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Former Tower Hamlets Councillor Shahed Ali who was imprisoned for housing fraud has been ordered to repay £180,000 or face being returned to prison. The Confiscation Order requires him to pay £110,000 to Tower Hamlets Council and the Government for money he made as a result of his fraud. He has also been ordered to pay the Council's legal costs of £70,000. In 2009, Mr Ali applied for social housing after claiming to be sleeping on a sofa at a relative's house. He was subsequently given a one bedroom council flat in Christian Street off Brick Lane. However, Mr Ali failed to disclose that in fact he owned a private property at Manchester Road, E14, and had also occupied a property at Cannon Street Road, in the Whitechapel ward he represented. Tower Hamlets Council became suspicious afte...

The Mayor of Tower Hamlets has called on Network Rail to rethink its decision to inflict damaging rent increases on hardworking small businesses based in railway arches across the borough. Mayor John Biggs and Cllr Motin Uz-Zaman (Cabinet Member for Work and Economic Growth) have written to the Secretary of State for Transport and the Chief Executive of Network Rail to urge them to reconsider the decision to hike the rents in advance of selling off thousands of railway arches across England and Wales. Some businesses have seen their bills rocket by as much as 350 per cent. The impact is already being felt, with a number being forced to find new premises or close their doors altogether. The council understands that it is part of a strategy to make the apparent value of the national arche...

The Cabinet has approved the draft of 'The National Agriculture Policy 2018' incorporating the facilities of using nano-technology in the agriculture sector to control diseases of the crops and determine generic nutrition. The approval was given at the Cabinet meeting held at the Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair yesterday. The meeting also endorsed the drafts of the 'Bangladesh Shishu Academy Act, 2018’, ‘The Health Development Surcharge Management Policy, 2018’ and the draft of ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’. The Jatiya Sangsad has passed the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board Bill, 2018 aimed at providing services and ensuring welfare to expatriates abroad and their family members living in the country. Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Mi...