Tower Hamlets food bank funding to be reinstated following months of slashed funding

Mayor Lutfur Rahman has pledged to reinstate funding to the Tower Hamlets Food Hub, stating his office was ‘misinformed’ about budget cuts.

At a Council meeting on 26 February, Mayor Lutfur Rahman pledged to reinstate the slashed Tower Hamlets Food Hub (THFH) funding as part of the upcoming 2025/2026 budget. 

Each week the THFH delivers food to more than 80 voluntary and community sector organisations across the borough, including Globe Primary School, Bow Food Bank, and Al Aqsa Mosque. Roughly 10,000 families a week rely on the service, according to 2022 statistics from the Local Government Association. 

Funding to the Hub has been fluctuating unpredictably since at least May of 2024, as identified by inspectors from the central government. 

Then in November 2024, a Slice investigation revealed that funding to the Hub had been cut by roughly two-thirds overnight, leaving food banks and community organisations in the lurch. 

Shortly afterwards, a petition created by a group of protestors was uploaded on the Council website urging the Mayor’s office to fully restore the funding. At the time of writing, the petition has 423 signatures. In December 2024, residents also protested the cuts outside the Town Hall. 

Labour Councillor Marc Francis raised the issue with the Monitoring Officer in February, citing the Slice’s investigation. Francis said on X at the time, ‘It’s now 4 weeks since Mayor Rahman confirmed his decision to cut £ for Tower Hamlets Council’s Food Hub, which supplies local food banks. However, the decision still hasn’t been published, so councillors can’t challenge it.’ 

During the February 26 Council meeting on the 2025/2026 budget, the Mayor said: ‘I am extremely disappointed that my office had been misinformed by some in this Council and told me there had been no reduction in resources.

Now that I have been made aware of this issue, I have ensured that the funding is brought back to the level I increased it to when I was elected in 2022 and I have requested a review of the service to make sure this oversight never happens again.’  

The Slice understands that the final figure for the reinstated funding in the budget has yet to be confirmed. The Council was contacted for clarification, but at the time of writing has not responded.

Ryan Lynch, an organiser of the e-petition on the Council site said: ‘The e-petition is an expression of voters’ dissatisfaction with the mismanagement of the Food Hub and very poor communication with local Food Banks. On the positive side the e-petition is also a very strong indicator that grass root stakeholders, in good faith, want to work cooperatively with the Office of the Mayor to support local Food Banks.’ 

Councillor Francis said: ‘We are relieved that the Mayor has agreed to Labour councillors’ request to reinstate the funding he cut for Tower Hamlets Food Hub that supplies local food banks.  

However, we are clear this only happened because of the persistence of local residents in insisting these supplies had been cut despite Tower Hamlets Council claiming to journalists and Opposition councillors that wasn’t the case. […] Unless we get answers why this happened, we intend to press ahead with our “call-in” of what happened and the public petition should be heard at the next Full Council meeting too.’ 

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