Observer column 26 May 2026

From Cllr Glenn Haffenden, Leader of Hastings Borough Council

I am delighted to have been re-elected as Leader of Hastings Borough Council, and as I did at Annual Full Council, I wanted to use this first column to outline some of my priorities for the coming year. 

Firstly, congratulations to the 14 new councillors we have on Hastings Borough Council, and welcome to my new Cabinet, I have appointed three new Cabinet leads for this year to help us achieve our priorities. 

Housing remains our top priority for the coming year. We will continue building the first council homes in Hastings for more than 30 years and to progress the council’s housing acquisition programme and expand on the 165 homes that have already been bought. 

We will also be looking at innovative ways of tackling the housing crisis, including working with the Prisoners Building Homes programme. We want to bring empty homes back into use with our new empty homes officer working on this already, and we will continue to lobby for increased Local Housing Allowance for Hastings to reduce the affordability gap. Speaking with the town’s homeless has made me even more determined to tackle homelessness. 

In the coming year we will be appointing new poverty and play officers, to help us improve health and wellbeing and tackling inequality. We have both government and our own budget available to help us do this over the coming year. 

We want to increase apprenticeships, focus on community wealth building, and work towards keeping money that is spent in Hastings within Hastings. Bringing empty shops back into use and supporting our businesses to help improve job prospects and employment is also a key focus. 

I am passionate about sport and improving the sports facilities we have in Hastings is one of my key priorities for the coming year – we have padel and pickleball coming to White Rock Gardens soon, plus £700,000 to spend with community sports groups over the next two years to help them with improvements.  

I strongly believe that protecting Hastings’ future also means protecting our environment, that includes investing in new staff to help us keep our streets and borough cleaner and greener with extra enforcement staff and barrow hands, and we will be working towards Green Flag status for our parks and green spaces. 

There are exciting plans for tourism, regeneration and culture over the coming months – the Hastings Castle project is making progress, we have bid to be Town of Culture for 2028, and we will be celebrating our Norman heritage in the Year of the Normans. 

With local government reorganisation coming in the next few years, we are committed to making sure Hastings has a strong voice in those discussions and arrangements, and we will continue to work for the best of our residents.  

I believe that Hastings is one of the best towns in the country so it’s a privilege to be the leader of Hastings Borough Council. There is great opportunity here, we have some incredible people with huge determination and we will succeed.