Bill Randall is married to Heather and they have three children and six grandchildren. One son apart, his family lives in Brighton and Hove. His many interests include jazz, the opera, the theatre, the cinema, cricket and the countryside. He played regular club football until he was 45 and now enjoys watching Arsenal and the Albion.

Bill is an award winning writer and commentator. He started his career on Jackie magazine in the 1960s and has written about housing, community and environmental issues in the UK and Europe for national newspapers and magazines since the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s he ran a small publishing company, since when he has worked as a freelance writer and media adviser.

Bill is a former Chair of Shelter’s National Housing Aid Trust, a former trustee of Age Concern (Brighton, Hove and Portslade) and a former trustee of Brighton and Hove-based arts charity Same Sky.

Bill has represented Hanover and Elm Grove on Brighton and Hove City Council since May 2003. In May 2011 he became Leader of the City Council and the first Green Party local authority leader in the UK. On 17 May he moved from that post to become the city’s first Green Mayor.