Media Invite – New Residents’ Hub at Calvert Avenue

Media and photographers are invited to the official opening of a new Residents’ Hub on Wednesday 9 July at midday. 

Resident’s Hubs are places where people can access face to face support on a wide range of council services from help with filling in your housing benefit or Blue Badge form to paying your council tax and speaking to an advisor to find out if you are missing out on any benefits and employment opportunities. 

The council has five Residents Hub located throughout the borough with the new hub based in Calvert Avenue on the Boundary Estate. 

More than 65,000 visits have been recorded at the hubs since they were introduced in 2023.   
Residents are benefiting from the council’s bespoke approach to customer service where you have the choice to access services, how you want – digitally, in person or over the phone.  

The council introduced its first Customer Experience Strategy in 2023 to ensure residents are put at the centre of everything we do and receive an excellent customer journey no matter which channel they use to contact us.   

Lutfur Rahman, Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets said: “We are determined to be a council that listens and works for everyone.  

He said: “Whilst more and more people are accessing our services digitally, we realise some residents do not have access or are unable to use digital devices and channels.  

“If you go along to our flagship hub based at the Town Hall you will see it is always busy so there is a need for face to face service provision. We have listened to our residents and opened a new hub on the Boundary Estate.” 

In a bid to reach out to more residents, the council has introduced a SignLive service for deaf residents at all of our hubs. 

SignLive is an online video interpreting service that provides remote access to qualified British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.  

It allows users to connect with interpreters via video call to facilitate communication with hearing individuals, essentially acting as a bridge between the two. 

Cllr Bodrul Choudhury, Cabinet Member for Equalities and Social Inclusion including Customer Services added: 

“We have a population of over 300,000 people and more than 100 languages are spoken in the borough.  

“The demand for council services will continue to grow and we need to be flexible to meet that demand.  

“We cannot just push everyone online and need to try to meet everyone’s needs.”  

The council will be closing its hub based at the Professional Development Centre in Bethnal Green Road as the Calvert Avenue hub is best placed to meet demand.  

Date:   Wednesday 9 July (light refreshments will be provided)  

Time: 12noon 

Venue: Residents’ Hub 

7 Calvert Avenue (Boundary Estate) 

E2 7JP 

Interviews will be available with Cllr Bodrul Choudhury, staff and service users. 

Please contact Shalina Hussain to confirm if you wish to attend at [email protected]