Government inspectors spent several months in Tower Hamlets Council this year, inspecting the Council’s observance of its “Best Value” obligations. Their report was released on Tuesday, 12th November. Below we print the Council’s response to the report. A link to the report itself is available at the end of the Council’s statement.

Statement from Tower Hamlets Council, 12.11.2024

Tower Hamlets Council is committed to working with the Government on our continuous journey of improvement. We welcome the Government’s decision to appoint an envoy rather than send in commissioners, with a plan to work together with us on a support package, with the council retaining all its powers.

We look forward to working with the Ministerial envoy to build on the good Peer Review we received from the Local Government Association and an improved Investors in People inspection silver rating.

We thank the Government for recognising the progress we have made as an authority. This report praises the council for the dedication of its officers
•achieving financial stability;
•making good progress with service delivery;
•putting external challenge; and
•support in place through the Transformation Advisory Board and running sound elections.

We have delivered innovative measures including being the only council in the country to provide universal free school meals to both primary and secondary schoolchildren; free swimming for women and girls, grants for college and university students; and we are on track to deliver one of the highest amounts of new housing in London.  The results of our community-focused work are reflected in our extremely positive response from our residents in our borough-wide annual survey.

We are proud of our 5,000 strong workforce, and our permanent corporate management team, all appointed on merit following competitive processes.  We are delighted to have increased our diversity at senior officer level, with eight people from ethnic minority backgrounds now working at Director level or above. We have brought in senior officers with significant experience from other councils. Only two permanent senior staff recruited had previously worked for Tower Hamlets, which is not unusual for the sector.

The report’s comments concerning culture include reference to rivalries between all parties and political groupings within the Council. There is a responsibility on councillors from all parties to address this.

As a council we believe external scrutiny is crucial to our improvement, however we disagreed with the justification for the Best Value Inspection given by the previous Government. It was disappointing we were advised after the Best Value Inspection that it was used an opportunity to search for extremism in the borough. This was not part of the published reasons at the outset. In May 2024 LBTH exceeded expectations in all categories of our Home Office Prevent Duty Assurance report, we note that the inspectors did not report any links to extremism.

Nevertheless, we recognise that these were the decisions of the last Government. We appreciate the new Government’s approach to local government improvement. We look forward to working in partnership with the new Government and the envoy as equals, along with continuing to deliver for our residents and businesses.

●Read the government report:
Government report

●To catch up with the news in East London, go to:
East London News