How Council decisions are made

Cabinet responsibilities

Cabinet comprises the Leader of the Council and eight other lead members. Each of the Cabinet Members is responsible for a 'remit' covering particular Council services and policy areas.

Leader - Councillor Aled Richards-Jones

The Leader provides overall political leadership. Core responsibilities include:

Strategic insight over the Council’s Growth Strategy
Political leadership for the Council's communications strategy
Leadership of the preparation, review and delivery of the Local Plan
High-level strategic oversight of the Council’s transformation programme

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance - Councillor Peter Graham

Responsible for ensuring the Council maintains strong, prudent financial management while delivering high-quality services. Core responsibilities include:

Political leadership for the Council’s financial strategy
Championing cost control and efficiency
Overseeing capital investment, treasury management and digital systems
Leadership in corporate services including policy, equalities and complaints
Championing continuous improvement in customer satisfaction

Cabinet Member for Children - Councillor George Crivelli

Responsible for delivering high-quality, responsive services that support families and improve outcomes, while ensuring the Council meets its statutory responsibilities. Core responsibilities include:

Setting the overall vision and priorities for children’s services
Ensuring every child in Wandsworth is safe, supported and given the best possible start in life.
Leading work across children’s social care and education.
Championing looked-after children and care leavers

Cabinet Member for Environment - Councillor Ethan Brooks

Responsible for frontline environmental services. Core responsibilities include:

Oversight of waste and recycling services and street cleansing
Tackling fly-tipping, litter, graffiti and dog fouling
Leadership on parks and open spaces
Improving air quality
Championing continuous improvement and value for money

Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health - Councillor Lynsey Hedges

Responsible for ensuring that services are safe, sustainable and focused on improving outcomes for residents, especially those with the greatest needs. Core responsibilities include:

Leading work across adult social care and public health with a focus on prevention and tackling health inequalities
Responsibility for safeguarding, support for carers and tackling violence against women and girls.
Close working with the NHS and community partners
Ensuring wider council policies and investment decisions contribute positively to health and wellbeing
Steering and championing system-wide change, particularly the development of neighbourhood-based approaches to health and care

Cabinet Member for Housing - Councillor Matthew Corner

Responsible for ensuring residents have access to high-quality, well-managed homes. Core responsibilities include:

Political leadership, driving improvement and promoting strong financial discipline across the housing portfolio
Championing the delivery of new homes through a realistic and financially -responsible approach
Improving day-to-day housing services and raising standards for tenants and leaseholders
Delivering better-managed estates and tronger accountability from landlords and housing associations
Giving residents, tenants and leaseholders a real voice in decisions that affect their homes

Cabinet Member for Transport - Councillor Daniel Hamilton

Responsible for providing political leadership for highway maintenance, public transport, traffic management and active travel. Core responsibilities include:

Overseeing, reviewing and providing key political direction on core programmes including roads, pavements, bridge and structure maintenance, street lighting and network management
Shaping and signing off key traffic management and parking schemes
Supporting cleaner, more accessible transport
Working with partners to improve public transport links, improve road safety and invest in infrastructure to support town centres and neighbourhoods

Cabinet Member for Enforcement - Cllr Caroline de La Soujeole

Responsible for enforcement and community safety. Core responsibilities include:

Negotiating and overseeing an arrangement with the Metropolitan Police for additional dedicated police officers
Political oversight of antisocial behaviour powers and interventions
Taking an intelligence-led approach to offenses including fly-tipping, graffiti and licensing breaches
Overseeing effective partnership working with the police and other partners through the Community Safety Partnership

Cabinet Member for Opportunity - Cllr Tom Pridham

Responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction to promote equality of opportunity, social mobility and economic prosperity. Core responsibilities include:

Using planning, investment and partnership working to deliver high-quality growth that creates long-term opportunities for local people
Supporting business growth, enterprise and innovation and developing the vitality and health of town centres
Promoting initiatives that improve workforce skills, employment opportunities and social mobility
Overseeing libraries, adult and community learning programmes

Cabinet meetings

The Cabinet meets approximately every five to six weeks. View Cabinet meeting dates.

At its meetings, Cabinet mostly considers Key Decisions. In addition, Cabinet also considers:

Policy updates
Responses to consultations
Recommendations from Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSCs)
Reports with political or strategic sensitivity
Performance monitoring

The decisions taken by Cabinet are published in a Statement of Decisions the day after the meeting.

Information on upcoming key decisions and policies are published monthly and is known as the Forward Plan.

Overview and Scrutiny Committees

The Council has six Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSCs) and one OSC sub-committee, which review and scrutinise decisions made or actions taken or proposed to be taken by Cabinet, assist with the development of policy, and make recommendations to the Cabinet as required.

Please note, the Council is considering the role and composition of these committees with a view to reconstituting the six regular OSCs at the meeting of the Council on 22 July 2026.

The Health Committee's remit also covers the operation of health services and consultation on proposals for development by NHS bodies.

The Health and Wellbeing Board is a partnership body between the Council and the health sector. The Council may delegate to it decisions on joint initiatives and services.

Regulatory committees

Some functions are not the responsibility of Cabinet but remain the responsibility of the Council. The Council then delegates all but the most important decisions to the various committees.

These 'Regulatory' functions are dealt with by the:

Licensing Committee
Regulatory Licensing Committee
Planning Applications Committee
General Purposes Committee
Joint Pensions Committee
Audit Committee
Standards Committee (which deals with the conduct of Council members)

By law, committees must be politically balanced.

The political groups are allocated seats in the same proportion as they are represented on the Council as a whole.

Delegated decisions

Directors of Council departments have a delegated authority to take decisions to operate Council services on a day-to-day basis without reference to Councillors.

In addition, there are special arrangements where a decision is required urgently or is routine. In these circumstances, Executive Directors can take a decision even in cases which would normally require a report to a committee and/or the Executive, so long as they have consulted the relevant leading Councillors in advance.

Up to Council decision making

Updated: 03/06/2026