London Bangla A Force for the community…
THE TOWER HAMLETS Council Cabinet met on Wednesday, 7th January – in what was probably the warmest room in the Town Hall. The meeting had a single main item on the agenda: the budget for 2026/27 – but it began on a very sad note.
After Mayor Lutfur Rahman had wished everyone a happy new year, he invited the Chief Executive to make announcements. The first announcement was one that the Chief Executive doubtless did not want to make. He told those present that Simon Baxter, Corporate Director of Communities, had passed away after a short illness. The meeting then stood in silence for a minute in memory of Simon – colleague and friend. Cabinet Members who spoke during the meeting echoed echoed the sadness the Chief Executive had expressed and sent condolences to Simon’s family.
The Chief Executive went on to announce that the Council had responded to the cold snap: staff were out helping rough sleepers, and they were also busy gritting the roads. Finally, he revealed that the Council was not formally notified of who, among our residents and those who work in the borough, had been awarded New Year Honors. The Council had established that honours had been awarded to the headteacher of Osmani school and to a teaching assistant at Cyril Jackson school.
It was then the Mayor’s turn. He also spoke very fondly of Simon Baxter, whom he had visited before Christmas, when he was first taken ill. At the point, they had hoped that Simon would return to work. It was not to be.
This month, Cabinet did not receive a report from the Overview & Scrutiny Committee. For some reason, hard to fathom, the meeting calendar had scheduled the Cabinet meeting before the Cabinet meeting – so “O&S” would not be able to feed into the Cabinet meeting. Apparently it will get its turn later on.
The foredecks having been cleared, the Mayor said that there was only one main item on the agenda today: the budget. He thanked officers for their work and explained that the papers before Cabinet were the first ones: they would be revised as more information came through from the Government about various financial issues. The Mayor then made a statement on the budget. He highlighted how money was being prudently managed, but also given a politically strong direction: supporting the community in Tower Hamlets.
Cllr Saied Ahmed
Lead Member for Resources and the cost of living Cllr Saied Ahmed also spoke about Simon Baxter, before going on to introduce the budget. He thanked the officers who had helped prepare the various documents. He was supported by the Interim Corporate Director of Resources, Abdulrazaq Kassim, who stressed how financial management systems were improving across the Council – supported by much better technology and by staff, including Corporate Directors, working together. The Chief Executive backed this up: he had seen a few budgets in his time, he said, but he did want to emphasise how everyone had worked together on this one.
Cllr Maium Talukdar
Deputy Mayor Cllr Maium Talukdar then spoke: thanking the Mayor for his leadership of the Council over the last three, nearly four, years, which had seen so much achieved for the community.
Cllr Sabina Akhtar
Cllr Sabina Akhtar, Lead Member for Health and Adult Social Care, then spoke: dishing thanks out to Members and officers and finishing with a question about housing, which was answered by Corporate Director for Housing, David Joyce. Sadly, due to the vagaries of the PA system in the Council Chamber, neither could be heard.
Cllr Abu Talha Chowdury
Cllr Abu Choudhury, Lead Member for Community Safety, was next to speak. He also thanked the Mayor and officers for their work in preparing the budget – but he concentrated on wider issues. He said that 14 councils had gone bust since 2018. All of them were under pressure from rising costs for temporary accommodation and Adult Social Care – but so is Tower Hamlets. Other Councils are closing down services to cope with this pressure – but we had come through the pressure without making cuts. This was down to behavioural change across all our services, and the establishment of a one-council culture. It was also down to our patience: investment made in earlier years of the Administration was now seeing revamped services delivering good outputs. He rolled off some of the achievements in Community Safety. Cllr Choudhury said he was proud that this Cabinet was looking at a budget which had been kept under control.
The Mayor then chipped in, stating his belief that his Administration’s investment in the communities in Tower Hamlets was better than anywhere else in UK. He referred to one of the recommendations in the budget documents which mentioned the Administration’s ambition in bringing the management of leisure services in-house.
The Mayor said that this Administration is always ambitious – and had been since he was first elected Executive Mayor in 2010. In what appeared to be a spontaneous and heartfelt comment, he pointed out the his Administration had lost seven years to the Labour interregnum and the Council could have been in an even better place now if it were not for the breaks put on by Labour’s cuts regime.
Cllr Kabir Ahmed
Cllr Kabir Ahmed, Lead Member for Regeneration, Inclusive Development and Housing, welcomed the budget for being open and robust, managing to deliver growth despite costs pressures from temporary accommodation and Adult Social Care. There are some statutory services, but much of what we do is down to political choices – and we can see the Mayor has chosen to invest in the people of Tower Hamlets. Cllr Ahmed then rattled off a list of money which had been allocated to various spending to improve housing for local people. He finished by saying that balancing your budget is always important – and this budget showed good and prudent financial management.
It was then the Chief Executive’s turn to chip in. He wanted to record his earlier sentiment of how well the Council team was working together and suggested that a new recommendation be added to emphasise that this year’s budget is built on the firm financial foundations of last year’s work.
The Mayor then referred to his opening comments. He asked that the investment in services which the Administration had made over the last four years be explicitly recorded in the budget documents. The investment had been done to implement his manifesto pledges – and the Mayor wanted to see a list of investments and the services they had funded.
The Chief Executive came in to say that the Mayor was not making a political point here: he was asking that the documents record what the basis of the budget was. The Lead Member for Resources agreed, recalling that the Administration had had to dip into reserves in order to front-load investment – but now money was being returned to the reserves. The Mayor tried to bring the two points together, saying that the budget was not about scoring political points – it was about making it clear that the people came first in our spending plans.
Cllr Shafi Ahmed
Cllr Shafi Ahmed, Lead Member for Environment and the Climate Emergency, said that he was proud that the Council is investing in young people – while also looking after our elders. He was happy that the Administration was going forward under the leadership of the Mayor.
Cllr Musthaq Ahmed
Cllr Musthaq Ahmed, Lead Member for Jobs, Enterprise, Skills and Growth, was pleased to see that while many Councils have struggle to balance their books, Tower Hamlets’ budget has been a great deal of work, but has had a good outcome because it has political clarity. He thanked the Mayor for his leadership, which had had such a positive outcome.
Cllr Bodrul Choudhury
Cllr Bodrul Choudhury had the last word. He referred to Cllr Saied Ahmed as the “Chancellor of Tower Hamlets” and thanked him, and officers, for this welcome investment.
●Read more about it:
Council passes Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s “people’s budget”
Labour budget: is it austerity by the back door?
