Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Matt Smith and Labour City and East Assembly Member John Biggs discussed Tower Hamlets and the recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP titled: 'Best Value Inspection of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets'. It was noted that 'Tower Hamlets First' Deputy Mayor Ohid Ahmed was due to join the panel however his appearance was cancelled with no replacement in his stead. Matt Smith said: "On almost every discussion platform that I have been on in elections in Bethnal Green and Bow, 'Tower Hamlets First' or their representatives have been conspicuous in their absence. It is shameful that they have failed to send a representative to join the main parties in Bethnal Green and Bow to discuss this investigation into governance failings in Tower Hamlets which indeed concern the period in which they have been in control of the Council".
After the show, on the matter of PwC's report, Matt Smith said:
"There have been long standing concerns about a worrying pattern of divisive community politics and alleged mismanagement of public money by the mayoral administration in Tower Hamlets.
The PriceWaterhouseCoopers report concludes that Tower Hamlets has failed in numerous respects to comply with its best value duty. Hundreds of thousands of pounds in grants were handed to organisations which failed to meet even the most basic criteria to receive public money, property was sold without proper process and against internal advice and taxpayers’ money was spent on unlawful political advertising for the Mayor.
This amounts to a breakdown in local democratic accountability and transparency and the Secretary of State was satisfied, having considered the report, the council has failed to comply with its best value duty. The Secretary of State has clearly outlined how he plans to proceed and Tower Hamlets has 14 days to respond to his intervention proposals. Central intervention is rare and is a decision not taken lightly but transparency and accountability are vital to local democracy.
The abuse of taxpayers’ money and a culture of cronyism exposes a partisan community politics that seeks to trade favours. This is divisive politics – detrimental to community cohesion in Tower Hamlets and the capital as a whole. If the breakdown of governance in the Mayoral administration is left unchecked it will allow improper conduct to run rife, further undermining public confidence and damaging community cohesion.
Tower Hamlets has undoubted challenges, given its levels of deprivation and its diverse population, but neighbouring Newham shows that there is a good governance alternative. At the moment the residents of Tower Hamlets are being let down, services are being put at risk, taxpayers’ money is being wasted and the borough is being criticised rather than being cited with pride".