The London Borough of Tower Hamlets: Residents’ Survey

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets commissioned M·E·L Research to deliver its 2025 Residents’ Survey, continuing a long-standing annual series to track local perceptions of life in the borough and satisfaction with Council services.

The Council wanted robust, comparable evidence to understand:

• How residents feel about their neighbourhood, community cohesion, and safety.
• Levels of satisfaction and trust in the Council, and perceived value for money.
• Key public concerns around crime, health, wellbeing, and affordability.
• Shifts over time, compared with the 2023 and 2024 surveys and national benchmarks.

Tower Hamlets’ highly diverse population—spanning wide variations in income, ethnicity, and language—posed particular challenges in ensuring inclusion of hard-to-reach groups and maintaining consistency across survey waves. Sensitive topics such as crime, anti-social behaviour, and financial hardship required skilled interviewer engagement to gather open, reliable feedback.

Approach

M·E·L Research designed and delivered a face-to-face, interviewer-led residents’ survey between 24 March and 9 May 2025, achieving 1,120 completed interviews. A stratified random sampling design was used to produce data fully representative of Tower Hamlets’ population.

Key elements

• Sampling: Randomly selected Census Output Areas (COAs), stratified by Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) to ensure geographic and socio-economic balance.
• Quotas: Ward-level quotas for age and gender, aligned with 2021 Census data.
  Interviewing: Fieldwork conducted in respondents’ homes, using professional bilingual interviewers to support accessibility.
• Weighting: Post-fieldwork weighting by ward, age, and gender corrected for response bias.

This methodology produced borough-level findings with a ±3% confidence interval at the 95% level. Sub-group analysis (by ward cluster, ethnicity, and age) further explored differences across four localities—North, East, South, and West.

Analysis and Reporting

• Statistical testing identified significant subgroup differences.
• Results were benchmarked against the Local Government Association’s October 2024 national poll.
• Spatial and thematic analysis highlighted variation in satisfaction, trust, and perceived safety.
• Findings were presented using accessible infographics and clear narrative commentary.

Impact

The survey delivered a robust evidence base for Tower Hamlets Council to understand resident sentiment and guide service priorities.

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