Anthony Okereke
At PeopleDem property we believe in celebrating our community by spotlighting black excellence in property. Today we are celebrating Anthony Okereke.
Anthony is the Leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Chair of the London Mission Board, Executive Member for Housing and Homelessness at London Councils and Chair of the Warmer Homes London Board. He is on a mission to make life easier, fairer, healthier and more convenient for Greenwich residents, while solving London's housing crisis.
Anthony’s story began at Bromley College, where he studied BTEC Level 3 in construction. It was a difficult and uncertain period in his life, but it also helped to develop the determination and can-do attitude that would become such an important part of his character. One moment in particular stands out. Speaking at London South East College, Anthony recalled a time when he believed he was going to fail his course. He had 13 assignments to complete in just two weeks.
His education had already been challenging because of health issues. Anthony has sickle cell anemia and spent significant periods going in and out of hospital. Each time he returned to college, he found himself behind his classmates and having to catch up. Over time, he began to internalise how he believed other people saw him as someone who was just disabled, someone with a health issue, someone who could not keep up. He began to blame himself and, for a period, accepted the possibility of defeat.
Then came the encouragement that changed his outlook. When Anthony told his sister about the 13 assignments, she responded with belief rather than doubt. “I think you can do this. You’ve got this and you’ve done it before.” Those words gave Anthony the push he needed. He created a timetable at college, working from 8am to 8pm, tackling each assignment and asking for help when he needed it. Over the following two weeks, he completed all 13 assignments.
Submitting those assessments, Anthony has said, was the best feeling in the world. More importantly, the experience renewed his belief in himself. He had proved that despite the physical challenges he faced, he could set himself a difficult goal, ask for support and achieve it. That renewed self-belief stayed with him as he progressed to university, where he continued to face many of the same challenges.
University also brought a change in direction. Anthony had always loved construction, but he began to realise that civil engineering was not where he wanted his future to be. He did not want to spend his career simply working with numbers. He wanted to talk to people. He became increasingly interested in people, society and the communities around him, and became involved in social societies and the student union, an experience he absolutely loved.
It was during this period that politics began to take on a much greater significance for Anthony. The London riots became a pivotal moment. He remembers seeing the frustration among young people, frustration over cuts to youth services, increased tuition fees and how young people were being treated by the police. The following day, as he listened to MPs speaking on television about the riots, Anthony was struck by the language being used about young people. He felt that there was little recognition of the experiences that had contributed to the frustration and little acknowledgement of the peaceful protests that had also taken place.
Anthony found himself asking a simple but powerful question. Who speaks for us? Who is telling our story?
That evening, he decided to join the Labour Party. For Anthony, politics became about using his voice to speak about people like him and becoming involved in the work of changing society. His interest developed further when he applied for an internship to work in Parliament. Out of 600 applicants, Anthony was accepted.
His journey from there continued to develop. After working for the council for several months, he decided to put himself forward to become a councillor. He was elected as a Labour Councillor for Woolwich Common in 2018. Four years later, in May 2022, he was elected Leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The borough was not simply somewhere he represented; it was home. Anthony had been born and raised in Woolwich, and he became the first Black leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
As Leader, Anthony has focused on tackling poverty, improving housing and creating fair opportunities for residents. His priorities include responding to the cost-of-living crisis, tackling the climate emergency and health inequalities, supporting economic prosperity and ensuring that Greenwich has a thriving and safe night-time economy that benefits everyone.
His work has also placed housing firmly at the centre of his political journey. Under his leadership, Greenwich Council is building 1,750 new council homes, has launched the £60 million Get Things Done programme and has invested in greener and safer neighbourhoods.
For Anthony, the importance of housing goes beyond bricks and mortar. Affordable and stable housing is a central part of creating communities where people can live securely and build their lives. His work in this area has also expanded beyond Greenwich. As London Councils’ Executive Member for Housing and Homelessness, Anthony represents London’s councils on housing and homelessness and is involved in the wider effort to tackle the capital’s housing crisis.
His position places him within a 12-member cross-party executive group focused on high-level decision-making, policy formulation, financial oversight and organisational management. In this role, Anthony has spoken strongly about the importance of ensuring that people have a safe and secure place to call home and that nobody should have to face a night on the streets.
He has also highlighted the scale of the homelessness challenge facing London. In discussing investment to help people sleeping rough move into safe accommodation and access support, Anthony has argued that this needs to be part of a much wider approach to tackling homelessness. He has highlighted the number of children living in temporary accommodation, the financial pressure temporary accommodation places on boroughs and the need for a sustained focus on both prevention and housing supply.
For Anthony, increasing the supply of genuinely affordable homes, including through the council housing revolution, is a vital part of that response. He has also highlighted the need for action around Local Housing Allowance and believes that investment and partnership across different levels of government can help address homelessness.
That focus on housing is particularly relevant to his work in Greenwich, where the council has been consulting on a new intermediate housing register designed to match people with suitable homes. Anthony has described the current housing situation as the product of several pressures coming together: a decade of austerity, low wages, a cost-of-living crisis, high rents and rising building costs.
He has also highlighted the particular challenge facing key workers. According to the figures he has cited, the average income of a key worker in Greenwich, around £37,900, is not enough to afford to buy a home in the borough. Nurses, teachers and social workers can therefore find themselves struggling to buy or rent locally. For Anthony, this illustrates why the housing question is not simply about property; it is about whether the people who keep communities running can afford to live in those communities.
It is a fitting direction for someone whose journey began with construction. Anthony's early interest in the built environment has not disappeared; instead, it has developed into an interest in how homes, neighbourhoods and public policy can shape people's everyday lives. The difference is that rather than working only with the physical construction of buildings, Anthony is now involved in the wider decisions about how communities are planned, how housing is provided and how opportunities can be created.
It was a pleasure to share Anthony’s story. He shows that there is a place in politics for people from our communities and that the skills and experiences gained in one sector can lead to opportunities to make an impact in another. His journey also highlights the variety of opportunities that exist across the property sector, from construction and planning to housing policy and public leadership. His continued work on housing and property will be important to watch as he seeks to create more opportunities for people in Greenwich and across London, while inspiring the next generation of property professionals and politicians.
