Independent researchers interviewed residents early this year – and found that residents were very happy with the services under Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s Administration. No council services saw a decline in ratings compared to last year’s survey, indicating that Mayor Lutfur Rahman kept a tight control of the Council, making sure everything was always improving.
The face to face interviews, conducted with over 1,000 Tower Hamlets residents, are done every year. The survey showed that residents approved of Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s service delivery across the board. •Four out of five residents (82%) of residents said they are satisfied with their local area as a place to live. •Four out of five local people (81%) believe that Tower Hamlets is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together. •Three quarters of residents (76%) said that the council was making the local area a better place to live. •Concern over crime were at historically low levels. •Satisfaction had increased significantly with the council’s collection of council tax and with public transport. •Residents rated libraries and Idea Stores higher than the London average. •Residents said that the council was doing a better job at repairing roads than other areas of London. •Residents’ satisfaction with street cleansing has remained at the same level as last year and in line with the London average. •Three quarters of residents felt the council was doing a good job, and that staff were friendly and polite.
John Biggs appeared to welcome the news that residents were so happy with Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s performance, saying, “The results show that we are doing a good job and I am proud to lead a council which delivers excellent services to our residents.”
John Biggs also committed himself to improving service delivery even further. He gave a generalised commitment, which we can only assume he will clarify in coming weeks, that, “we are already developing new ways to respond to residents and make our services more efficient and effective.”
He was also vague in respect of his commitment to housing. The survey revealed that residents had concerns about the lack affordable housing in Tower Hamlets. Biggs has set a target for the council to build 1,000 new council homes. Is this in addition to his target for social homes – which is what? Over what timeframe will the homes be delivered? How will the Council, which has virtually no building expertise, deliver the homes? By “affordable” housing, does he mean homes at what the Government sets as “affordable” rents – which are very high? If the homes are to have target or POD rents (which are lower), how will the Council obtain the necessary capital to build so many homes?
This vague commitment goes alongside a second vague commitment that “The council will continue to work with developers, Registered Providers and the GLA to maximise the availability of affordable homes.” We shall need a much more detailed housing programme to see what is actually on offer here.
Biggs has also set a target to increase residents’ satisfaction with street cleanliness – which he aims to do by better use of technology. Apparently, he intends to increase the number of people who use the FiFiLi (Find It, Fix It, Love It) app which was developed by Mayor Lutfur Rahman and his Cabinet Member for the Environment, Cllr Shahed Ali. This marks a new approach from Labour Councillors: a couple of years ago, they did not report street cleaning issues to the Council but went round cleaning up the streets themselves and complaining that the Council was not responding to the issues.
Finally, the independent survey found that residents’ concerns about finding employment had fallen over the last two years of Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s Administration. During this year’s mayoral election, Cllr Rabina Khan said that if she was elected she would bring in a Council-wide integrated approach to employment, with a special emphasis on helping women find work. John Biggs has now announced that he is now planning to develop a new integrated employment service to support residents who are looking for work.
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