I want to thank the people of Croydon who put their faith in me and elected me last Thursday (7 May) to serve a second term as Mayor. As a Croydon resident, born and bred, it is a huge honour to represent this great London borough, with its proud history and bright future.

We have achieved a great deal over the past four years – but there is more to do and I will continue to work hard for all our residents. My focus is on restoring financial stability and renewing pride across our borough. From cleaner, safer streets to a vibrant town centre that is fulfilling its potential, I am determined to deliver change on the issues that matter most to residents. I will continue to work hard for you and will set out my priorities in the coming weeks. Find out more.

As well as the Mayoral elections, the Councillor elections were held last week. Voter turnout was 41.02% overall, and even higher in some wards. Thank you to everyone who went to the polls to be part of local democracy and to help shape the decisions that affect you.

The new Council is politically more diverse, with Labour holding 30 seats, Conservatives 29 including the Mayoralty, Greens 7, Liberal Democrats 2 and Reform UK 2. Like the previous Council, there remains no overall control.

The last four years showed that despite a politically balanced Council, we were still able to take the difficult decisions needed to stabilise Croydon and progress the priorities that matter most to residents. As Executive Mayor, I will continue getting on with the job residents elected me to do, and I look forward to working constructively with Councillors in the interests of our borough.

What matters now is continuing the work of rebuilding Croydon – making our borough cleaner, safer and stronger for the future, with renewed pride in the place we are proud to call home.

Keeping our streets safe

We work very closely with our partners at Met Police Croydon in keeping our communities safe. This week they released the data from a Live Facial Recognition pilot in Croydon, during which 173 arrests of wanted suspects were made – the equivalent of one arrest every 35 minutes. These included men wanted in relation to sexual offences against women, and the arrest of a 36-year-old woman who had been on the run for more than 20 years after skipping court for an assault.

During the six-month pilot, crime fell by 10.5%, with the biggest reduction seen in violence against women and girls’ offences, which were down by 21%. This data shows that this technology has been hugely successful and supports the Council’s priority of keeping our streets safe for everyone who lives, works and visits Croydon.

Investing in Croydon

Croydon is a place of enormous opportunity and next week I’ll be going to UKREiiF (Real Estate, Investment and Infrastructure Forum) with major local partners to meet with potential investors and showcase everything the borough has to offer. In the last four years, we have secured more than £1.2bn of inward public and private investment – from town centre regeneration to new housing and commercial growth.

We are building on this success and have released our new Investment Prospectus, which highlights the sectors and key town centre sites that are ready for investment. This prospectus will help us to deliver our Inward Investment Strategy and sets out the scale of the opportunity ahead.

Surprised! Asian arts, creativity and community

North End will be a hive of activity with the sounds of Asia on Saturday and Sunday, from 12-6pm, with our Surprised! culture festival. Come along to see Balinese and Sri Lankan masked dancers, Chinese fan dances and Flamenco-Bharatanatyam fusion. There will also be food from across the continent, arts and crafts workshops and large-scale puppetry. All events and workshops are free. See the Culture Croydon website.

Have a great weekend.

Jason Perry

Executive Mayor of Croydon