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£13.7m investment includes opening 19 youth centres in two years
More than 5,000 sessions delivered in 2025 including careers advice, outdoor adventure learning and multisport sessions
Tower Hamlets has London’s youngest population – average age is 30
On Tuesday (13 Jan), the council launched a new Youth Strategy for 2025-2027 – a landmark new plan to deliver one of the most ambitious youth offers in the country
It builds on pioneering policies including free school meals, free school uniforms, and grants for college and university.
Young Tower Hamlets have hit record breaking numbers as over 181,000 young attendees access programmes in two years, 19 youth centres opened, and over 5,000 sessions delivered in 2025.
On Tuesday 13 January, Tower Hamlets launched the ‘Young Tower Hamlets Strategy 2025-2027′ outlining the growth of the service since the council’s initial investment of £13.7 million in 2023, and it’s plans for the next two years.
The newly launched strategy sets out a commitment to providing a safe space for young people in every ward, alongside expanded sports, outdoor learning, targeted support, detached youth work and enhanced youth participation.
The launch event recognised youth workers from all strands of Young Tower Hamlets for their exceptional work in the service and impact on young people. Each award was presented by Deputy Mayor of Tower Hamlets Maium Talukdar.
Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, said:
“I am proud that Tower Hamlets now has the best youth offer in the country.
“We have the youngest population in London, which is why we have chosen to invest heavily in our young people. That includes providing 19 youth centres, and other groundbreaking measures including being the only place in the country to offer universal free school meals, school uniform grants and bursaries for college and university.
“Our new Young Tower Hamlets Strategy builds on that success. Importantly, this strategy has been created with our young people, and we will always ensure their voice is at the centre of our youth provision.”
Deputy Mayor Maium Talukdar, Cabinet Member for Education, Youth and Lifelong Learning, said:
“It’s amazing to launch this strategy today, two years ago we made an ambitious investment of £13.7 million into our youth service, at a time when others were cutting funding. I’m glad to see it making an even greater impact than what we imagined.
“We have a great youth service, and our youth workers are really at the heart of it. Today we are not only celebrating our amazing strategy, but the people that make it all possible – our youth workers.
“Huge congratulations and thank you to all our youth workers who make this service great.”
Young Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Musa Noor, said:
“As the newly appointed Young Mayor of Tower Hamlets, I’m excited to work with the council to develop its youth service.
“This youth strategy is the first step in making Tower Hamlets an opportunity-rich borough for young people. I’ll be working closely with the new Young Mayor Team to champion and represent the voices of young people in Tower Hamlets.”
As well as investing in youth services, the council offers a wide range of financial support for young people and families. It has re-introduced its Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and University Bursaries, providing young people with £600 or £1,500 grants to help with costs while they study.
Tower Hamlets was the first local authority to offer universal free school meals to both primary and secondary school pupils. Since rolling out the scheme in secondary schools in 2023, more than 2 million meals have been served to secondary school pupils.
Last year, the council also introduced school clothing grants to help with the cost of school uniforms, providing families with £50 per child entering primary school and £150 per child entering secondary school.
