# 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 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.

## 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. 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. 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.
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. Tower Hamlets became a local education authority in 1990 when the Inner London Education Authority was dissolved.
From 1986 to 1994 the council experimented with decentralisation of services to seven neighbourhood areas.
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.
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.
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. 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. He was thus removed from his office with immediate effect and was also barred from standing for elected office until 2021. 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.
Labour's John Biggs won the subsequent mayoral by-election following Rahman's removal in 2015, and retained the post at the 2018 election. 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.
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.

## 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. 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.

## 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:
| Party in control | Years |
| Labour | 1965–1986 |
| Alliance | 1986–1988 |
| Liberal Democrats | 1988–1994 |
| Labour | 1994–2017 |
| No overall control | 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:
| 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 | 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. The elected mayors since 2010 have been:
| Mayor | Party | From | To |
| Lutfur Rahman | Independent | 25 Oct 2010 | 25 May 2014 |
| (Lutfur Rahman) | Tower Hamlets First | 26 May 2014 | 23 Apr 2015 |
| John Biggs | Labour | 15 Jun 2015 | 8 May 2022 |
| Lutfur Rahman | Aspire | 9 May 2022 | |
* ↑ The 2014 mayoral election was declared void on 23 April 2015, triggering a by-election.

### Composition

Following the 2022 election and subsequent changes of allegiance, the composition of the council (excluding the elected mayor's seat) is:
| Party | Party | Councillors |
| | Aspire | 23 |
| | Labour | 17 |
| | Independent | 3 |
| | Conservative | 1 |
| | Green | 1 |
| Total | Total | 45 |
The next election is due 7 May 2026, where all seats of the council will be contested.

## 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.

## Premises

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.
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. In 1993 the council moved to a new town hall at Mulberry Place in the Blackwall area of the borough, remaining there until 2023.

## List of councillors

The councillors before and after the 2022 elections were as follows:
| Ward | Councillor until May 2022 | Notes | Councillor from May 2022 | Party |
| Bethnal Green East | Ahbab Hossain | | Rebaka Sultana | Labour |
| Bethnal Green East | Sirajul Islam | Statutory Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Housing | Sirajul Islam | Labour |
| Bethnal Green East | Eve McQuillan | Mayoral Advisor for Tackling Poverty & Inequality | Ahmodul Kabir | Aspire |
| Bethnal Green West (formerly St Peter's) | Kevin Brady | | Musthak Ahmed | Aspire |
| Bethnal Green West (formerly St Peter's) | Tarik Khan | Majority Group Whip | Abu Talha Chowdhury | Aspire |
| Bethnal Green West (formerly St Peter's) | Gabriela Salva Macallan | | Miraj Amin Rahman | Aspire |
| Blackwall & Cubitt Town | Ehtasham Haque | | Ahmodur Rahman Khan | Aspire |
| Blackwall & Cubitt Town | Mohammed Pappu | | Abdul Malik | Aspire |
| Blackwall & Cubitt Town | 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 |
| Bow East | Rachel Nancy Blake | Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Air Quality | Rachel Nancy Blake | Labour |
| Bow East | Marc Francis | | Marc Francis | Labour |
| Bow West | Asma Begum | Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Equalities | Asma Begum | Labour |
| Bow West | Val Whitehead | | Nathalie Sylvia Bienfait | Green |
| Bromley North | Zenith Rahman | | Muhammad Saif Uddin Khaled | Aspire |
| Bromley North | Dan Tomlinson | | Abdul Mannan | Aspire |
| Bromley South | Danny Hassell | Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Young People | Bodruf Islam Choudhury | Aspire |
| Bromley South | Helal Uddin | | Shahaveer Hussain | Labour |
| Canary Wharf | Kyrsten Perry | | Saled Ahmed | Aspire |
| Canary Wharf | Andrew Wood | Leader of the Conservative Group; resigned in 2020. | Mohammad Maium Miah Talukdar | Aspire |
| Island Gardens | Mufeedah Bustin | | Mufeedah Bustin | Labour |
| Island Gardens | Peter Stacey Golds | | Peter Stacey Golds | Conservative |
| Lansbury | Kahar Chowdhury | | Abul Monsur Ohid Ahmed | Aspire |
| Lansbury | Muhammad Harun | | Jahed Choudhury | Aspire |
| Lansbury | 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 |
| Mile End | Asam Islam | Mayoral Advisor for Young People | Mohammad Saifur Rahman Chowdhury | Labour |
| Mile End | Puru Miah | | Sabina Khan | Labour |
| Poplar | Sufia Alam | | Gulam Kibria Choudhury | Aspire |
| Shadwell | Ruhul Amin | Cabinet Member for Environment | Ana Miah | Aspire |
| Shadwell | 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 |
| Spitalfields and Banglatown | Leema Qureshi | | Kabir Hussain | Aspire |
| St Dunstan's | Dipa Das | | Maisha Fahmida Begum | Labour |
| St Dunstan's | 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 |
| St Katharine's and Wapping | Abdal Ullah | | Abdal Ullah | Labour |
| Stepney Green | Sabina Akhtar | Mayoral Advisor for Community & Voluntary Sector | Sabina Akhtar | Labour |
| Stepney Green | Motin Uz-Zaman | Cabinet Member for Work and Economic Growth | Mohammed Abdul Wahid Ali | Aspire |
| Weavers | Abdul Mukit | | Kabir Ahmed | Aspire |
| Weavers | John Pierce | | Asma Islam | Labour |
| Whitechapel | Faroque Mahfuz Ahmed | | Faroque Mahfuz Ahmed | Labour |
| Whitechapel | Shah Ameen | | Shafi Uddin Ahmed | Aspire |
| Whitechapel | Victoria Obaze | | Mohammed Kamrul Hussain | Aspire |