Sign to support our campaign and show your support for the Residents’ Manifesto!

This manifesto highlights 10 ideas for the next Mayor of Tower Hamlets, for a brighter, poverty-free future that we shape together. 

The Residents' Manifesto was produced by over 30 Tower Hamlets residents with the help of Toynbee Hall. It is based around policy ideas developed with hundreds of residents over the course of five years of community-led research. The top priorities were chosen by looking at the results of a survey conducted with 180 residents from many different backgrounds, who told us which of the proposals are most important to them. 

Please share the petition with your family, neighbours, and community. We will present the petition to the winning candidate and ask them to work with us to put the proposals into practice.

You can read the full manifesto here - https://www.toynbeehall.org.uk/residentsmanifesto

10 ideas for the next Mayor of Tower Hamlets

A Tower Hamlets where wealth is shared

o  Make sure large employers in Tower Hamlets hire and offer training opportunities to local people, especially those low incomes

o  Introduce a programme where all state school children in the borough are given vouchers for activities clubs or classes

A place where we feel connected

o  Make sure every area has a community centre where residents can socialise, get help from services and speak to decision-makers.

o  Make sure every resident has access to a free or cheap local space to run community activities

A place where we feel safe 

o  Invest in youth clubs and youth programmes in Tower Hamlets, ensuring that they are youth-led and designed with young people

o  Work with residents, particularly women, on a strategy to ensure people feel safe travelling through the borough at night

A place where everyone can have a good home

o  Commit to building more genuinely affordable four and five bed properties to deal with overcrowding in the borough

o  Call for London to be given the power to tackle the affordability crisis, for example, through introducing rent controls

A council that communicates and makes decisions with residents

o  Agree with residents what success looks like and how to measure it in areas such as tackling poverty, housing and community safety, to improve accountability

o  Create a range of inclusive ways for residents to be ‘heard’ in council decision-making

Why local residents support the manifesto: 

“One of my favourite manifesto proposals is that large employers should employ Tower Hamlets residents, mainly from low income families, as that would really help to improve the lives of people in Tower Hamlets.”

“There should be a way where people on lower incomes wouldn't have to pay a fortune to access sports facilities and gyms.”

"There's too many kids that don't have enough of anything, or a community to go to, or somewhere to go to if they don't have their family that they can lean on.”

“Working within Tower Hamlets and its community centres I support the Manifesto because I believe we need to create affordable spaces for residents and activities.”

“I believe that it’s important that we are investing in our youth, and especially investing in the youth for tomorrow, because if we’re not investing in the youth for tomorrow then what are we really doing? The youth of tomorrow are tomorrow’s leaders, so we want to prepare them and provide them with facilities and projects and youth clubs and just support them throughout their young lives.”

“We need more youth clubs that are led by the youth.”

“We need to be able to breathe safely outside and go to work and not feel scared… sometimes I go out at like 6 or 7 o’clock I’m looking over my shoulder to see if anyone is following me… so that’s my favourite Manifesto proposal, the one on women’s safety.”

“It affects children as they grow up in overcrowded housing. I've got a 16-year-old who's doing GCSEs, who shares a room with his 12-year-old sister, and his 8-year-old brother.”

“I support the Residents' Manifesto because there’s a really concerning rent affordability crisis that needs to be tackled by increased rent control powers.”

“I support this Manifesto because I feel the borough needs to solve the overcrowding issues in Tower Hamlets.”

“I believe that it’s important to have accountability in the Council and to make sure there’s actually someone to be held accountable so that residents actually have someone to talk to about their problems and then they can have their issues solved.”

If you have any questions, comments or ideas, we’d love to hear from you at research@toynbeehall.org.uk