Communities Secretary returns full powers to Tower Hamlets

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is set to recover all the powers it lost when commissioners were imposed in 2015 following the scandal over the conduct of the 2014 mayoral election.

Then communities secretary Sir Eric Pickles sent in commissioners after elected mayor Lutfur Rahman was ousted by a court for election offences and a review found funding abuses.

Independent Mr Rahman was succeeded at a by-election by Labour’s John Biggs. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said the council had made “steady progress” and that he was minded to return functions to the council, ending the role of the commissioners.

Mr Javid said: “Two years ago, Tower Hamlets council had completely lost the trust of its residents. It was mired in corruption and financial mismanagement that only direct intervention could resolve.”

Tower Hamlets would though be required to report to Mr Javid every quarter for the next 18 months.

Mr Biggs said: “Under the previous mayor this was a council drowning in crisis, corruption and controversy. Since then we have bought in new leadership, opened up the decision making process and challenged historic wrongdoing and bad practice.

“There are still massive challenges from the past we are working to repair. With the commissioners gone we will not let up on our progress and are setting up an improvement board to ensure we keep up the momentum and deliver the best possible services for local people.”

Tower Hamlets in January recovered grant awarding and procurement powers.