[3] Bowness became a councillor and soon rose within Conservative Party ranks, becoming Leader of Croydon Council,[4] London's largest borough.

During the 1980s, Bowness was said to have been one of Margaret Thatcher's favourite Council leaders, and took part in the abolition of the GLC.

[5][6] He was unusual amongst his Conservative colleagues, however, for supporting Ken Livingstone's low-cost public transport initiative, Fares Fair.

[2] Having originally sat as a Conservative, Lord Bowness left the party to become a non-affiliated peer on 23 November 2020, before becoming a crossbencher on 1 December 2021.

[8] Lord Bowness has been a member of the British delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) since 2007.

[10] In the 1981 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his service as Chairman of the London Boroughs Association.