The timeline

  • 1999: The Rich Mix Cultural Foundation is conceived as a regeneration project by Tower Hamlets council. 
  • 2001: The charity is incorporated and endorsed by the then mayor of London Ken Livingstone.
  • 2002: Mr Livingstone personally launches the charity in an inaugural ceremony.
  • 2003: Rich Mix comes under financial pressure and asks the council for assistance. The council gives it a £1.75m loan.
  • 2005: £900,000 is repaid to the council.
  • 2006: The remaining £850,000 is due but isn’t paid because Rich Mix claims this is a grant, not a loan. 
  • 2008: The centre is complete and officially opened. 
  • 2010: Rich Mix is in need of financial assistance again. The charity approaches the council which acknowledges £850,000 is outstanding but agrees to give another £500,000 plus a conditional £2m. The condition – setting performance targets – is not met and the money doesn’t change hands.
  • 2012: June. The council leader Lutfur Rahman issues a loan claim in the High Court to recover the £850,000 from Rich Mix. The case is scheduled for July 2015.
  • 2012: November. Rich Mix files a counterclaim for the £1.5m. 
  • 2014: July. In a preliminary hearing, the High Court dismisses Rich Mix’s claim to the £1.5m, declaring the contract ‘unenforceable’.
  • 2014: November. Communities secretary Eric Pickles decides the council needs Government intervention after a critical PwC report finds significant problems in the council’s administration of grants, contracts and property transactions. Two commissioners are dispatched.
  • 2015: April. Lutfur Rahman is removed from office after the High Court rules he used ‘corrupt and illegal practices’ in the 2014 mayoral election. 
  • 2015: 12 June. John Biggs is elected the new mayor. He promises to make the council open and transparent.
  • 2015: 18 June. Mayor Biggs discontinues the litigation concerning the £850,000 scheduled for July. He awards Rich Mix the £1.5m in spite of the court’s dismissal of the council’s legal obligation to do so, without consulting a business plan or setting performance targets. 
  • 2015: 26 June. Council officers tell the Government’s lead commissioner, Sir Ken Knight, the mayor’s decision has failed a best value duty test.
  • 2015: July. The council’s overview and scrutiny committee asks mayor Biggs to revise his decision by looking at a business plan, consider setting performance targets, and explain how best value has been accounted for.  
  • 2015: August: The mayor consults a business plan but refuses to set any targets.
  • 2015: October. The communities secretary, Greg Clark, writes to mayor Biggs praising his administration.
  • 2016: Sir Ken and mayor Biggs give evidence to the communities select committee. They say that decision-making at the council has become more open and transparent.
  • 2017: March. The communities secretary Sajid Javid brings the intervention to an end and declares it has been a success.
  • 2017: April. The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is told that mayor Biggs awarded £1.5m to a charity in ambiguous circumstances during the intervention, but the department refuses to investigate further.
  • 2017: October. The communities select committee forwards evidence of the settlement with Rich Mix to Sajid Javid. 
  • 2018: February. The Ministry of Housing (formerly DCLG) refuses to investigate the matter, explaining the settlement is beyond the remit of the intervention. 
  • 2018: April. The Liberal Democrats release a statement in response to the same evidence, calling out the lack of transparency in Tower Hamlets’ relationship with Rich Mix. 

 

 

Leave a comment