Placing Residents at the Heart of Decision-Making: Lessons From London Borough of Islington

In 2022, the Inequality Taskforce was set up to develop recommendations for how Islington Council (London, England) should address stark levels of inequality and poverty. The Taskforce found that one in three residents wanted to be more involved in the decision-making for their local area. Islington Council publicly committed to prioritizing community voices in its decision-making processes. The adopted community power approach aims to give local communities greater influence over plans, decisions, and public services. To deliver on this commitment, Islington Council established a Strategy and Engagement team tasked with crafting a cohesive narrative and framework to embed community power as the Council’s standard approach. The Strategy and Engagement team is carrying out pilot projects on participatory budgeting to improve housing estates and on shaping the Council’s climate resilience and adaptation strategy as part of the first Islington Citizens’ Climate Panel. The participatory budget pilot resulted in £15,000 being allocated to four projects on the estate. This approach has paved the way for further participatory budgeting work, such as how the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) money is spent. The climate panel was successful in producing proposals that are now being taken forward by teams across the Council. A report outlining the approach Islington will take following the climate panel was published in April 2025. Findings from both projects show that residents welcome this change and want to be involved in shaping the future of Islington. Learnings from both approaches have been captured and shared to other teams in the Council through internal networks. The Council has committed to publicly sharing an update on the progress of the climate panel proposals and the key outputs by May 2026.