This statement is in response to the Audit report which was discussed at the council’s Audit Committee on Wednesday 3 December.
A spokesperson for Tower Hamlets Council said:
“This report covers a period from 20 months to 8 months ago and therefore does not reflect the Council’s current position as significant improvements have been made since that time including, for example, our children's services being rated Outstanding by Ofsted this year.
“The report relates to issues dating back eight years, such as accounts from 2017 which had to be signed off last year. The Council has been working tirelessly to address these longstanding, historic issues and where problems have been identified, we have been transparent in reporting them.
“The Council was concerned that there were problems with the outsourced housing service and therefore decided to bring Tower Hamlets Homes in-house in November 2023 to enable the Council to drive forward improvements. The Council has since committed £140 million to upgrade existing properties and commissioned an independent review, leading to self-referral to the Regulator for Social Housing this year, as other local authorities have done, to enhance independent oversight and transparency as we work to improve the housing services.
“The Council has also already made significant improvements in relation to governance and the running of committees since the period covered by this report, and this progress has been recognised by the Government Envoys who are working with us on our Continuous Improvement Plan.
“A more recent measure of our improvement is our Local Government Association Peer Review revisit last month which has published its findings, concluding that the Council is delivering ‘high quality services’, has ‘strong financial management’, and is delivering on 17 out of the 18 recommendations.
“This week also saw the publication of the results of an independent Annual Residents Survey which found the Council performing better than the local government average in areas including value for money, the running of the council and residents’ trust in the council.
“There is of course still more work to do, and we are grateful for the continued support of the LGA and Government Envoys.”
Posted on Monday 8th December 2025