For Immediate Release
Tower Hamlets Labour Group is urging Mayor Lutfur Rahman and his Aspire administration to seize the opportunity to utilise the historic investment from the Labour Government’s new £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme to urgently tackle the borough’s severe housing crisis.
At the upcoming full council meeting, Labour’s Councillor Marc Francis will propose a motion criticising Aspire’s housing record over the past three years, highlighting significant failures that have negatively impacted local residents.
Despite Mayor Rahman’s repeated promises since 2022, including his proposed including his proposed ‘Joint Venture Development Vehicle’ intended to deliver thousands of new council homes, no tangible progress has been achieved.
The Regulator for Social Housing recently downgraded the council’s housing services to a C3 rating due to serious shortcomings, including poor repairs performance, inadequate responses to tenant queries, and insufficient support for homeless and overcrowded families.
Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Sirajul Islam, said:
“The Aspire administration’s repeated failure to deliver on housing promises has left thousands of homeless residents and overcrowded families waiting far longer than necessary for new council homes. Existing tenants are also facing unacceptably long waits for essential repairs. These failures stem directly from Mayor Rahman and his lead member’s chaotic mismanagement of the Housing & Regeneration portfolio, notably an ill-judged joint venture with private developers, the removal of accountability when Tower Hamlets Homes was brought back ‘in-house’ and attempts to displace homeless families far from East London.”
Councillor Marc Francis, who is proposing the motion, added:
“In the run-up to the 2022 Mayoral Election, Lutfur Rahman’s Aspire Party made voters ambitious promises, further repeated and expanded by Housing Lead Member, Councillor Kabir Ahmed. Labour councillors’ legitimate questions about the delivery of these promised new council homes and improved services were consistently dismissed. After three years of complete failure, it is time for Councillor Ahmed to be held accountable and for Mayor Rahman to provide the strategic leadership and oversight required to genuinely improve services and deliver desperately needed homes.”
ENDS
Notes:
The joint venture proposal to provide council land to developers can be found here: LONDON BOROUGH OF TOWER HAMLETS
Labour’s motion can be found here: LONDON BOROUGH OF TOWER HAMLETS
Lutfur Rahman was elected on a manifesto pledge to build 4000 homes for social rent over the course of his administration.