I’m very proud to announce that Newham Council has been shortlisted for honours in four key areas at the hotly contested Local Government Chronicle awards.

It’s one of the top honours a council can achieve, but what really matters is that our work for you is recognised as the best it can be.

We’re nominated for Council of the Year, Digital Council of the Year, Entrepreneurial Council of the Year and Innovative Service Delivery.

As you know, the government has made savage cuts to local authority finances. In Newham we have had to save £117million since 2010, and we need to find another £70m by 2020.

There are two ways to tackle such an assault on our budgets; slash services, close libraries, leave the bins to overflow and blame the government, or you can swallow the bitter pill and find ways to protect residents from the negative impacts.

That’s what we in Newham have chosen to do.

Our Workplace scheme has helped people into work, and filled more than 30,000 jobs with Newham residents.

Our private rented market is now policed by a borough-wide Private Rented Sector Licensing scheme which is the envy of local councils up and down the country – while helping good landlords compete on a level playing field and protecting 60,000 residents from rogue landlords.

Our Every Child programme offers a range of opportunities to our young people, with free musical instruments and tuition, free school meals for all our primary school children, and a Reading Guarantee that means no child is left behind.

And through our New Deal for Newham, we are investing £100m over 10 years to Keep Newham Moving, upgrading our roads, pavements, and streetlights, and we have put additional resources into Keeping Newham Clean, targeting fly-tipping, and maintaining weekly rubbish collections. More from Sir Robin