Ministers will intervene in the running of Tower Hamlets council amid concern about the local authority’s “toxic” culture and lack of transparency, it was announced on Tuesday.
Decisions made by the east London town hall will be monitored by a Government-appointed envoy following a series of controversies under the borough’s independent executive mayor Lutfur Rahman.
It comes after a critical report into the management of the council, ordered under the previous Tory government, was published.
It found that:
Local Government Minister Jim McMahon said the council was “failing to comply with its Best Value Duty” and he would appoint a “ministerial envoy and assistant envoy to act as advisor, mentor and monitor to the council, and to oversee its improvement work”.
He added: “This action is not undertaken lightly, and I am committed to working in partnership with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to provide whatever support is needed to ensure its compliance with the Best Value Duty and the high standards of governance local residents and service users expect.”
Mr Rahman and his Aspire party beat Labour to be re-elected to lead Tower Hamlets in 2022 - seven years after he was dramatically ousted from office following a vote-rigging scandal.
He was barred from politics for five years after a damning election court judgement, which upheld allegations of bribery, false statements and undue influence in relation to his win in the borough at the 2014 local elections.
Following the scandal then communities secretary, Eric Pickles, took over the administration of the council and appointed commissioners to oversee decisions.
Mr Pickles told the Commons at the time that Mr Rahman had awarded public money like a “medieval monarch” and ran an administration that was “at best dysfunctional [and] at worst riddled with cronyism and corruption”.
The 2014 vote was rerun and won by Labour, who worked alongside the commissioners until they were withdrawn in 2017.
Government inspectors were again sent into Tower Hamlets earlier this year by then secretary of state Michael Gove after the Local Government Association (LGA) flagged concerns about how it was being run.
A Tower Hamlets council spokesman said: “We welcome the Government’s decision to appoint an envoy rather than send in commissioners, with a plan to work together with us on a support package, with the council retaining all its powers.
“This report praises the Council for: the dedication of its officers; achieving financial stability; making good progress with service delivery; putting external challenge and support in place through the Transformation Advisory Board and running sound elections.
“We have delivered innovative measures including being the only council in the country to provide universal free school meals to both primary and secondary schoolchildren; free swimming for women and girls, grants for college and university students; and we are on track to deliver one of the highest amounts of new housing in London.
“The results of our community-focused work are reflected in our extremely positive response from our residents in our borough-wide annual survey.”
