Councillor Mohammed Khan
Published Friday 3 December 2021 at 9:27
THE Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has announced he is to retire as a councillor next year.
Councillor Mohammed Khan, twice honoured by the Queen and awarded a CBE, last year, announced his decision to stand down as Leader and retire as a councillor when his term of office finishes in May 2022 at last night’s Policy Council meeting (Thursday, December 2).
Cllr Khan has been a councillor in Blackburn since 1992 and leader since 2015.
He said that it had been one of the hardest decisions of his life not to stand for re-election, but that the time was right for him to retire.
It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve this wonderful borough.
My commitment remains undiminished but it is time to pass the baton on to someone else. A new leader will be chosen after the May elections.
I am enormously proud of what we have accomplished in this borough over the years. Of course, recently it has been enormously challenging – austerity has made the last ten years extremely tough and the last 18 months of the pandemic have been horrific for us all.
There is power in working as a collective. I passionately believe, as you would expect, that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone. We all know what a wonderful place this is. We all want to make it even better.
As a councillor, an executive member of different portfolios, as Mayor and as Leader, I have always believed one of my primary jobs was to bring people together to achieve that change and unlock this borough’s potential.
I am immensely proud of the regeneration we have achieved in our towns. The Cathedral Quarter is a superb example of what can be done when everyone has a common goal, everyone is working together.
I am proud of our leisure and cultural services – under public ownership and delivering for the public good. Through our partnerships with the NHS, we have improved life expectancy.
I am proud of the quality of care now being offered in this borough. We have some fantastic facilities including Albion Mill. Again, it was through working together, everyone co-operating with each other, everyone having a common goal.
I am proud of the social integration the Council is leading. It is helping to bring people and communities together.
Of course, the last ten years have been incredibly difficult. Austerity has had a terrible impact on our borough. It took vital funding away from services and projects.
But I have never used the gross unfairness of that policy as an excuse to waver from the mission. Putting our borough and its residents first, working with anyone who could make the borough a better place and building a better Blackburn with Darwen.
There will be time to reflect on the last thirty years over the next few months.
While I plan to retire, I am not going anywhere just yet. There is still work to be done, including how we unlock national funding and powers to directly benefit our residents.
I will roll up my sleeves and continue to work my hardest for the residents of this borough until I stand down.
Councillor Khan is widely recognised for his ability to engage all sections of the community and command respect among fellow politicians, and admits he will miss public life, he added:
I will miss as a councillor having the ability to help people. I plan to keep in contact with many of fantastic council officers, whom work tirelessly across our communities, so that I can still help people where I can.
The memories of serving as an elected member for the benefit of our borough’s people will remain with me for the rest of my life.
Denise Park, Chief Executive of Blackburn with Darwen Council, has worked with Mohammed over 20 years and said it has been both an honour and a privilege.
Denise said:
On behalf of everyone at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, I would like to thank Mohammed for everything he has achieved during his time serving the borough. We to mark his retirement more formally in the new year given his unique contribution to the borough.
Mohammed is an excellent example of a civic leader. It has been an honour to work alongside someone who never rests on his laurels and provides challenge to ensure we are doing the very best for the residents we are here to serve.
He has built on his passion for good quality housing for the most vulnerable people, enabling and developing nationally recognised good practice in extra care housing and specialist dementia housing support, attracting high quality investors against the odds and keeping projects on track over many years including difficult sites such as Riverside Heights in Darwen, Eachstep and Albion Mill in Blackburn.
Thanks to his leadership, our towns are in a very strong position for the future.
About Mohammed Khan, CBE
Born and raised in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Mohammed came to Blackburn in June 1965.
He worked and studied at Blackburn College in the subject of Textile Technology.
He was later employed in the textile industry in the USA, which is also where he studied and completed his Business Management certificate at the Pennsylvania State University. He was also awarded a Diploma in Business Management from the LA Salle Extension University Chicago, Illinois.
On returning to Blackburn in 1981, he returned to working in the textile industry until he opened his own business in 1985.
He is one of a very small number of highly respected British Asian senior local politicians, influencing and shaping key national agendas, playing a pivotal role in local and regional sector improvements at a very senior and strategic level.
Council Leader since 2015, Councillor Khan successfully forged a new relationship with residents – known locally as Your Community, Your Call – and he remains as active as ever at a grassroots community level.
He is passionate about supporting vulnerable communities and oversees many projects which directly impact residents.
He very recently led a successful £10m funding bid to Sport England in a highly competitive national process on behalf of a wider Pennine Lancashire partnership covering half a million people.
Particularly focussed on people with mental wellbeing challenges, this programme is tackling physical inactivity, particularly the 120,000 stubbornly inactive to encourage very low level activity as the first step to improve quality of life and reduce costs across the health and care system.
A lifelong advocate for community cohesion, bridging communities to foster tolerance and friendship, in 2018 he led the development of a partnership (one of only five nationally) with Government and local organisations to deliver an ambitious innovative programme to build strong, integrated communities with national learning.
He chairs the partnership board and has previously supported the Prevent programme at a national level making sure others learn lessons from experiences in Blackburn, never side-stepping difficult issues, tackling them head-on and the result is that Blackburn has avoided the worst kinds of community unrest.
Case study – Housing :
In 2001 the Council was engaged in looking at ways to get more investment into its housing stock and took the difficult decision to consider a local authority voluntary stock transfer. A new Housing Association Twin Valley Homes was created and later merged with the Together Housing Group. As Chair of the Housing Neighbourhoods and Environment Portfolio Mohammed was instrumental in this transition. The transfer of stock enabled every single council house in the borough to be brought up to standard and achieve the decent homes standard.
Our work was not done. The dilemma of a post transfer council and defining its role in housing strategy remained. The council set up the Strategic Housing Partnership involving all registered housing association in 2002. Underpinned by a Housing Strategy that was considered to be rated as 4 star (highest possible) under Government Office North West’s assurance system. This also contributed to the council achieving a 4 star rating in its Best Value assessment by the Government as an outstanding local authority.
In 2004 the council was engaged in the national policy work on sustainable neighbourhoods. This was part of Policy Action Team engagement from national Government with local authorities. Cllr Khan and Sayyed Osman were involved in this work. It lead to the Vision for integrated Neighbourhood functions and went on to become Shared Neighbourhood Teams with Partners such as the Police, Housing Associations and Environment Services.
Around 2004 the council also engaged in one of the most significant housing programmes post war. The Housing Market renewal programme was developed under Mohammed Khan and Sir Bill Taylor and achieved significant transformation of housing in a very short space of time. In total leveraging funding of over £200m and significantly improving the quality of housing. This also included demolition and clearance of the last remaining back to back housing in Bank Top, the improvement of major gateways into the borough, clearance of unfit dwellings and creating the opportunity for new development. Today it’s hard to imagine how bad the housing stock was in the borough. There is more to do, however the legacy is a very significant improvement to our residents quality of life.