Matthew Brown

This has been the toughest set of elections @prestonlabour has faced for decades and out of the 8 seats we defended we held half. All brilliant Labour women🌹. So gutted for comrades we lost caught up in forces outside their control which is no reflection on their hard work, talent and dedication. We remain the largest party by far with 22 seats out of 48 and I am confident our administration will continue with the radical zeal we are known for.

Brilliant work by our Cabinet Member @ZafarC and our hard working waste collection staff with #Preston confirmed the best out of 14 Lancashire local authority areas for food waste recycling. This is great news for both Preston households and the wider environment 👏👏👏.

My statement on the worsening humanitarian crisis in Hebron - a city Preston has a friendship arrangement with.

A historic victory for progress, justice, and sanity in Latin America 🇧🇷. A monumental day for both Brazil and the world showing that when working-class communities are truly galvanised, they can take control of their destinies and defeat the divisive forces of the right.

Please stay safe everyone in this unsettling weather🙏. Some important advice and contact numbers from @prestoncouncil in the event of falling trees and blocked highways etc ⬇️.

Preston's wages jump 10%+ in one year, ranking 6th out of 70 UK areas! 🚀 Critics dismiss the #PrestonModel but our choice to invest £120m in publicly owned city centre regeneration supporting local supply chains alongside fairer working practices and the Real Living Wage delivers real results.

The big banks are leaving Preston and the North West behind! While mega-banks like Barclays boast £2.3bn in quarterly pre-tax profits, they have closed 75% of local branches over the last ten years and now 5,000 jobs are at risk. The system is broken. That is why at @prestonlabour we are supporting @MutualNorth as a member-owned, ethical regional cooperative bank to reopen community branches and back local families and businesses.

Great news the Real Living Wage is rising substantially this year from £13.45 to £14.10 per hour. In 2012, we proudly became the first local authority outside London to achieve Living Wage accreditation, and we remain central to promoting it across our city. Once again, we will lead by example and implement this increase early for our own staff and within our contractual arrangements. This long-term commitment has already delivered pay rises to over 4,200 Preston workers - lifting a quarter of the city's lowest paid employees out of working poverty. While other political parties in #Preston previously opposed and even ridiculed this commitment, we rightly stayed the course. For us in @prestonlabour tackling poverty and reducing inequality is central to everything we do.

We either challenge vested interests in #Preston's housing market or we risk it turning into something that resembles the wild west. That is why we are cracking down on the growth of private children’s homes (and HMO's) across our city. The current explosion of private care homes isn't working for children or the wider community. From now on, planning permission will only be granted if a clear local need can be demonstrated. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cknv…

20 years ago 'Community Wealth Building' was coined by @DemocracyCollab to describe how we can build a new and fair economic model challenging decades of systemic failure. Twenty years on from Cleveland, Ohio to Preston, Scotland to Amsterdam, Canada to St Louis, South Korea to Ireland and New Zealand to East Poland, Community Wealth Building has become a fast growing and exciting movement to build the democratic economy. This new compendium of essays on the achievements of Community Wealth Building across the globe highlights progress with many brilliant contributions. I have been privileged to be involved for many years and have contributed a chapter on the #PrestonModel from Page 164. Read or download the full anthology: democracycollaborative.org/w…

For a second year, and as part of our £1m+ 2026/27 cost of living package, pensioners in Preston who receive Council Tax Support but not Pension Credits will receive £100 this winter. These are lower income residents who missed out on the £200 winter fuel payment in 2024/25 with over a thousand pensioners able to benefit. Further details available ⬇️:

Some brilliant news to support our artistic and creative sector. Our @prestonlabour council is providing £200,000 funding to a local not for profit to allow local artists to take up space in the city centre. This will be a great addition to our creative economy. blogpreston.co.uk/2026/10/ne…