Barton House evacuation: information for residents.

Marvin Rees is the elected Mayor of Bristol.

 Mayor Marvin ReesMarvin Rees was first elected mayor in May 2016. On that day, Bristol became the first major European city to have elected a black mayor. He describes becoming mayor as another expression of a deeper commitment to building a fairer, more inclusive world.

Marvin began his working life with Tearfund, one of the UK's leading international development agencies, before working in the US with Sojourners, a Washington, D.C., based social justice organisation, and President Clinton's advisor Rev Dr Tony Campolo. He then worked with the BBC as a Broadcast Journalist, with the Black Development Agency supporting the BME-led voluntary sector, and in NHS Bristol's Public Health team on race equality in mental health.

During the same period, he completed his first Master's in Political Theory and Government, and a second in Global Economic Development. He also held public appointments including the National Community Forum, became a Yale World Fellow, and co-founded the City Leadership Programme.

Marvin was born and brought up in Bristol by his mother, moving between St Pauls, Lawrence Weston and Easton. He entered politics having graduated from Operation Black Vote and Labour Future Candidate programmes. It was there he found open doors where previously there appeared to be none. He was also challenged that the most vulnerable needed people to move beyond merely pointing the failures of world's political leadership, and take the risk of stepping up to try do something to fix it.

Marvin has declared Bristol a City of Hope, built on ambition, inclusion and social justice. After serving an extended five-year first term due to the coronavirus pandemic, Marvin was re-elected as Mayor in May 2021 and lives in Bristol with his wife and three children.

He is set to have overseen the building of over 14,500 new homes, announced the development of a mass transit system, and, through Bristol WORKS, provided some 30,000 quality experience of work activities for young people. Marvin worked with partners to secure £95 million to unlock 10,000 new homes and 22,000 new jobs in Temple Quarter, one of Europe's largest regeneration schemes.

Working with unions and employers, Marvin has achieved accredited Living Wage Employer and Living Wage City status, and introduced Ban the Box. Despite national austerity, he has kept all children's centres and libraries open, retained a full Council Tax Reduction Scheme, and led city-wide campaigns on period poverty and child hunger. Last winter, he coordinated efforts which saw 105 warm, Welcoming Spaces opened across Bristol during the national cost-of-living crisis.

Working with partners, including through the award-winning One City Approach, he coordinated Bristol's response to the coronavirus pandemic and planned its recovery – while also steering the city through the aftermath of the toppling of the Colston statue. The Mayor also led the successful bid to bring Channel 4 to Bristol and leads the city's response to both the climate and ecological emergencies.

Marvin secured the landmark Bristol City Leap partnership in 2022, which plans £771 million investment in clean energy by 2029, creating 1,000 jobs and cutting 150,000 tonnes of emissions. As a founding member of 3Ci and the Mayors Migration Council, Marvin has advocated for cities to be at the heart of tackling climate change, including in a Ted Talk viewed by more than 1.6 million people and as the UK's representative to the Commonwealth Local Government Forum.

Marvin is also a Harvard Bloomberg City Leadership Initiative graduate, and an honorary fellow of both RIBA and the RSA. He was named fourth on the latest UK black Powerlist and awarded an honorary doctorate by Swansea University in 2023. The Mayor chaired Core Cities UK (2022-24) and the LGA’s City Regions Board (2021-23), received the Urban Leadership Award from the Penn Institute for Urban Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania (2021), and was named as BusinessGreen's Politician of the Year (2020). In the New Year Honours List for 2024, Marvin was awarded an OBE for services to local government by His Majesty King Charles III.

He ran the 2023 London Marathon for Southmead Hospital Charity, having previously supported Empire Fighting Chance's fundraising, including through the October Club, and abseiled down Bristol's then-tallest building for St Peter's Hospice. He also serves as an ambassador for Tearfund, the international development charity, and as President of the British Exploring Society.