Tower Hamlets London Borough Council

Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, also known as Tower Hamlets Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under the majority control of local party Aspire since 2022. It has been led by a directly elected mayor since 2010. The council is based at Tower Hamlets Town Hall on Whitechapel Road.

Tower Hamlets London Borough Council
Coat of arms
Council logo
Type
Type	London borough council
History
Founded	1 April 1965
Leadership
Speaker	Saif Uddin Khaled, Aspire since 15 May 2024[1]
Mayor	Lutfur Rahman, Aspire since 9 May 2022
Chief Executive	Steve Halsey since February 2023[2]
Structure
Seats	45 councillors plus elected mayor
Political groups	Administration (21)   Aspire (21) Other parties (24)   Labour (17)   Conservative (1)   Green (1)   Independent (5)
Elections
Voting system	Plurality-at-large
Last election	5 May 2022
Next election	7 May 2026
Meeting place
Tower Hamlets Town Hall 160 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1BJ
Website
www.towerhamlets.gov.uk
Constitution
Council constitution

History

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets and its council were created under the London Government Act 1963, with the first election held in 1964.^[3] For its first year the council acted as a shadow authority alongside the area's three outgoing authorities, being the three metropolitan borough councils of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney. The new council formally came into its powers on 1 April 1965, at which point the old boroughs and their councils were abolished.^[4] The council's full legal name is "The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets", but it styles itself Tower Hamlets Council.^[5][6]

From 1965 until 1986 the council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by the Greater London Council. The split of powers and functions meant that the Greater London Council was responsible for "wide area" services such as fire, ambulance, flood prevention, and refuse disposal; with the boroughs (including Tower Hamlets) responsible for "personal" services such as social care, libraries, cemeteries and refuse collection. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed to the London Boroughs, with some services provided through joint committees.^[7] Tower Hamlets became a local education authority in 1990 when the Inner London Education Authority was dissolved.^[8]

From 1986 to 1994 the council experimented with decentralisation of services to seven neighbourhood areas.^[9]

Since 2000 the Greater London Authority has taken some responsibility for highways and planning control from the council, but within the English local government system the council remains a "most purpose" authority in terms of the available range of powers and functions.^[10]

In 2008 the council named two tower blocks in Sidney Street as 'Peter House' and 'Painter House' after Peter the Painter, a Latvian anarchist gangster reputedly involved in the Siege of Sidney Street in 1911, whose true identity is not known. Having escaped capture, he had become an anti-hero in the East End. A local councillor and the Metropolitan Police Federation protested against the naming, saying that he should not be honoured.^[11]

In 2010, following a referendum, the directly elected role of Mayor of Tower Hamlets was created to serve as the council's political leader. Lutfur Rahman was elected as the first such mayor.^[12] He was re-elected in 2014, but the result of that election was declared void the following year in the case of Erlam v Rahman at the Election Court, which reported Rahman and one of the councillors to be guilty of electoral fraud under the Representation of the People Act 1983.^[13][14] He was thus removed from his office with immediate effect and was also barred from standing for elected office until 2021.^[15][16] The police subsequently carried out an investigation into whether criminal charges should be brought against anyone involved regarding the electoral fraud, but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to do so.^[17]

Labour's John Biggs won the subsequent mayoral by-election following Rahman's removal in 2015, and retained the post at the 2018 election.^[18][19] Rahman's ban on standing for office expired in 2021, allowing him to contest the mayoralty again in 2022. He stood under the banner of a new local party called Aspire. Rahman defeated Biggs for the mayoralty, and Aspire also won a majority of the seats on the council.^[20]

In February 2023, the chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) said he had concerns about the management of the council under Aspire and believed that government intervention may be necessary.^[21]

Powers and functions

The local authority derives its powers and functions from the London Government Act 1963 and subsequent legislation, and has the powers and functions of a London borough council. It sets council tax and as a billing authority also collects precepts for Greater London Authority functions and business rates.^[22] It sets planning policies which complement Greater London Authority and national policies, and decides on almost all planning applications accordingly. It is a local education authority and is also responsible for council housing, social services, libraries, waste collection and disposal, traffic, and most roads and environmental health.^[23]

Political control

The council has been under Aspire majority control since 2022.

The first election was held in 1964, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until it came into its powers on 1 April 1965. Political control of the council since 1965 has been as follows:^[24]

Party in control		Years
	Labour	1965–1986
	Alliance	1986–1988
	Liberal Democrats	1988–1994
	Labour	1994–2017
	No overall control[25]	2017–2018
	Labour	2018–2022
	Aspire	2022–present

Leadership

Prior to 2010, political leadership was provided by the leader of the council, with the role of Mayor of Tower Hamlets at that time being largely ceremonial. The leaders from 1965 to 2010 were: ^[26][27]

Councillor	Party		From	To
John Orwell		Labour	1965	1974
Paul Beasley		Labour	1974	1984
John Riley		Labour	1984	1986
Eric Flounders		Liberal	1986	1987
Chris Birt		Liberal	1987	1988
Brenda Collins		Liberal Democrats	1988	1990
Eric Flounders		Liberal Democrats	1990	1991
Peter Hughes		Liberal Democrats	1991	1994
John Biggs		Labour	1994	1995
Dennis Twomey		Labour	1995	1997
Michael Keith		Labour	1997	1998
Julia Mainwaring		Labour	1998	1999
Michael Keith		Labour	1999	2001
Helal Abbas[28]		Labour	2001	25 May 2005
Michael Keith		Labour	25 May 2005	7 May 2006
Denise Jones		Labour	24 May 2006	21 May 2008
Lutfur Rahman		Labour	21 May 2008	26 May 2010
Helal Abbas		Labour	26 May 2010	24 Oct 2010

In 2010 the council changed to having directly elected mayors with executive powers. To avoid the confusion of having multiple mayors, the old ceremonial role of mayor was renamed as the chair, and was renamed again in 2011 as the speaker.^[29] The elected mayors since 2010 have been:

Mayor	Party		From	To
Lutfur Rahman		Independent	25 Oct 2010	25 May 2014
(Lutfur Rahman)[a]		Tower Hamlets First	26 May 2014	23 Apr 2015
John Biggs		Labour	15 Jun 2015	8 May 2022
Lutfur Rahman		Aspire	9 May 2022

1. The 2014 mayoral election was declared void on 23 April 2015, triggering a by-election.^[30]

Composition

Following the 2022 election and subsequent changes of allegiance,^[31][32] the composition of the council (excluding the elected mayor's seat) is:

Party		Councillors
	Aspire	23
	Labour	17
	Independent	3
	Conservative	1
	Green	1
Total		45

The next election is due 7 May 2026, where all seats of the council will be contested.

Elections

See also: Tower Hamlets London Borough Council elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2014, the council has comprised the elected mayor plus 45 councillors, representing 20 wards, with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held for the mayor and councillors together every four years.^[33]

Premises

Bethnal Green Town Hall: Council's headquarters 1965–1993

The council is based at Tower Hamlets Town Hall at 160 Whitechapel Road, which was completed in 2023 behind the retained façade of the old Royal London Hospital, which had been built in 1757.^[34][35]

When the council was first created in 1965, it had been based at the old Bethnal Green Town Hall, which had been built in 1910 for Bethnal Green Borough Council.^[36] In 1993 the council moved to a new town hall at Mulberry Place in the Blackwall area of the borough, remaining there until 2023.^[37][38]

Mulberry Place: Served as town hall 1993–2023

List of councillors

The councillors before and after the 2022 elections were as follows:^[39]

Ward	Councillor until May 2022		Notes	Councillor from May 2022	Party
Bethnal Green East		Ahbab Hossain		Rebaka Sultana	Labour
		Sirajul Islam	Statutory Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Housing	Sirajul Islam	Labour
		Eve McQuillan	Mayoral Advisor for Tackling Poverty & Inequality	Ahmodul Kabir	Aspire
Bethnal Green West (formerly St Peter's)		Kevin Brady		Musthak Ahmed	Aspire
		Tarik Khan	Majority Group Whip	Abu Talha Chowdhury	Aspire
		Gabriela Salva Macallan		Miraj Amin Rahman	Aspire
Blackwall & Cubitt Town		Ehtasham Haque		Ahmodur Rahman Khan	Aspire
		Mohammed Pappu		Abdul Malik	Aspire
		Candida Roland	Cabinet Member for Resources and the Voluntary Sector	Muhammad Bellal Uddin	Aspire
Bow East		Amina Ali	Cabinet Member for Culture, Arts and Brexit	Amina Ali	Labour
		Rachel Nancy Blake	Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Air Quality	Rachel Nancy Blake	Labour
		Marc Francis		Marc Francis	Labour
Bow West		Asma Begum	Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Equalities	Asma Begum	Labour
		Val Whitehead		Nathalie Sylvia Bienfait	Green
Bromley North		Zenith Rahman		Muhammad Saif Uddin Khaled	Aspire
		Dan Tomlinson		Abdul Mannan	Aspire
Bromley South		Danny Hassell	Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Young People	Bodruf Islam Choudhury	Aspire
		Helal Uddin		Shahaveer Hussain	Labour
Canary Wharf		Kyrsten Perry		Saled Ahmed	Aspire
		Andrew Wood	Leader of the Conservative Group; resigned in 2020.[40]	Mohammad Maium Miah Talukdar	Aspire
Island Gardens		Mufeedah Bustin		Mufeedah Bustin	Labour
		Peter Stacey Golds		Peter Stacey Golds	Conservative
Lansbury		Kahar Chowdhury		Abul Monsur Ohid Ahmed	Aspire
		Muhammad Harun		Jahed Choudhury	Aspire
		Bex White		Iqbal Hossain	Aspire
Limehouse		James Robert Venables King		James Robert Venables King	Labour
Mile End		David Edger	Cabinet Member for Environment	Leelu Ahmed	Labour
		Asam Islam	Mayoral Advisor for Young People	Mohammad Saifur Rahman Chowdhury	Labour
		Puru Miah		Sabina Khan	Labour
Poplar		Sufia Alam		Gulam Kibria Choudhury	Aspire
Shadwell		Ruhul Amin	Cabinet Member for Environment	Ana Miah	Aspire
		Rabina Khan	Elected as People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets; switched to the Liberal Democrats in August 2018	Mohammad Harun Miah	Aspire
Spitalfields and Banglatown		Shad Chowdhury		Sulik Ahmed	Aspire
		Leema Qureshi		Kabir Hussain	Aspire
St Dunstan's		Dipa Das		Maisha Fahmida Begum	Labour
		Ayas Miah	Speaker of the Council	Ayas Miah	Labour
St Katharine's and Wapping		Denise Jones	Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing	Amy Louise Lee	Labour
		Abdal Ullah		Abdal Ullah	Labour
Stepney Green		Sabina Akhtar	Mayoral Advisor for Community & Voluntary Sector	Sabina Akhtar	Labour
		Motin Uz-Zaman	Cabinet Member for Work and Economic Growth	Mohammed Abdul Wahid Ali	Aspire
Weavers		Abdul Mukit		Kabir Ahmed	Aspire
		John Pierce		Asma Islam	Labour
Whitechapel		Faroque Mahfuz Ahmed		Faroque Mahfuz Ahmed	Labour
		Shah Ameen		Shafi Uddin Ahmed	Aspire
		Victoria Obaze		Mohammed Kamrul Hussain	Aspire

See also

• London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• Mayor of Tower Hamlets
• List of public art in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

References

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2. Weakley, Kirsty (21 July 2023). "Tower Hamlets appoints permanent chief". Local Government Chronicle. Retrieved 28 April 2024.
3. "London Government Act 1963", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1978 c. 33, retrieved 16 May 2024
4. Youngs, Frederic (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England. Vol. I: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. ISBN 0901050679.
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7. "Local Government Act 1985", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1985 c. 51, retrieved 5 April 2024
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10. Leach, Steve (1998). Local Government Reorganisation: The Review and its Aftermath. Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 978-0714648590.
11. Cockcroft, Lucy (25 September 2008). "Tower Blocks Named after Notorious Criminal Linked to Police Killings". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016.
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