The Council agreed to approve the 2025/26 budget report and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2025-28. It was also agreed to adopt the Treasury Management Strategy Statement, Investment Strategy Report and Capital Strategy Report for 2025-26. The Member Allowance Scheme for 2025/26 was also approved.

Council Tax

The Council agreed to increase Council Tax by 4.99% for 2025/26. This is made up of a 2.99% increase in general Council Tax and a 2% increase in the Adult Social Care precept¹.

The Labour Group proposed an amendment to freeze Council Tax. Councillor Marc Francis, who moved the amendment, said the Labour government had awarded the Council an additional £37.5 million in the last 8 months. He said:

Why on earth, then, does the Mayor and his Aspire party councillors need to raise council tax by a further 5% on top of the 5% that they already increased it last year?

Councillor Shiraj Alislam, leader of the Labour Group, seconded the amendment. He said:

Colleagues, in these challenging times when cost of living has soared and hard-working families are feeling the pitch, the last thing our residents need is a bigger council tax.

Councillor Kabir Ahmed said that Labour had increased Council Tax by 25% during their 7 years in administration, between 2015 and 2022.

Councillor Waheed Ali disputed Labour's claim that the Mayor had broken his promise not to increase Council Tax. He cited page 8 of the Mayor's 2022 manifesto, which pledged to freeze council tax for four years to protect the most poorest. He said the Council was fulfilling that pledge by ensuring Council Tax is frozen for all households with an annual income of less than £50,350. He said:

This is exactly what this budget is doing. It's looking to protect the most poorest.

The amendment was voted down.

Councillor Natalie Bien-Aime abstained on the vote. She said:

I accept the finance officer's advice that we need to keep in place with inflation, but this is happening at the same time as everything else is going up. I cannot support it.

Food Hubs

Mayor Lutfur Rahman² said he was extremely disappointed to learn that funding for Food Hubs had been reduced since he took office. He said that he increased the funding when he was first elected in 2022, but that he had been wrongly informed that the funding had not changed. He committed to restoring the funding to its previous level.

Councillor Marc Francis, for the Labour Group, said he was really pleased that the Mayor had restored the funding.

The Labour Group's amendment proposed guaranteeing the Food Hub funding at £400,000 every year. The amendment also proposed cancelling the planned charges for disabled parking permits, halving the fee for the Wapping Bus Gate and completing the rebuild of George Green's Secondary School.

Home Care

The budget proposes making Tower Hamlets the second local authority in the country to offer free home care. Councillor Goulam Kibriya Choudhury said this was a reversal of the Labour Administration's decision to cut funding for home care by £1.1 million, a decision he said introduced charging for home care in Tower Hamlets for the first time.

Free School Uniforms

The budget proposes introducing a new scheme to provide all students entering primary and secondary school, from households earning less than £50,350, with a grant for school uniforms. Primary school children would be entitled to £50, and secondary school children would receive £150.

Councillor Amina Ali expressed concerns about the affordability of the scheme. She said:

£50,000 doesn't get you far today. And that still is a big burden for people who are working and inspired to be earning that kind of money.

Waste Services

Councillor Shafi Ahmed said that since 2022 the Aspire administration had increased the Waste Services budget to £14 million. He said:

We understand how crucial clean streets are, and the well-being of our residents, and we are committed to improving our waste services.

Councillor Lutfur Rahman said that the previous Labour administration left our streets filthy and forced us to declare a waste emergency.

The budget proposes further increasing investment in waste services by £15 million over the next 3 years.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee expressed concerns about this level of spending and requested further information about how the investment would be used. They also asked how the spending would achieve long-term sustainability and if it would lead to future savings.

Best Value

Councillor Sabina Khan defended the budget's proposed £6 million investment in Best Value improvement schemes. She said:

It's hypocritical to say the least. After months of calling for outside intervention into the Council, they choose to attack the Mayor's budget for taking into consideration the very improvement the envoys recommended.

Councillor Marc Francis subsequently pointed out that this was untrue. Steve Halsey, Chief Executive of the Council, confirmed that the government envoys had not recommended these posts.

Councillor Mark Francis questioned the Mayor's judgment. He said:

And this meeting started with a claim by the mayor that he was misled about the cuts to the food hub budget. So twice in the space of the first half hour of this meeting, apparently members in the Aspire party are being misled. Who are they being misled by, Mr Speaker? By officers or by themselves? What's going on here?