Labour’s plan to turn down Lambeth’s streetlights

Recently Labour have planned to turn down Lambeth’s streetlights - despite local opposition. Labour are now claiming that it isn’t true - despite the proof being obvious in Lambeth council documents.

The proposal, made on 24th November 2025, was that Lambeth turned down streetlights across the borough to save money.

When questioned by Liberal Democrat councillors, council staff confirmed in writing that the “Council’s dimming proposal” involved:

• Dimming streetlights by 10% from 10.00pm to midnight.
• Dimming them by 20% from midnight to 6.00am.

Streetlight dimming in Lambeth’s budget

Source:Lambeth Budget report 2025-6, page 64

Lib Dem opposition to the plan

These plans were reported nationally, including by the Daily Mail, which quoted the Council as saying lights would be dimmed “mostly during the middle of the night.” The financial case for dimming was also referenced at a Cabinet meeting on 24 November 2025.

Lambeth Liberal Democrats tabled amendments to oppose the cut and made reversing it the first item in our Alternative Budget (see page 6). Our position was clear: budget savings must not come at the expense of public safety.

Labour’s attempt to spin the issue

Hundreds of people locally have told us of their concerns about Labour’s plans.

Labour are now trying to spin their way out of this terrible policy. For instance their Deputy Leader has recently said that there were “no plans” to do this.

This is clearly not what budget documents show.

In fact Labour’s budget requires the savings from streetlight dimming to add up. While Labour can change the budget, they have not chosen to do this yet.

And until this happens, the official policy of Lambeth Labour is to turn down streetlighting.

If you want to oppose Labour’s plan, sign our petition here:

www.lambethlibdems.org.uk/values/our-campaigns/street-lighting