Mayor's priorities

In the context of drastic and far reaching cuts across the entire public sector, Tower Hamlets has agreed that we need to find £75m of savings by 2014. We will all need to learn how to do more with less, but I am confident we can keep pushing the boundaries of what local government can achieve in our borough.

Below are my priorities for my term in office. They best describe the issues and challenges that residents of Tower Hamlets have told me matter the most to them.

Housing

Tackling issues relating to housing and overcrowding are top of my list of priorities. Too many of our families live in overcrowded accommodation. This impacts upon every aspect of their lives – their health, the education of their children and their ability to work. We have recently worked with approximately 1,884 households (during 2010/11 and 2011/12) to prevent homelessness and delivered approximately 1,900 affordable homes. The Ocean Estate will deliver even more new homes but I am conscious that there is still more to be done to ensure everyone in the borough has a decent standard of living.

Education

Our young people have already achieved some fantastic exam results. This year we achieved our best ever GCSE results with over 75% of pupils achieving 5 A*-Cs (51% with English and Maths) and our A Level achievements continue to climb. We are also improving the environments in which our young people learn – the new Cambridge Heath Sixth form opened in September last year and work will soon be completed at Bethnal Green Technology College and the brand new school at St Paul’s Way. 31 local primary schools are also being improved. I want to build on these successes and bring our results up be amongst the best in the country. I aspire for the best possible start in life for our borough’s young people – it is what they deserve.

Jobs

I am committed to getting local people into work, especially those who are skilled and semi skilled workers. Our Skillsmatch service has already taken great steps to get people back into work with over 600 placed in employment in the last year. But there’s even more to be done and we will run more jobs fairs and work harder with local partners to get as many people as possible into employment.

Community safety

I know that crime and the fear of crime is an issue for our borough even though crime is falling - 2.7% drop in overall crime (744 fewer crimes), including knife crime – down by 10.4% since the previous year (50 fewer incidents). When I was Leader we got more police officers onto our streets and I would like to see an even great presence, alongside our own Tower Hamlets Enforcement Officers, to reassure our residents and reduce anti-social behaviour. 409 arrests were made under the ‘Dealer a Day’ initiative in 2009/10 with 226 so far in 2010/11. Public confidence in the way the police and council deal with concerns of crime and ASB has increased to 48% (up 9%).

Cleanliness

Last, but not least, I want us to continue our work to achieve a clean borough. We have made significant steps by work together. Our recycling rates have increased from 19% to 26.5%, a successful bid for funding means Victoria Park will benefit from an investment of £4.55m. I want to ensure our streets, parks and open spaces are clean and tidy so that people can take pride in the area where they live.