Petition details
Tower Hamlets Life Sciences, City Status, Royal Borough
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.