Five new Residents’ Hubs have been unveiled in Tower Hamlets, as part of a drive to transform customer services in the borough.
The new hubs in Bow, Poplar, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel and the Isle of Dogs provide residents with the opportunity to access services in-person, rather than having to rely on accessing services online or over the telephone.
Resident Bodrul Islam said:
“There are still many people in our community who are not confident to send emails and fill out forms digitally and unfortunately don’t have anyone to help them.
“That is why it is important to have the hubs where you can go and speak to someone in person. “Just having someone on hand to help with uploading a document or scanning in a form will be a relief to many.”
As part of National Customer Services Week, the council celebrated the opening of its latest hub based at the Professional Development Centre in Bethnal Green on 2 October.
Cllr Kabir Ahmed, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Customer Services, said:
“You can access all our services online and the move towards digital contact will make things quicker and more efficient.
“But we realise not everyone is digitally enabled and have created a series of Residents’ Hubs across the borough, providing much needed support services for our most vulnerable residents.
“Our residents’ hubs will offer a wide range of direct face to face services to our residents including help and support with housing, council tax, benefits, domestic abuse, health and wellbeing, employment and skills, debt management and welfare.”
Cllr Ahmed also formally launched the council’s first Customer Experience Strategy at the hub.
The strategy sets out the council’s vision that regardless of whatever channel customers use to contact the council they will receive an excellent service.
Lutfur Rahman, Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, said:
“We are determined to be a council that listens to and serves all of our residents, and I’m confident our new approach will help us to do exactly that, while providing the highest standard of customer service that our residents deserve.”
Click here to view the strategy.
The Residents’ Hubs are based at the locations below and you can drop in any time.
- Idea Store Bow
- Idea Store Chrisp Street
- Cubitt Town Library
- Professional Development Centre, Bethnal Green Road
- Tower Hamlets Council Town Hall, Whitechapel Road
Posted on Monday 16th October 2023