlets – his favoured strategy for improving the standard of social housing in the borough. Stock transfer saw thousands of Council homes being handed over to Housing Associations.

Although work to bring the homes up to the Labour Government’s “Decent Homes” standards was carried out on most of them, tenants lost out as they had to accept drops in service standards and less of a say in new governance arrangements. Tenants also had to pay for the improvement works – either by paying for bank loans through their rents, or by having to give up land and amenities on their estates so that homes could be built for sale, to raise money to do the works.

On the other hand, Housing Associations’ book balances were boosted by the value of the land they now owned. This increased their borrowing powers in terms of building new social homes – and also increased the chances of it all ending in tears if there is another crash in house and land prices, like the one in 2008.

Professor Keith spends much of his time in Oxford now, where he works for Oxford University researching City life and issues to do with migration. However, he has not yet severed his links with Tower Hamlets Labour and, in particular Cllr Jones – and Cllr in waiting Mr Ullah. It has already been made clear by the local Labour Party that Professor Keith and John Biggs have made up after their altercation in 1995 over language used in local party leaflets.

Cllr Keith also keeps up his local links as Chair of the Board of the Rich Mix Centre in Whitechapel – the arts centre which ran into controversy when former Mayor Lutfur Rahman began legal action to try to secure repayment of an emergency loan the Council had given it to see it through difficult times.

The next “first sighting of Michael Keith” competition is expected in the Spring of 2022.

•Denise and Abdal are both Labour Party candidates for the two Council seats in St Katharine’s & Wapping ward in Tower Hamlets. Other candidates standing in this election are:
Masuma Begum – People’s Alliance of Tower Hamlets
Marie Cahill, Stephen O’Shea, Liberal Democrat
Robert Crowston – Green Party
Kirsty Finlayson, Anthony King – The Conservative Party
Mohammad Mamun, Altab Miah – Aspire

•Read more about it:
Rich Mix is looking forwards
Labour denial answers no questions

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