Staff from the Residents' Hub outside the new hub in Calvert Avenue with Cllr Kabir Ahmed and Cllr Bodrul Choudhury
Locals have given the thumbs up to a new Residents’ Hub located in Bethnal Green, where council services can be accessed face to face.
Residents’ Hubs provide support on a wide range of council services from help with filling in your housing benefit or Blue Badge form to paying your council tax and speaking to an advisor to find out if you are missing out on any benefits and employment opportunities.
The council has five Residents’ Hub located throughout the borough with the new hub based in Calvert Avenue near the Boundary Estate.
Cllr Kabir Ahmed and Cllr Bodrul Choudhury met with staff to officially open the site.
Mabel who has lived in Bethnal Green for 35 years attended the launch (9 July).
Mabel said:
“I am so pleased we have a Residents’ Hub here as I live just round the corner. I much prefer talking to someone face to face.
“I’ve already spoken to an adviser who has helped me.”
So far more than 65,000 visits have been recorded at the hubs since they were introduced in 2023.
The council introduced its first Customer Experience Strategy in 2023 to help ensure residents receive an excellent customer journey no matter which channel they use to get in touch.
Resident Naznin who has been struggling with house bidding used the one of the hubs last year and found face to face support invaluable.
Naznin said: “We really appreciated Humaira's ongoing help, we’ve really struggled for the past year with bidding and she has always tried to help us out at the Town Hall.
“And manager Rahma is very sweet, we can’t thank you guys enough for getting it all sorted.”
Lutfur Rahman, Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets said:
“We are determined to be a council that listens to, and works for, everyone.
“Whilst more and more people are accessing our services digitally, we know some residents do not have access or are unable to use digital devices and channels.
“If you go along to our flagship hub based at the Town Hall you will see it is always busy. There is a clear need for face-to-face service provision.
“That is why we have opened a new hub close to the Boundary Estate, to ensure even greater access to in person support in our borough.”
In a bid to be more inclusive and reach out to more residents, the council has introduced a SignLive service for deaf residents at all our hubs.
SignLive is an online video interpreting service that provides remote access to qualified British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters.
It allows BSL users to connect with interpreters via video call to facilitate communication with hearing individuals, essentially acting as a bridge between the two.
Cllr Bodrul Choudhury, Cabinet Member for Equalities and Social Inclusion including Customer Services added:
“We have a population of over 300,000 people and more than 100 languages are used in the borough.
“The demand for council services will continue to grow and we need to be flexible to meet that demand.
“We cannot just push everyone online and need to try to meet everyone’s needs.”
The council has closed its hub based at the Professional Development Centre in Bethnal Green Road, with the Calvert Avenue site determined to be best placed to meet demand.
Posted on Monday 14th July 2025