Cabinet - Wednesday 18 February 2026, 2:00pm - Tower Hamlets Council webcasts

Cabinet
Wednesday, 18th February 2026 at 2:00pm

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Thank you.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to our cabinet meeting, daytime cabinet meeting today.

The usual rule about fire alarms and filming in the meeting applies.

We've got the agenda papers.

It's been circulated.

I don't believe there are any public questions.

Okay.

Good.

Any apologies?

I know Councillor Tala is running a bit late.

Other than that, we have all the members are here, corporate directors are here.

Okay.

Great.

Good.

Apologies.

Any declarations of interest, anyone?

Nope.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you.

Can we agree the minutes of the 30th of April?

Can we agree the last minutes?

Okay.

Good.

Steve, any announcements, sir?

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

They basically relate today for this meeting to officer -related items.

Just to remind cabinet that I have written to group leaders yesterday and a report is

being considered at full council next week in relation to the appointment of Richard

Ennis as the council's new interim section 151 officer, following an interview conducted

by the mayor, myself, and the lead envoy, and also in attendance were other relevant

cabinet members.

Also today, Gillian Marston has started with us as the interim corporate director of communities

and she met with myself and other corporate directors this morning.

I would also like to advise members that following some sterling work with the local authority,

Dal Babu is scheduled to leave the council at the end of next week,

following what I think has been a really productive and he's really added value to the local authority over the time that he's here,

So I'd like to express my thanks for that and also just remind cabinet that next week

Next Tuesday is the next meeting of the transformation assurance board

And papers related to that were circulated this morning

Thank you, thank you Steve just want to say few got a statement to make and say few words first of all I to

wish to thank

Mr. Dal Babu for his support and help in agreeing to support us as an interim

director for criminal safety and security. So grateful to him and wish him

all the best in his other endeavours. Okay, move on to my statement. Today is the

first day of Ramadan. So Ramadan Marwan, greetings to each and every one of you

Ladies and gentlemen, today our cabinet agenda deals with a crucial step in improving housing

in our borough.

We are investing some £609 million in capital investments to our housing stock over the

next two years.

And historic first, never before in this council has such a large amount of money has been

in housing improvement allowed.

A decent, warm and safe home used to be a luxury, something unattainable to the poorest

communities across London.

During my previous term as Mayor, we invested some £160 million into our housing stock

and ensured all of our council stock had a decent kitchen, front door, bathroom, windows

and a roof.

And I believe we delivered that mission reasonably successfully.

All of our stock was upgraded.

It was one of our proudest achievements to deliver the Decent Zone programme previously.

However, in the seven years that I was out of office,

historic underinvestment in both my existing house and

stock by the previous administration and a failure

to build new homes and tackle overcrowding left

our residents suffering from poor quality housing,

overcrowding, and unaffordable private

rental market.

As you know, we take up door knocking two or three

times a week.

It's not just about electioneering.

I've been doing that for the last two years,

and I do surgeries twice a week.

So I meet residents.

We meet residents on a regular basis.

It gives us an opportunity to hear what they have to say

and to see and hear their concerns.

and most often I am invited into their homes to witness severe overcrowding, mould, infestation,

unsafe conditions and many other issues which I have spoken of in previous meetings in cabinet

or in other forums.

Our community deserves more than what they are going through now and they need solutions.

This is why our administration has once again put housing as our top priority.

In about November 2023 we brought timeless homes in -house, further to my manifesto pledge,

And in 2024, we self -referred ourselves to the housing

regulator to bring in outside expertise to assess

our housing stock and to support us in developing

an evidence -driven approach to improving

our housing generally.

We are clearing up and cleaning up the mess left

behind by the previous administration that saw

stock crumbling and families living in

substandard accommodation.

Our work in developing plans and allocating funds

is now complete, and we are now moving into

procurement, followed by the implementation phase.

Today's paper clearly shows our investment is

historic of the 609 million pound that we will

allocate, £240 million will be invested in decent homes, making sure every family in

a council -owned residence where it is needed can benefit from modern kitchen, bathrooms,

double glazing and energy -efficient roofs. This alone will protect families from harsh

winters and reduce their heating costs. We can't give everyone a bigger home, and we

or a newer home.

However, we can give people a decent home and a warm home.

And this is what we're doing.

We did it last time, and hopefully we can deliver

this this time too.

Another 200 million pound will go into building safety,

ensuring that our residents are protected from fires

and other risk.

A further 60 million pound will be invested in major

repairs and enhancements.

These are crucial investments that will protect homes and

ensure that the lessons from the Grenfell tragedy that

sadly took place nine years ago during Ramadan,

again, are implemented in our policies.

Lastly, we are pushing new policies for contracting

this work.

We found that relying on a single contractor leaves us

vulnerable to delays and locks us into long -term

Instead, we will be procuring eight providers, enabling the Council the ability to be flexible

should issues arise.

Half of the providers will be small and medium -sized enterprises.

Importantly, contract recipients will be required to provide £96 million in social value investments

where they focus on apprenticeships, job training and long -term employment for residents.

I am grateful to David Joyce, the corporate director and Stephen Platt and the team for

bringing this paper to today's cabinet.

Thank you very much.

Okay, over in scrutiny, we have the chair of the over in scrutiny is there.

You have 10 minutes, sir.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

Good afternoon and Ramadan Karim to you all. The last meeting of the overview of the scrutiny

committee discussed two main items. Number one, anti -social behaviour policy which is also on

today's cabinet agenda. We noted that the council has a brief from the community safety partnership

to deal with antisocial behaviour on the streets of Ta 'amlis.

It is also required as a landlord to deal with antisocial behaviour on our council estate.

We welcomed the council's intention to work with ourselves

in respect of antisocial behaviour on their estate or by their residents.

But we had two concerns.

Firstly, we welcome the many routes provided for residents to report antisocial behaviour on council estates or in public areas.

But at the same time, this can be confusing.

We did think that having a single telephone number to report antisocial behaviour and publicising this relentlessly would be a help to residents and to the council.

Secondly, the policy is compartmentalised.

It assumes that antisocial behaviour on council estates is carried out by a resident of those estates.

And antisocial behaviour on RSL estates is carried out by a resident of those estates.

We are concerned that people causing antisocial behaviour don't necessarily behave in such organised way.

Residents who live on RSL estates can come onto Council estates and cause problems, and vice versa.

The policy is not entirely clear on what the Council will do in the case of hybrid antisocial behaviour.

We also asked that residents reporting antisocial behaviour should be given a reference number.

Officers agreed.

And we also asked that Tahemla's housing forum reports to the council on how its members are dealing with antisocial behaviour on their estates.

Number two. Integrated enforcement.

We had a good discussion on this new integrated approach to enforcement.

As ever, we are grateful to lead members and officers for attending and answering questions.

We are also grateful to you, Mr Mayor, for sending the answers to our pre -decision questions

– uh, scrutiny questions.

We had an initial discussion on the report prepared by Scrutiny Lead on Community Safety,

which looked at reoffending rates in the 18 to 25 population of our borough.

Overall, we felt this report provided a good start at looking at this issue.

We also agreed on the final version of the report prepared by the scrutiny lead for environment into reducing road danger and deaths.

We hope that this report will be with you very soon.

Thank you very much for allowing me the time to report back.

Thank you, Councillor Wai -he, for those comments and thank you to your colleagues on the Urban

Scrutiny Committee and for your contribution.

Councillor Tala, no doubt you picked up some of the concerns or issues raised in ONS.

I don't normally do this.

and we have to be able to respond to it.

Nothing at this moment.

Thank you chair and thank you mayor.

Nothing at this moment. We had a very good discussion

and we had responded to media every sort of concern and query.

And if there is any follow up we will write to the committee directly.

We did say we were going to follow up with some staff

so we will write to them directly.

And keep me in the loop please, yeah? What if you do?

It's the area that I take serious interest.

Okay, thank you.

Good. Can we move on to, thank you very much.

We move on to the agenda item 6 .1, please.

Okay.

The DEPUTY MAYOR.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

The local authority has statutory duties to consult on any proposed changes and to determine

the admission arrangements annually before 28 February.

This covers published admission numbers over subscription criteria,

coordinated schemes and defined geographical area for admissions.

This year we propose changes to published admission numbers

at Bowe, Arnhem -Wolf, Harbinger and William Davies.

These reflect falling roles driven by the change.

The reductions were requested by schools themselves.

responsible decisions that protect financial sustainability,

maintain parental choice and safeguard educational quality across the borough.

A full statutory consultation ran from 1 October to 14 November 2025.

It was widely published and generated very limited objections,

indicating that the proposals were proportionate and not contentious.

and equalities impact screening confirms no disproportionate impact on protected groups.

By determining these arrangements today, we provide clarity for families, stability for

schools and responsible planning for applications made from September for admissions in 2027.

So I'll forward it to Steve if he wants to add anything. Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Just to add that we are working closely with head teachers and their associations regarding the falling birth rate.

We've seen the impact in other boroughs and significant closures of primary schools.

We obviously want to avoid that in town and we're working closely with our head teacher colleagues.

Where there are opportunities to amalgamate and work jointly, we're supporting schools to do that.

The only other thing I wanted to reference is obviously our colleagues and admissions are making sure that the new offer around

free -school uniforms particularly for for children and their families joining primary and first year of secondary

Are accessing that new offer. Thanks

Right, thank you anyone any colleagues want to comment on this

It's quite important paper. Yeah, please councillor bottle. Thank you. Mr. Mayor

Thank you, and I welcome this fair transportation system in place

Which ensures no child is disadvantaged and as the deputy mayor said equality

Into this is very much fundamental to our inclusion of policy, and I welcome this Thank You mr. Mayor

Let's commit anyone else

Tala send if you want to say are you okay, say it

Okay, good. I mean can I thank you for including?

the school clothing grant bit in the paragraph 4 .4 on page 29.

Thank you for that, because people need to know what we're doing,

its inequalities, implications, that we're trying to help the cost of living

as much as possible, whether it's free school meals,

whether it's schooling from grants, or other support that we provide.

Thanks for including that. Anyone else? Any comments?

It's quite straightforward.

We get this every year.

It's very important.

So can we agree the recommendations, please?

Great.

Good.

Thank you.

Next one.

6 .2.

Approval of the Council's new housing strategy.

6 .2.

Please, Kiber.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm pleased to introduce the Housing Strategy 2026 to 2036, a bold long -term plan built

around a simple but powerful vision of more homes, better homes, safer homes.

This strategy sets out seven priorities that respond directly to the challenges our residents

face.

Overcrowding, affordability, pressures, homelessness and the need for higher quality, safer homes

across all tenures.

It reflects our determination to act with urgency, ambition and compassion to ensure

everyone in our borough has a home that meets their needs.

What gives this strategy its strength is not only the scale of its ambition but the depth

of consensus behind it.

During the extended seven -week consultation, residents, partners and stakeholders engaged

with the proposals in large numbers. Our new Go vocal platform recorded 1319 hits

stroke views. Feedback provided from 122 respondents was overwhelmingly positive.

88 % agreed with our vision and 74 % supported the seven priorities with

with every priority achieving support levels of 70 % or higher.

With overcrowding priority receiving the highest vote for priority,

residents told us that the strategy is clear, accessible and grounded in the realities they face.

With almost three quarters reporting, they found it easy to understand.

I want to thank everyone who contributed their insight and lived experience through the consultation.

The voices have shaped this final strategy and their support reinforces the collective commitment across our borough to achieve lasting change.

Today I commend this strategy to Cabinet and the shared roadmap for delivering the homes

our communities need and deserve over the decade ahead.

We have David as corporate director, Karen as director, and Una also one of our senior

managers who have worked and delivered on this strategy.

Thank you.

David, please.

Thank you, I'll hand over to the team but I think just to say clearly this is a housing

strategy that applies to all forms of housing in Tower Hamlets, it isn't just our role as

a landlord.

We did do extensive consultation, we held events with organisations like the Interfaith

Forum, we did a big launch event, the Youth Bullcat Mayor, where a lot of our partners

attended including house builders, housing associations and other delivery

partners and I think you know one of the things that has come out loud and clear

from the consultation is the the unified support for overcrowding is the number

one priority which was something that yourself and the lead member were really

clear with us on and it has now been backed up by the consultation result and

I think it's important to say that when we talk about overcrowding we're not

tackling that in terms of building new homes although we are doing that we're

tackling it through a whole range of approaches including sort of multi

agency working so they've kept the kind of whole life circumstances of people

who are overcrowded so I think you know it's a really really powerful message

that overcrowding is our overriding priority to tackle and try and make a

difference to people who are living in overcrowded conditions but with that

I'll just thank the team and hand over to Karen and Una who have done all the work.

I'd like to thank Una and Kyoko who's worked alongside me drafting the report and organising all the events.

So thank you Una.

I'd like to draw your attention to the appendices.

So the first one is the strategy itself.

So there's been no substantial change to the strategy that we consulted on that we brought here for permission to consult and

That's no surprise because there was overwhelming support for the strategy. We've corrected some typos

We've clarified that the renters rights bill is now an act

We've included reference to the GLA new homes building funding round, which we're going to be putting in a bit

So we thought it would be relevant to reference that that came out during the period of the consultation

And we've also referenced the climate reduction strategy which is in progress because we know

that housing is one of the biggest emitters of CO2 emissions.

So that's where trailing the fact that we will be addressing carbon emissions in the

housing stock in the future separate strategy.

The other appendices are an EIA.

There's an appendices which shows benchmarking with other London authorities on their consultations

on their housing strategy and it shows that we fared really well and had more responses

than most local authorities.

And then it includes the evidence base as well that backs up the actions in the housing

strategy.

Thanks, Karen.

David, is that anything else you want to add?

You okay?

Yep.

Good.

Thank you.

Steve.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Mine is actually, I obviously want to extend thanks like everybody else has, but this,

From my perspective and the conversations I have with David and the Councillor over

the recent month, this is a significant development.

It collates everything and the administration's aspiration in terms of housing into one place.

I really do believe, having spoken to other chief executives, we are in a really strong

position as a result of this and we should launch it.

There should be a strong comms approach to this.

We should launch it across the sector.

We should launch it locally.

We should launch it, not launch it, but we should certainly be related to it when we

to go to MIPIM and there are a range of things that need to put together.

So Mayor, with your agreement, I think it would be helpful to commission the Director

of Comms to put something together very quickly.

David, unless that's already happened, and I apologise if it has, but we should really

be promoting this.

This is a really excellent piece of work.

Sure.

Thanks, thanks Steve.

I want to come on the back of that.

This is very ambitious, very ambitious.

You know, we've been in this Council a long time.

I've never seen a document which captures everything into one, and evidence is the ambition

of this Council.

You know, tackling overcrowding in last week's housing sub -committee, we had a paper on knock -throughs,

we had a paper on internal alterations, we had a paper on extensions, and enabling paper.

We know overcrowding is a serious issue in the borough, hence in this strategy of the

seven priorities overcrowding comes number one.

The money that we are putting aside today,

609 million pound, the point I made earlier on,

we may not be able to give instant to everyone a bigger

home, but we can try our best to make sure their

home is comfortable and it is a good quality home,

the home they live in, and one they can be proud of.

Many of the homes are mould and condensation infested, David.

Not only is it small, it's basically it's uninhabitable.

By dealing with the condensation, dealing with the mould permanently, trying to refurbish

the homes, trying to modernise it, at least they can feel proud of, take ownership of

the home they're living in until they get a bigger and a better home.

That's very important.

You know, the second priority, building more homes, that's been always been our top priority.

If you look at our manifesto, you know, you're very confident, we're very confident in partnership

with the IRS, sales, housing associations, with the developers and the councils initiative,

but within the next four or five, over the four year of our tenor, we would have delivered,

we will deliver some 6 ,000 homes for rent.

That's more than what we set out in our manifesto,

which is 6 ,000.

But going forward, further than that,

the 40 or so sites that we set aside and David and the team

are working on bringing those sites to planning very soon

and trying to secure also having discussions with the GLA

and other authorities to secure grants,

we're very confident over the next three or four years,

we will be able to deliver more council homes,

more homes for rent, around 3 ,000 homes just on our

council owned sites.

And top of that, you've got the planning process,

homes coming through, one of the busiest planning

authority in the country, private developers always

want to come and talk to us, ourselves are talking to us.

You know, the caveat last week, we agreed the CPO,

Is it this week or last week?

It's coming today.

The CPO paper on Teviot that shows a state

regeneration is going to also deliver more homes

and finally, to build more homes.

So we're very ambitious.

The other priorities, each one of them are equally

important, each one of them.

So let's get this properly launched.

we are going to be putting in March and this should we should showcase this to

the country and to others to see what we're doing also learn from them but

also we can demonstrate that we're doing our bit and we're doing a lot in this

part of our to make it easy for our residents and ease people who are living

in housing housing tenants okay said okay so I'm going to leave it there

comments released in one?

Yes, Councillor Shafi.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

And a welcoming and well deserving information and announcement today.

Having a housing strategy itself is an ambitious and a necessary plan to address the borough's most pressing challenges.

The vision of more homes, better homes, safer homes reflect exactly what our residents deserve.

The evidence set out speaks for itself.

We have more than 29 ,000 households on the housing register,

45 % of which are in overcrowded conditions,

and over 3 ,000 households in temporary accommodations.

Alongside private rented remains higher than the London average.

These are challenges that demand a coordinated long -term response,

and this strategy does exactly that.

So the seven points, importantly, the residents have backed the approach

by 87%, agreed with the vision,

and the 74 % supported the priorities.

So it's a very positive impact for our residents and we welcome this going forward and I fully

support the strategy that reflects the residents' priorities and strengthens our commitment

to addressing the housing crisis with fairness, ambition and compassion.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

Thank you, grateful.

Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

I just want to thank the lead member and our officers for their hard work and dedication.

I mean, this is something very close to your heart and you've always, from day one, housing's

been your top priority.

We have had our struggles from day one, during the first one or two years.

Eventually, we got in.

This strategy reflects that commitment towards the resident and the partnership and the ties

we have with the developers and with the housing association out there.

And I think it's so important and that strategy reflects that needs, reflects that pressure

that we're on when it comes to housing.

So I'm grateful to everyone.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Saeed, then I'll bring Talla in.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

And thanks to the office and lead member for this housing strategy

Which isn't even a statutory requirement, but yet this strategy has been put together very well

So I think that's very important and I think that shows the seriousness of this administration

That for to put something together like this on this scale

It shows that we take things seriously and it's just not a tick box exercise

On that note, mr. Mayor, I think on your forward. We've got you've mentioned 120 million pound

To talk about the future plans, can we not mention the 609 that we can then say that

we are also going to improve based on the findings and all the consultation we have

done, we would then actually put things into action.

That's my recommendation.

Thank you.

I agree with that.

It's okay.

It's a fact.

So that is reflected in the forward plan.

Is that okay?

Please, yeah.

Thank you.

If you can amend.

So that's the amendment we're making here.

Is that okay?

609 thank you. I bring David in down bring others. So David, sorry Steve

Thank you. Mr. Mayor just wanted to thank David cat Karen owner and team for for an excellent piece of work

Particularly the priority six on diverse needs where we've referenced the the needs of our care experience young people

And I also wanted to say thanks for the commitments to working with around

Developing housing for foster carers, which is a big priority as well

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

Sabina, I'll bring you in.

Is that okay?

Then I'll bring Tanya in.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

This strategy clearly shows our kind of commitment and passion to kind of deliver more homes,

better homes and safer homes.

It is definitely bold, this strategy, and it's evidence -based, and it is definitely

dealing with the deepening housing crisis in our borough, something our residents do

constantly tell us on the doorsteps, where thousands of homes, families are actually

facing overcrowding, insecurity and unstable living conditions.

Firstly, it's this touching on homelessness. Far too many people, residents in our borough

are living in temporary accommodation or facing trauma of losing their homes. So this strategy

kind of strengthens that commitment to kind of work earlier, you know, through prevention

work and intervening earlier to support the families before they come to the crisis point

and reducing reliance on temporary accommodations.

Again, like the Mayor said, family homes that are going to be built, this is something that

we do get a lot of when we do meet residents where they want to see more three to four

or five bedroom homes and this strategy is definitely showing this.

Poor housing conditions, including damp and mould, definitely harms health, including children and elderly vulnerable residents in our borough.

So, kind of really working and embedding high quality housing standards across the borough and working with landlords in the private sector, we will definitely increase the quality of homes across the borough.

So this strategy is really showing our commitment.

We're not just saying it that we'll be doing, but the investment kind of shows,

and the level of investment shows how much of a priority we want to deal with the housing crisis in the borough.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Tala, please.

Thank you, Mayor. I did want to make the point about including 609 million, so I'm happy that it's been captured.

I think the word ambition is spoken about quite a bit.

So this definitely demonstrates our ambition,

not just to residents who should be reassured

that this administration is taking their situation

seriously, whether they're in TA, overcrowded accommodation,

temporary accommodation, private accommodation.

This covers, as David said, the breadth

of people that live in different tenures within our borough,

but also to government.

So, you know, we are serious.

You spoke about going to MIPIM, you spoke about going to different forums.

We are serious and open for business and this is what the message should be, you know, that

we develop with Andreas and colleagues.

The fact that this is our ambition, it's in my opinion, you'd expect me to say this as

a councillor here, but it's unmatched across London and wider.

So it's definitely something that should be amplified.

Page 46, when I look at a strategy, I tend to see how it's been delivered.

Is it just a document that's going to sit on the website somewhere?

But there's a number of forums, and most people here would know, we've got the housing cabinet

subcommittee, but also as part of the strategic plan and the delivery plan, there's a number

of these metrics that we capture.

And that's what page 46 talks about.

And we also reference an annual report that will come every year talking about this strategy

and how we're performing against this strategy.

So I look forward to that report in due course.

Thank you.

Greatful.

Councillor Amusta, please.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

Echoing the spirit and the words shared by yourself and my colleagues at this Chamber,

I would just like to reiterate that this is undoubtedly an ambitious project.

It's practical and it's exactly what our Hamlet's residents expect from their council.

We said we would put our residents first.

This strategy proves we are doing it and I'm proud to support it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Anyone else?

Is there anything else you want to say, Karen, and your colleague?

Thank you for your hard work and putting this together.

It was a fantastic launch for the consultation we had in Romulan Gardens where all the partners

came together and everyone contributed and clearly showcases our vision for download.

We need a good launch of this, David.

So if you're Andreas and yourself get together, bear in mind that there are certain time constraints

that we need to push on with it, which is so important.

So if you can do that.

And second, just that small, before this gets further published, the further amendment to

my forward, 609 rather than 140.

So, okay, with those comments, can we agree the recommendations?

Okay, thank you.

Good.

Can we move on to the antisocial behaviour policy, please, 6 .3.

Okay, Tala.

Thank you, Mr Mayor, I'll be fairly brief.

This is a new antisocial behaviour policy for this council.

It captures the land of responsibilities that we have since we in -sourced our town at homes

and we are managing thousands of properties there.

also looks to how we manage anti -social behaviour in town centres and in high streets and in public spaces.

So the reporting journey I think is really important and hopefully that's quite clear within the policy.

You'll be aware and with your support we have invested heavily within community safety and particularly this space,

including most recently having a dedicated reporting phone line.

I think we took this scrutiny yesterday or two days ago,

and I think generally it was received well.

So we're hoping this can help with our response to social behaviour.

And one final point was this is a council policy.

We did consult with registered social landlords and other landlords across the borough.

At this moment in time, we are still in discussions towards having a partnership policy at some point,

because ideally every resident that lives in the borough should have a standard,

one approach to how we address anti -social behaviour

and not an inconsistent approach depending on who your landlord is.

So we are working with other landlords to come to some kind of unified approach

to how we tackle anti -social behaviour. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Before we ask Steve to come in, I just want to make one or two preliminary comments.

I know, Kieran, you're new and welcome to time.

That's by no Simon, both Simon and Dal,

had to put in with yourself lead member, put in a lot of time

and from our office, both Aliabaw San have contributed a lot.

I mean, I'm going to be open, open and say, look, first of all,

we got to put our house in order by the council.

we have to get our ASP policy and the operational

bit right first before we call upon the ourselves

and the other stakeholders to come in and improve

themselves.

What we inherited on 5th of May, 2022, was

disgraceful when it came to ASP.

You know, we haven't, we have made huge investments in the anti -social, tackling anti -social behaviour,

the TEO service, we have brought it up to 73 now, the CCTV cameras, and they weren't

working when we came in. The CCTV cameras were out of business for a good four or five

Yes.

There were blind spots on streets across the borough where we, one, we didn't have resources.

We couldn't pick up and we didn't know what was happening.

Obviously with the investment also in the CCTV cameras, replacing them, upgrading them,

the huge investment that's gone into them, some 400 or so CCTV cameras, I believe has

made a difference.

The new state of the art control room, which we

visited, was the last year before, is fantastic.

It's fantastic.

But furthermore, our agreement to invest money

in a housing estates, fighting antisocial

behaviour, every state will get a or more CCTV cameras,

some 125 CCTV cameras, and upgrading the cameras in

the council blocks is so necessary.

Basically, what we witnessed when we came in

is just unacceptable.

The 24 hour, round -the -clock antisocial behaviour team

were invisible, were non -existent.

You report something now,

yeah, at night, you're doing the middle of the night,

you if you report an incident, someone will come out until the two days after, one day

after. By then, the incident has happened, someone's been hurt, police have been called,

but our people, I don't want to name them here, weren't available. So what we said,

we want a true 24 -hour service, a flexible service, where someone is on duty 24 -says,

If there is an incident on our housing estate, we don't wait till morning to go out or next

night to go out, they go out immediately.

Okay, Tala, Kiran, this is what we've done.

I want to see, when I say get our house in order, I want all that to be operational,

to be implemented, not just on paper.

The number of complaints of ASB that we get from our states, our resale states, on the

streets is a bit better now than what it was a few years back, but still for me it's not

good enough.

ASB continues to be an issue, Steve, on our housing states, on our streets.

I don't believe that it is taken with the same seriousness that it deserves to be taken

because run of the mill ASB can harm people.

I've had mothers come to my surgery where people are just loitering on the stairwells

and having a fag or spliff, etc., which is wrong.

but it's causing harm to her young children,

not also enticing them to take interest in what's happening outside.

So we've got to do so.

There needs to be a strong correlation between housing and the community stream.

ASB is a joint endeavour.

Also the youth services, I will say, too, is a joint endeavour

if it's youngsters are involved.

But it shouldn't be just a paper exercise.

It should be an exercise, a real attempt to support our residents and deal with issues

that exist on the housing states.

Secondly, we need to, the average punter out there don't make a distinction between us

as a council or an RSL, housing association.

They think it's all the council.

So please can we engage with the RSLs and talk to them, see how they can buy into our

services or they should be delivering an excellent service themselves.

You say, okay, that's my request.

I'll ask Steve to come in and ask David to come in.

Please.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

So very briefly for me, this for me, from my perspective, sits very much alongside the

housing strategy, which is what the mayor's just reflected upon.

And this clearly sets out a pathway, how you can access services, how you can access support.

So I would say two things.

One's rather peripheral, really, but we've designed the housing strategy in such a way

that it's accessible.

It's attractive you you want to read more there are photographs there are all sorts of things

It'll be really helpful to take the same approach with this and it has been really helpful to launch it in

Line with when the housing strategy is in launch to show that there is synergy in the window

I haven't got departments working in isolation. I would also say just to build on what the mayor says

We know from the annual resident survey that although

Crime and ASP was with the highest concern that the biggest concern in times gone past and it has become less of a concern

but it is still significant and the administration has allocated significant resources.

Part of that we know is about residents feeling safe, having a perception that they can walk

down the street, that street lighting works, that they can go anywhere in the borough and

feel secure.

This feels to me like a lever, an opportunity to promote safety within the borough but to

link it very much to the housing strategy.

So I would like to see, Kieran, if cabinet agrees, some sort of comms strategy associated

with this and something that allows it to be launched.

But on the final point I would make is it talks in the strategy about how we will measure

our performance, and I think that is something that we should think about how we're going

to report that differently to how we've done it until now through the quarterly performance

indicators and targets and discussions with the lead cabinet member.

We need to think about how we're going to report that as we move forward.

Thank you.

David, please.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

I suppose just to make a couple of points.

The preparation of this strategy is a key part of our regulatory improvement plan and

actually one of the things that we committed to the regulatory social housing that we would

do.

So I'm really pleased to see it for that reason.

I think the second thing to say is that Aloah Kieran is relatively new.

Even in her short time here she's picked up and done quite a bit of work on it so I would like to thank her for that.

And the third part of it is your point about partnership with registered social landlords.

So it is something that we're looking at as part of the Tower Hamlets Housing Forum.

And we are talking to a number of landlords including Pop the Harker and Chris Sissier about whether it's possible for landlords to buy into our services.

and we're having those discussions with a number.

I've been introducing Kiran to a number of registered social landlords,

senior leaders and chief executives to make those links

and we're very much looking to get that integrated, joined up approach.

Before I bring Kobi Reen, can I just ask David, on that, is there a time frame,

I know, because we need to move on quite quickly with the IRS cells,

especially social landlords, and see if we can embed them,

bring them in as quickly as possible.

I just want to know if there's timeline.

Well, the discussions are quite at an early stage,

but I don't know if Kieran wants to come in

and provide any clarity, but if not,

we can come back later with the timeframe to you.

So can we,

by say, can we say middle, first of all, middle of March,

Can we have a noting paper please to to map to see where we are?

Because I a lot of respect I do I

Get told repeatedly we are in discussion with our ourselves discussion with ourselves

But to date I haven't seen any fruit of that discussion

Yeah, but what I'm saying and I know one or two ourselves

Have said to me you and Tala and to David they're keen to buy in into our services

So I'm very keen to prioritise this, progress this, because as I said, average person out

there, they make no distinction between us or an RSL.

They think everything is cancelled.

So we do want to see how it's progressing and whether we can persuade some RSLs to come

into real partnership with us.

Yeah, and I think an important point to make is when the stock transfers happened in Taraham,

the estates are all very interspersed.

One side of the road can be our housing another side can be pop the car Harker and the other side

Can be East End homes. So, you know, it's very much a case of it's one place as far as residents are concerned

Very much, please cover

Yeah, I just wanted to pick up on the communication element of things and I think a lot of the strategy and everything

we do is quite high level and

and it becomes one sided.

So residents report in,

but what do we report back to residents?

And I mean within the housing portfolio,

that's one of the key areas I've picked up

with the directors is,

are we reporting back?

Because HRA money is being spent,

so we have a responsibility to let the residents know

where that money's being spent.

So how many patrols have taken place?

What are the outcomes that have happened?

Because in terms of feeling safe and secure,

if they're not getting or receiving the communication that differences are being made,

then it's very difficult to accept that any change has taken place.

So within that, I mean what I'm reading is there is lots of high level partnership,

high level communication, but the stakeholder themselves,

we haven't really formatted ways of notifying them of the outcomes.

One of the ways is through the interdepartmental work we do between housing management and

community safety.

And I suppose it's to look at approaches and avenues that will support the wider vision

goal in disseminating that information to the primary participants which are our residents.

So my suggestion would be sort of looking at those opportunities, not just sort of big

through the council's media system, because that's not getting to the right place.

So yeah, look for those opportunities.

Anyone else?

Do you have a comment?

Anyone else?

Sayid?

I'm glad he covered everything.

You okay?

Go on, Thala.

I really appreciate everyone's comments.

We do have a comments plan, so there was a comments plan shared,

so if we've missed anything, we'll add that to our comments plan.

Secondly, more than happy to bring you a note in the middle of March

on the commercialization work.

There has been some good progress.

And in terms of feeding back to residents,

definitely agree.

It helps with their feelings of safety.

But one of the challenges that I know that the operators face

is when they're receiving the report on the new telephone

line, a lot of people want to report it confidentially.

And they don't want to share their telephone number.

And the reason why the operator constantly says,

can we have a contact detail, an email, or a telephone number,

is so they can feed back.

So my plea I guess would be to residents

if they want to report confidential of course that's their prerogative

but for us to be able to feed that back based on what Councillor Ahmed has said

we would prefer if they give us that contact so we can feed back

and for the ones that did we then ask them are they satisfied, were they happy

and we do capture that information as part of that new line that's been introduced.

We've invested some £8 million additional money into fighting crime and the fear of

crime. What we're saying now, Tala, is got to work. Okay? Seven to three new TOs, seven

in the drug squad, seven TOs in the drug squad. You've got a drug squad, you've got new CCTV's,

new control room.

You've got additional 125 cameras you're going to get

in the housing estates.

What we're saying now, and it's got to truly come together,

whether it's housing, whether it's youth services,

whether it's the communities, you know,

it's one council, Steve, yeah?

It's got to come together.

No more saying, oh, it's not, what's on us?

I'm not saying you said that.

It's that department, it's David's department,

or it's Steve's youth services.

No, it's us as a council.

As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to community safety, you're the lead member.

And it's got to fall under that.

So no more excuses from this council.

When we expect them to go out during the night, they're working flexibly, they need to go

out during the night.

When someone is experiencing an ASB on the doorstep, in their balconies or in their state,

There are people who are working flexibly,

getting paid to work after hours.

They need to go out.

They can't just log it and go out the next day.

By then, damage has been done.

Reputation damage has been done.

The actual damage has been done.

That has been the culture of this council, unfortunately.

The seven years we weren't here, and the three,

four years we have been here.

It took us a lot of time, energy to clean it up.

We want to see a good, efficient, well -managed council when it comes to community safety

and other stuff.

That's what I'm going to say.

Steve, I'm going to give you the last say.

The only thing I would say is I would endorse the fact that many years ago, many years ago,

when we were here last, we introduced the Tower Hamlets Enforcement Officers.

The issue then was, I mean I think it's fair to say, Mayor, that ASB and low -level crime

was a significant issue in the borough.

And there is no doubt, in my estimation,

that the world has moved on.

I think our working with the police now is more effective,

the fact that we've got accredited theos,

the fact that we've got all of those things,

and I've no doubt that Kieran will take it forward.

But the world has changed as well.

We've got a much bigger population,

we're much more densely populated,

it's a much more diverse population,

and it's not just about delivering the things

that the mayor as aspires to, and as outlined,

it's evolving as a service.

It's making sure that we are much more sensitive to the needs that Georgia will talk about

in terms of perhaps the more elderly population or the young people aspires to, or the way

that people engage with the local authority, engage with the police and engage with each

other.

So I'm really proud of the fact, and I know we've discussed it at length, that the Ann

Eurostan survey shows us that 90 % of people in the borough feel that we get on well together.

But we cannot be complacent because it's that type of where I think has been described as

and we have to make sure that we are making sure that we are