Abi Brown
Councillor, Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Brown was first elected to Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 2010 and has been leader of the council since May 2019, holding the corporate resources, strategy & partnerships portfolio. Prior to 2019 she was deputy leader and cabinet member for finance & partnerships from May 2015. Alongside her portfolio responsibilities, she has built her reputation on leading successful strategically important programmes, both within Stoke-on-Trent and also the wider sub-region. This includes the ceramic valley enterprise zone project board, one of the most successful enterprise zones in the country and a project she has led since inception. In recent months, she has also signed the first informal Homes England partnership in the country and is excited about working through the detail on this ambitious agenda. Other past notable programmes include leading the city’s bid to be City of Culture 2021, refocusing the city council’s arms-length housing company, Fortior, during her tenure as chair, shortlisted for a Channel 4 creative hub, and developing the creative city partnership to bring together national partners around the creative agenda in the city. At a regional level, Brown is a member of the Midlands engine board, representing West Midlands councils, in addition to representing Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire on the West Midlands employers board, and being a local authority representative on the Arts Council England Midlands council. An enthusiastic advocate of local government, Brown is an LGA peer mentor and has previously served as vice-chairman of the LGA city regions board between 2018 to 2022. In September 2022, she became chair of the LGA improvement & innovation board. Keen to utilise her wide cross-sector expertise locally, she leads on a number of important agendas including chairing the homelessness reduction board, community safety partnership, and health & wellbeing board.