Let's talk Tower Hamlets

Our approach to consultation and engagement

We are committed to involving residents in everything we do and strengthening our relationship with our diverse communities. This guides how we consult, engage and communicate with people who live in or work in Tower Hamlets. It’s key we listen to the views of our residents, businesses and partners to shape the design of local services, develop policies or take action to address an issue. 

Community engagement 

In 2024, we agreed a community engagement strategy 2024 - 28 with the aim of supporting strong, active and inclusive communities who can influence and shape the borough in which they live and work. 

It set out four key priorities for the organisation which included: 

• communities lead the way in making Tower Hamlets a great place to live
• communities have the power to influence issues that affect them
• activities to involve communities are focused and purposeful
• Tower Hamlets is digitally active.

You can read the full strategy to find out more.

Statement of community involvement

The Statement of Community Involvement sets out how you can get involved in the preparation of local planning policy documents and decisions on planning applications.

Read more and download our full statement. 

Get involved

We want to hear your views on local issues and services that affect you most. There are a range of ways you can have your say.

Consultations, surveys and engagement 

We consult widely on many policy and operational issues. Our consultations offer a range of ways to comment on projects, proposals, tell us your ideas and more, depending on the issue we’re discussing.

• Current consultations 
  To view and get involved in any of our current consultations or engagement activities please visit our new online platform, Let’s talk Tower Hamlets.
  
  If you would like to browse and have your say on consultations that were launched before March 2020, visit our previous consultations section. 

Visit Let’s talk Tower Hamlets

• Planning applications
  You can view planning applications and appeals, and make a comment supporting or objecting to an application. You can also view decisions when they are available.
  
  
• Licence applications and notifications
  You can view current licence applications relating to alcohol, entertainment and late night food traders and object or submit a petition against them.
  
  
• Housing consultations
  View and comment on housing consultations relating to new council homes so that you can have your say on housing developments happening in your area.

Council meetings

You can come along to council meetings that are open to the public at our Town Hall. This includes full council as well as various committees from overview and scrutiny to licensing, strategic development and more. Check out the calendar and see what’s being discussed. 

Ask the Mayor

You can attend an ‘Ask the Mayor’ question and answer session with Mayor Lutfur Rahman. We hold regular sessions throughout the year so residents can raise the issues that matter to them. Upcoming dates are listed on our events page when they are available.