Council challenged on multiple community groups being squeezed out of leases
Labour councillors claim the council has ‘failed in its responsibility’ to keep up with rent reviews in a council meeting on 16 July.
Leaders of Tower Hamlets Council have been asked to explain why several community organisations have struggled to agree on renewed leases on council-owned businesses.
Organisations such as Mudchute Farm, Setpoint London East, Leila’s Shop, the Attlee Centre and Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club have reported difficulties in negotiating new leases with the council in recent months. The Slice reported on these difficulties in February 2025.
Petitions from Mudchute, Setpoint London East and Leila’s Shop, signed by thousands of people each, were debated by councillors on 16 July.
Members of the Save Soanes Campaign asked the council to give Setpoint London East a ‘long, secure lease’ in the Soanes Centre in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. The charity provides outdoor science education to children in the park.
Leila’s Shop, on Calvert Avenue near the Arnold Circus Estate, has sold sustainable groceries there for 23 years but says it now faces a 300% rent rise.
Sirajul Islam, leader of the Labour opposition group, said he wanted to know ‘what the problem is’.
Cllr Islam said: ‘Tonight we’ve had three petition debates, all three of them on the subject of lease renewals.
‘There are other voluntary sector organisations in the same position.
‘We know that Attlee Centre came here with a presentation, the Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club and Chisenhale.
‘I want to know what the problem is. There are so many organisations waiting for the lease to be renewed.’
Aspire councillor Kabir Ahmed, who is responsible for regeneration and inclusive development at the council, said there had been ‘long periods’ where the council had not reviewed the rents on its lease agreements.
He said that the council was obliged to review the rents it charges as it had been issued a ‘best value’ notice and is being monitored by the government.
Cllr Ahmed said: ‘The key issue is these rent reviews should have happened in due process. But there’s been long periods where the council’s failed in its responsibility to keep up with rents all across the borough.
‘And now, under best value and various other pressures this administration is under we are forced to go and review these rents.’
He added: ‘It comes down from government that we have to abide by certain guidance, particularly around rents, fees and charges.’
Aspire councillor Saied Ahmed, responsible for resources, suggested the reviews were ‘unfinished business’ left by the council’s previous Labour leaders.
He added that income from commercial rents ‘helps fund the vital services that we deliver every day’ and that Leila’s Shop on Calvert Avenue had been ‘leased for many years at a rent significantly below market levels.’
But Labour councillor Asma Islam and Green councillor Nathalie Bienfait both argued that the council’s lease policy should treat community organisations differently to commercial ones.
Cllr Islam said: ‘I do not believe that rent reviews can’t be compassionate.
‘There was absolutely no compassion in the way that Leila has been dealt with and I really, truly want us as a council to change that around, especially if this is going to be something that we’ll be looking at overall across the borough.’
And Cllr Bienfait said: ‘What we’re seeing here is we’ve got a broad policy covering all of our council assets that’s attempting to be implemented, and then organisations coming and saying that’s not fair and trying to negotiate.
‘Then we’re negotiating under circumstances which I think may become unfair for organisations that don’t have the resources to kick up a fuss.’
‘What I would really like to see is this situation normalised to have a fair policy.’
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