Flats or Houses to rent or buy in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

For specific information on this borough, or to contact individual departments please click here to visit their website.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets: http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk

In General:
The London boroughs are administrative centres responsible for collecting local taxes (Council Tax and Business Rates) and then spending the funds received on local services. They are run by Borough Councils who are elected by borough residents on a four year cycle. The totals that they spend will depend on the rates of tax that they levy plus funds allocated from central government and other sources.

While many of the services (schools, roads, planning, rubbish collection and social services) are standard, levels of provision will vary according to the overall political will as expressed by the voters.

Your tax liability (as a resident) will be based on the council tax band of your home. These bands are set by Valuation Officers and there is scope for appeal. The rate bands are then used to determine the amounts of tax levied. So, while the bands will remain largely constant the levels of tax can go up and, in theory, down.

You may claim discounts or exemptions based on your circumstances. For example, as the only adult in a property you can get a 25% reduction on your bill. Other reductions are available for qualifying second adults and Council Tax Benefit claimants.

There is more information available at the HM Customs & Excise website.

Considered a vast white elephant in the early 1990's, Docklands is now heralded as a great success and its influence can be felt across Tower Hamlets. With its three gleaming towers expected to triple the working population of the area over the next few years and the Jubilee Line finally in place, past teething problems of unfilled offices space, lack of transport and no shops, have long since faded into Docklands history.

Stretching from Tower Bridge, Wapping and Limehouse along the Thames dockside in the south, to the true East End haunts of Bow, Stepney and Bethnal Green in the north, Tower Hamlets is a borough of extremes. Banking and IT wealth dominates Docklands, whilst some of the worse London council estates lie only a few miles north, a reminder of the borough's past decay. Regeneration is still the buzzword and as the trend for urban living continues to grow amongst the well paid bankers and IT staff who populate the shiny new riverside office blocks, Tower Hamlets will continue to successfully reinvent itself.