CROYDON COMMENTARY: After almost five years of incompetence and failure under a Tory Mayor, it is now possible for Croydon residents to abolish the role. ANDREW PELLING explains the changes, and the predicament for the borough’s political classes.
PLUS: Take part in our exclusive opinion poll on whether you want to get rid of the borough’s mayor
Not what was wanted: Jason Perry, for 28 years a local councillor, has not been the dynamic figure that residents in the south of the borough campaigned for
You may not have noticed – not many did – but in April, the government passed the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026.
Under this legislation, Labour made it impossible for other borough-level local authorities in England to create a directly elected mayor, as Croydon had done in 2021 with the referendum secured by the DEMOC campaign.
While Whitehall decided to try to save billions from local government spending by abolishing a swathe of district councils and merging them into single tier authorities – such as with East and West Surrey – the Devolution Act contained an important caveat. “Legacy Mayors”, as in Croydon and 12 other councils (including London boroughs Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, and Tower Hamlets) would remain.
The original arrangement that existed when Croydon opted for a directly elected mayor – when 80% of those who voted rejected the “strong leader” and cabinet model – was that nothing could be done to change this decision for 10 years.
But this year, as well as halting some of the county council and district council mergers, something else has changed. Now, even the areas with “legacy mayors” can bin that system. And that includes Croydon.
A mayoralty established after a referendum can only be abolished if this is approved in another referendum. To abolish Croydon Council’s directly elected mayor could be achieved with a resolution of full council, where a motion must be brought and passed by a majority vote, to stage a referendum.
Change of mind: in 2021, 80% of those who voted chose to have the Town Hall run by a directly elected mayor. After five years of Jason Perry, might a second referendum produce a different result?
Or, just as in 2021, a public petition is held that this time calls for a referendum to scrap the role of mayor. To trigger such a referendum, the petition must attract signatures from 5% of the locally registered electorate, just as in 2021. That target number today would be something above 14,300 signatures.
But the mayoral role cannot be dissolved mid-term. And the elected mayor must be replaced by the leader and cabinet system – what Croydon had before 2022. The Labour government doesn’t like running local services by committee.
There is another way that a referendum could be called on the matter: the Secretary of State could call one.
This is all another dilemma for Croydon’s Mayor, Jason Perry.
Mayor Perry has to try to prove that the mayoralty works.
Commenting on the legislation as it was being considered, the House of Commons Library published this: “An authority that has held a referendum on a directly-elected mayor may hold a further referendum after four years. Currently this period is 10 years. Three local authorities (Newham, Tower Hamlets and Croydon) held their most recent referendums in 2021. This change would enable these authorities to hold a referendum on their mayoralty after the Bill has become law. Without this change, they would be unable to choose to abolish their mayor until 2031.”
New powers: Angela Rayner could pull the plug on Croydon having an elected mayor tomorrow
You can imagine Angela Rayner, Steve Reed’s predecessor and replacement as Secretary of State, if she had a sense of devilment, reaching for the excuse that slow progress on tackling the council’s troubles justifies a poll. That was the reason given for calling in the Commissioners to Croydon Council last year to oversee the Mayor’s management.
Councillors much prefer to make decisions in private meetings before the charade that is the council cabinet “endorsing” the Mayor’s decisions, with opposition councillors all but excluded. This cosy back-room arrangement is instead of a clearly identifiable individual having a direct personal accountability to all the voters.
The arguments put forward five years ago by the DEMOC campaign included that a popular vote for a mayor allows all voters in all Croydon’s 28 wards to decide who runs the council, not just voters in Croydon’s 15 marginal or “swing” wards.
The ability of Labour to win a share of council seats above the proportion of the popular vote share also exercised voters in the south of the borough, who had encountered a dismissive or antagonistic culture in town planning from Labour councillors and some council planning staff.
Today, only the Conservatives support the mayoral system and they only have 29 council votes among Croydon’s 70 councillors plus Mayor Perry to keep the system going without a referendum challenge.
Bad for democracy: Croydon Green Peter Underwood opposes the mayoral system
Croydon’s Greens oppose the mayoralty. At May’s local elections, their mayoral candidate Peter Underwood told Inside Croydon that, “For me, the Mayoral system is bad for democracy. It’s putting all the power in one person’s hands.”
Underwood sadly never did manage to get elected to the council, as mayor or councillor. But the Greens now have eight councillors at the Town Hall.
The Liberal Democrats also dislike the power vested in one person and feel that the mayoral election is an unfairly large election for smaller Croydon parties to participate in. The LibDems now have two councillors at the Town Hall.
For Labour, the situation is much more complicated. Nationally, Labour has blocked any more mayors being created at borough level. The big push for devolution, with announcements in last week’s Budget, is aimed at empowering city and regional mayors, as in London or Greater Manchester.
Old mates: MP Steve Reed (left) opposed the mayoralty option, which was a response to the misrule of Labour council leader Tony Newman
In Croydon in 2021, Labour, led by MP Steve Reed, was vehemently against a move to a mayoralty. This was within two years of the council’s financial collapse under a deeply distrusted “strong leader” and cabinet. It proved deeply divisive. They compromised future Labour mayoral candidates. And they deselected councillors who dared express pro-mayoralty views.
Five years on, Croydon Labour’s leadership has a calmer, more sagacious approach. If asked, they would likely say that the party has not taken a position on the mayoralty.
This makes sense when you remember just how disastrous Labour’s campaign was in opposing the mayoral system, using vivid pictures of burning £20 notes in their campaign literature. The image merely reminded voters of the financial flames caused by Labour’s bankrupting the council. Only 11,519 voters backed Labour’s “No” campaign.
Labour has also lost Croydon’s last two local elections. So a lot of thought will be needed before risking losing a second referendum.
DEMOC – the Democratically Elected Mayor of Croydon campaign – was quietly wound up after securing its goal of a referendum and an elected mayor. Former members of DEMOC, many active in residents’ associations, are understood to be marshalling affairs to fight any snap referendum.
But referendums can be fought over more than just a philosophical debate about local governance. A referendum fought as a “No confidence” vote in Mayor Perry might just bring the whole mayoral edifice down.
The result of the Labour plus Greens plus Liberal Democrats in May’s election was 52.9% as opposed to 30.7% for Perry.
Stupid move: the Labour anti-mayor campaign was dreamt up by MP Reed and Joel Bodmer
It may be that Labour fancy their Burnham-burnished chances to win the mayoralty and control of the council next time (while sweeping away most of the Green councillors). Local election day of May 2 2030 is a long way away, though, especially as Prime Minister Burnham will have had to hold a national General Election some time before August 2029.
DEMOC wanted their ideal mayor to have a certain X-factor, with a dynamic approach. Perhaps someone from outside the political ranks of Croydon Council. Instead, they got Perry, who had been a councillor for 28 years before he was elected Mayor.
Perry’s close-run victories in 2022 and 2026 are an endorsement of the mayoral popular vote system. For the Conservatives to win, they needed to secure votes from north of the Croydon Flyover. DEMOC said that more voters would impact on who won council control and this has proved the case. Parties do now campaign in more wards, including safe wards previously neglected.
DEMOC also wanted the mayoralty to be more accountable to voters. Its opening line “When did the council last listen to you?” went down well with residents.
On planning, Perry listened to voters and quickly dropped planning policy SPD2, which encouraged taller buildings and back-garden developments. Mayor Perry has also managed out those in the planning department who were so dismissive of residents. Four years on, government planning policy to bring in those SPD2-style policies and Mayor Khan’s 5,600 extra homes on Croydon Green Belt gives plenty of opportunity for Mayor Perry to portray himself as a champion for residents.
DEMOC wanted the mayor’s popular vote to strengthen the people’s voice over the whims of council bureaucrats. So Perry, on his first day in office, on the Town Hall steps warmly shaking hands with Katherine Kerswell, the council’s remote and aloof chief executive, was the exact opposite that DEMOC supporters might have expected.
A change in the balance of power at the Town Hall has been difficult to achieve in a mayoralty controlled first by an improvement board and then by government Commissioners.
Despite having an enlarged staff of (political) advisers, Mayor Perry now doesn’t bother to reply to correspondence, even urgent emails from the leader of the opposition. Other opposition councillors also suggest a lack of active control. Suggestions that the mayor’s role is not full-time (Perry has held outside directorships throughout his term of office) also undermine the mayoralty’s cause.
It would be churlish to deny the achievements claimed in the Mayor’s Business Plan which was recently voted down at a full council meeting. But most are achievements a council leader could secure.
There are seriously noteworthy mayoral achievements in improving children’s services and rehousing council tenants who were living in Regina Road’s filth and mould. Though both of those improvements had begun before Perry took office.
The council debt’s rate of growth has seen Mayor Perry add £300million to what he inherited in 2022. Simple arithmetic and a higher interest rate inevitably means that council debt is going to grow again if more assets cannot be sold.
A severe financial crisis beckons that might coincide awkwardly with a referendum. A directly elected mayor needs to follow the numbers and force the government’s hand in a showdown resolution of Croydon’s financial disaster. A big win on investment, whether public or private sector, is needed to protect the office of mayoralty.
Andrew Pelling, pictured right, was the MP for Croydon Central from 2005 to 2010. He is a former London Assembly Member and has been both a Conservative and Labour councillor at the Town Hall. He was a leading proponent for the DEMOC campaign
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I never supported the directly elected mayoral system. Those who wanted the change were trying to remove the strong leader and look they replaced it with another strong leader. They replaced a council of 70 councillors with one of 70 councillors, 1 executive mayor and a new lot of hangers on, oh I’m sorry, support staff. The sooner we can get rid of it and replace it with the old system, save a bit of money on the role and eventually return to a committee system, the better.
But don’t think any of this is going to change the financial position at Croydon Council. Only a debt write off will do that.
Inside Croydon accepts responsibility. In 2021-2022, we hash-tagged the mayoral system as #ABitLessShit – replacing the “strong leader” potentially with a dictator.
We got incompetent buffoon Jason Perry who thinks he is unaccountable.
It’s been #ALotMoreShit.
The Mayoral system must go. Perry has made a very poor Mayor, due to his incompetence, ignorance, prejudices and failure to dedicate himself full-time to the demands of the role. But had Rowenna Davis deposed him in May, she wouldn’t be much better, witness her cringing election campaign videos
Andrew Pelling is right that the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 reduced the gap between governance referendums from ten years to four. That change is in section 9MF(1) of the Local Government Act 2000, in force from 29th June 2026. Croydon’s 2021 referendum was therefore no bar after 6th October 2025. However, the article overstates what can be done now.
Even a “yes” vote would not shorten the current term. Under section 9L(6) of the Local Government Act 2000, the change takes effect only after the next scheduled mayoral election date, 2nd May 2030. The 2030 mayoral election would simply not happen, and the new council would elect a leader instead.
To save money we could hold a referendum at the same time as the London elections in May 2028. This gives plenty of time to make the changes needed to get rid of the Mayor ahead of the next Council elections in 2030.
It’s time to take back democracy
Do you think the council’s lawyers and paid officials will have finished redrafting the council’s mayoral constitution by then?
Perry has been a disaster for Croydon tax payers
I would support anything to get rid of his incompetence