We are calling on Mayor John Biggs to set up a cross-party working group on the following 4 Calls to Action for An Ambitious and Outward Tower Hamlets

1. Lobby the Government that if Advanced Research & Invention Agency (ARIA), a new independent research body to fund high-risk, high-reward scientific research, which is part of a plan to cement the UK’s position as a global science superpower should plan for a physical location, then there is no better place for its HQ than Tower Hamlets next to the major financial services locations in the City of London and Canary Wharf in order to accelerate the commercialisation and scaling up of new industries. That we should accelerate the plans for a Life Sciences Centre in Whitechapel supplemented by additional space at Canary Wharf, one stop away on the new Elizabeth line.

2. A bid for city status for Tower Hamlets so the borough would become the City of Tower Hamlets.

3. A bid for Royal Borough status so that the borough would become the Royal Borough of Tower Hamlets.

4. A bid for both City Status and Royal Borough Status

City Status - There are two cities in London, the City of London, and the City of Westminster. The City of Tower Hamlets could be the third. City status in the UK can be associated with having a university or having a large population. There are seven universities in the borough, and we have one of the fastest growing (and youngest) populations in the country. We are also home to Canary Wharf, a global financial centre. There is also an initiative for the new Advanced Research & Innovation Agency (ARIA) and should there be a physical HQ for the agency then Tower Hamlets cross-parties should work to lobby the government to locate its HQs in Tower Hamlets.

Royal Borough Status - Royal Borough status can be given as recognition of the close links between the Borough and Royalty since the Middle Ages. The Tower of London is internationally famous, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of England’s most iconic structures and from it our borough has grown for a thousand years. Tower Hamlets holds the Crown Jewels as the borough’s boundary includes the Tower of London which is a Royal Palace. It may be that we bid for both. We will not know if we do not try.

The Tower Hamlets Context- Tower Hamlets is growing and will continue to grow economically, outperform their regional counterparts in terms of increasing investment. Tower Hamlets economic output on average is £29.7bn – more than Birmingham or the City of Manchester. The borough accounted for 7 per cent of the economic output in London and 2 percent of the economic output in the UK. Between 2008 and 2017, the Tower Hamlets economy grew by almost £10 billion or 49 per cent. This was faster growth than in London as a whole (41 per cent) and much higher than the UK as a whole (27 per cent). It contains the five tallest residential buildings in the UK.

Tower Hamlets in a Covid and Brexit era; This is key to the post-Covid future of the borough. We have ALL been hit hard by the pandemic but now we have to look to the future of our borough. In the UK’s new world of COVID-19, Brexit and inequality Tower Hamlets needs a fresh new start; The Royal Borough of Tower Hamlets or The City of Tower Hamlets would be fitting.
We need to do something to mark our growing importance both within London and the country.

This Petition ran from 01/04/2021 to 15/09/2021 and has now finished.

2 people signed this Petition.