Row of cherry blossom trees in Tower Hamlets
Tower Hamlets has been recognised as a ‘Tree City of the World’ for the fourth year in a row by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Arbor Day Foundation.
Since our initial recognition in 2022, the council has continued to invest in greening our borough and cultivating local biodiversity through an extensive tree-planting programme. Since then, we have planted over 4,000 new trees. Of these 4,000 trees, 909 have been on public highways and streets, 2,826 across parks and 294 across housing estates.
In the previous year, the council planted over 600 trees, working closely with partners such as Trees for Cities, to deliver community-led planting across the borough’s parks and green spaces. Trees for Cities, who regularly host tree-planting and tree maintenance events across the borough, have recently hosted several successful planting events in Stepney Green Park and Belgrave Open Space, with 20 new trees planted in February 2025.
Cabinet Member for Environment and the Climate Emergency, Cllr Shafi Ahmed, said
“It is an honour to, once again, be amongst the 210 recognised 'Tree Cities’ from across 24 different countries.
“We are ambitious in our tree-planting and greening work and are dedicated to continuously increasing the number of trees on our streets, in our parks, and across our housing estates because trees are essential to a cleaner, greener borough.
“Trees play a vital role in enhancing the appearance of our public areas, creating more pleasant streets and parks for everyone, while also strengthening our borough’s climate resilience. In a densely populated borough, like ours, trees provide a variety of health benefits, including improving air quality, providing shade and cooling, and improving drainage and flood resilience."
The Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, said:
"We are thankful for the incredible partnership work that has resulted in community-led efforts to green our borough and improve our urban tree canopy, alongside the work of dedicated council officers who plant, water, and maintain the health of these trees for everyone to enjoy.
"We’ve also managed to surpass our own council goal. In 2022, we launched a £1m programme to fund 1,000 new trees in a three-year period and planted over 1,600 trees in two years.
"These trees are part of the nearly 3,500 trees planted by the council through a mix of capital and external grant funding, and local residents and businesses in the last two years.
"We have more planting planned for 2025 – this year, the council has committed to planting an additional 1,000 new trees. These trees will be delivered through council planting efforts, and a variety of events, including mass community tree-planting events in parks throughout tree-planting season."
Roddy Shaw, Senior Development Manager, said:
“Trees for Cities is delighted to see Tower Hamlets retain their status as a recognised Tree City of the World and we're proud to have delivered so many trees in the borough over the years with the local community. Through our community planting days and the fantastic success of Trees for Streets, we're delighted to see residents continuing to engage with their trees. We look forward to working with the council in their fourth year of Tree City of the World status."
Keen to get involved? As one of the first councils in the UK to join the Trees for Streets programme in June 2021, residents and businesses of the borough have generously sponsored more than 540 trees so far. Residents and businesses can get involved in planting trees and greening their local neighbourhoods by sponsoring trees through our partner, Trees for Streets: www.treesforstreets.org/towerhamlets
Residents can also join a tree-planting event hosted by Trees for Cities. You can sign-up to their newsletter to get involved in local planting projects in the borough: www.treesforcities.org/get-involved/volunteer
Posted on Wednesday 30th April 2025