Rachel Blake
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| Member of Parliament for the Cities of London and Westminster | |
| Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Nickie Aiken |
| Majority | 2,708 (6.9%) |
| Member of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council for Bow East | |
| Assumed office 22 May 2014 | |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Labour |
| Website | www |
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Rachel Nancy Blake is a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP)[1] who served as a councillor[2]inLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets, Bow East ward since 2014.[3] Blake was the Deputy Mayor in Tower Hamlets from 2018 until 2022.[4] In July 2024 she was elected Labour MP for the Cities of London and Westminster.[4][5][6][7]
Blake was born in Manchester and grew up in London where she currently lives.
Blake joined the Labour Party in 2003. Early in her career, she was a policy advisor at HM Treasury under Gordon Brown[4] and was a member of Kate Barker's team on a Review of Land Use Planning which was published in December 2006.[8] From 2009 to 2013, she was a manager at East London Housing Partnership.[9]
In May 2014, Blake was elected as a Labour Party councillor for Bow East ward on Tower Hamlets London Borough Council[10] and appointed to the Cabinet in July 2015.[11] In the Cabinet, she worked on the production of a new Local Plan, a new Housing Strategy and a programme of 1000 new affordable homes.[citation needed]
As a member of the Labour Party, she has been Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing. Prior to this she held a range of roles in Local, Regional and National Government working on Housing, Regeneration and Planning Policy.[citation needed]
Representing the Local Government Association at a hearing of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee in June 2021, she noted that national regulations often held back and undermined local ambition and innovation on climate change. She called for more ambitious building standards on energy efficiency, but noted that competitions for funding meant councils often wasted resources on bidding rather than getting on with the job.[12] At a Local Government Association community wellbeing ward in December 2021 she attacked poor organisation of the COVID-19 vaccine booster programme.[13]
Rachel Blake is vice-chair of the Labour Housing Group.[14] She was previously the secretary of the London Labour Housing Group[15] and a member of the London Legacy Development Corporation Board. She has campaigned for tougher regulations of short-term rentals in London,[16] housing improvements and other built environment issues.[5][17][18]
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Blake's partner, Marc Francis, is a fellow Tower Hamlets borough councillor. She has two sons. She is a member of Unison and the GMB Union.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Cities of London and Westminster 2024–present |
Incumbent |
