Background

Tower Hamlets Council has been consulting on its 2019/20 budget. We want to verify the results of their consultation before the budget is agreed in March 2019. You can see the results of their consultation online
Click here for Council report

The Council has to find savings over the coming years, while parts of its funding have increased over the years (Busines rates & New Homes Bonus), other parts of central government funding are being reduced so Council tax is becoming a more important source of funding.

At the end of the survey, you can see a summary of what your neighbours think. We will use the survey results when we consider our own budget proposals.
Cllr Andrew Wood & Cllr Peter Golds

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* 1. How do you think Tower Hamlets Council provided services (listed below) have changed over the last eight years? Pick one

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* 2. Have these Council services got better, worse or stayed the same over the last 8 years?

  Better Worse About the same Do not know
Services for elderly and vulnerable adults
Children’s services and education
Protecting and supporting vulnerable children
Housing services
Public health
Culture, libraries and parks
Community safety
Highways and transport services
Street cleaning, waste and public realm
Economic growth and job creation

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* 3. Council services to prioritise
In your opinion, with limited resources available, which council services do you think the council should prioritise?  10 = highest value, most important, 1 = lowest priority 

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* 4. Council tax? are you (pick one)

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* 5. Council tax changes - do you support a change next year? (as a reminder inflation is currently 2.2% so any increase less then 2.2% is a cut in cash terms). Pick one (the Council agreed last year to a 1% increase this year specifically for Adult Social Care which the government encouraged)

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* 6. To increase Council Tax by more than 3% a year the Council need to ask your permission in a referendum, should the Council organise a referendum?

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* 7. To cope with budget changes, what would you prefer the Council to do? pick one option on each row

  Council should do this Council should NOT do this Neutral/Do not know
to work with voluntary and community organisations to deliver services together
to share services with neighbouring boroughs, reducing costs for each Borough
to use the council’s reserves to delay savings
to move more services online to reduce costs and improve efficiency
to outsource services to the private sector
to invest our reserves in commercial assets that will generate an income like hotels
to explore options for charging or raising fees for non-statutory council services (services we are not legally required to provide)
Other

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* 8. Where do you live? (need first part of postcode i.e. E14, E1 etc) this is to check that you are a Tower Hamlets resident

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* 9. Have you got any comments you wish to add?

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* 10. Would you be interested in discussing the budget in more detail or perhaps at a meeting (in 2019 when the draft budget has been released). If yes, please supply us with your email address for an update (Cllr Andrew Wood will then use this email to send you updates about the budget)

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