Andrew Baikie. 1954-2025
Many readers will now be aware of the death of former Newham councillor, Andrew Baikie, aged 70. He died whilst on holiday in Jamaica.
Andrew was first elected to Newham Council in 1992 in a by-election for Little Ilford ward. He joined the council alongside one Robert A. Wales, better known to residents and party members alike, as Robin.
It was his friendship and political alliance with Wales which would define his time on the council. He was at the core of the team which transformed Newham council and saw it rise from one of the poorest performing councils in the country to one of the best.
He became Chair of the Housing Committee in the mid-nineties. With the change in governance in 2002, he became the Cabinet Member for Housing in the first Wales mayoralty. He retained that post until he lost his seat in 2018, not to the opposition, but as a result of a change in the Labour Party which moved away from the pragmatism of the Wales years toward a Corbynite/communitarian coalition.
Andrew was, in his quiet way, a radical thinker; he was not a self-promoter nor a great orator, but he was prepared to look for new ways to solve old problems. Faced with squaring a circle in which the numbers on the housing list exceeded the total number of council properties, he looked ‘outside the box’ for solutions.
Perhaps the one with the longest legacy has been Local Space. Faced with escalating numbers on the waiting list for housing, Andrew pioneered a new way to create temporary housing. Local Space was one of those innovations of the Wales years that seemed obvious, once someone did it for the first time.
Eighteen hundred homes were used as “temporary accommodation”. Rents would cover the mortgage costs. The result was that thousands of Newham residents now have secure and decent accommodation instead of insecurity and the threat of constant relocation.
Another innovation was the development of Red Door. This was the first of this kind of model of local authority developers. When he left the council he had been working on new ways of management of public sector housing.
The new (Labour) administration in 2018 sought to make a clean break with the previous (Labour) administration under Wales. It had been the custom to invite previous and retiring councillors to the Annual General Meeting of the council. There was some formality, but it was also a major social event in the municipal calendar. In 2018 the tradition of inviting former councillors was ended.
It was at these events that a second tradition was also celebrated. Councillors who had served for 25 years were awarded with a small medal. As a tradition it extended back decades. In 2018 it stopped. There were those who felt that the decision was influenced by spite. Andrew could reasonably have expected to receive a very small tangible recognition of his service. It never came.
Andrew Baikie. A quiet man, loyal to his beliefs who gave twenty-seven years of service to the people of Newham.
R.I.P. Andrew. A friend, a colleague and a comrade.