Tower Hamlets has the fastest growing population in England, with a 22 per cent rise between 2011 and 2021. It is the most densely populated area in the country, with 15,595 residents per square kilometre. The borough has the youngest median age of any area in London and is exceptionally ethnically diverse, with the largest Bangladeshi population in the country, comprising 34.6 per cent of the population. The Tower Hamlets State of the Borough 2023 report documented that there is a “significant need for support services” for deprived populations in the borough, ranked as the 50th most deprived local authority district (out of 317) in England.
Tower Hamlets has more jobs than working age residents, unemployment is higher than the national average (4.6 per cent compared with 3.7 per cent) and 16 per cent of residents have no qualifications, underlining that there is a pressing need to upskill local communities (Tower Hamlets Partnership Corporate Strategy and Improvement Team, “State of the Borough 2023”).
The borough’s deprivation also contributes to the health of the community being below the national average (Office for National Statistics, Census 2021) and healthy life expectancy stands at 65 for men and only 58 for women (Tower Hamlets Annual Public Health Report, 2022). This has not improved much over the last ten years and is well below London and England averages.
NHS Property Services and The Department of Health and Social Care are proposing a 900,000 ft2 life sciences cluster in Whitechapel, transforming a series of buildings and empty sites around The Royal London Hospital that have been underused since 2013. The cluster will deliver new healthcare and research facilities, space for industry and new community spaces. The Whitechapel Development, and life sciences work being delivered by the partners in the build up to the cluster being operational will have, and already has had, an impact on reducing health and economic inequalities for the Tower Hamlets population. The development will enable new, innovative research to be undertaken in the borough, provide potentially thousands of new job opportunities and space for industry to be co-located with an internationally renowned hospital and university.
OPE awarded Tower Hamlets £150,000 for the development of the strategic asset delivery plan, which enabled the partnership to provide detail on currently operational and planned future facilities, as well as estates and life sciences projects being delivered in the Whitechapel area by The Department of Health and Social Care, NHS Property Services, Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust, which has now been communicated publicly to support the Whitechapel Development. The plan also identified opportunities for collaboration amongst programme partners. Furthermore, the funding enabled the identification of potential new skills and training opportunities with recommendations to support delivery.