Mayor launches action plan to address inequalities across the capital

Mayor launches action plan to help organisations across the capital address inequalities and build a fairer city

• The London Recovery Board’s Building a Fairer City Action Plan sets out 14 actions organisations and institutions can take to tackle the deep-seated inequalities affecting the lives of Londoners
• From committing to the London Living Wage to promoting employment rights and ensuring that workforces are reflective of the capital’s diverse population, the actions will help to improve the lives of disadvantaged communities across London
• The launch of this plan further signifies the Mayor’s commitment to addressing London’s entrenched structural inequalities, ensuring that no one is left behind as we rebuild and recover from the pandemic

The London Recovery Board, chaired jointly by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Chair of London Councils, Councillor Georgia Gould has today launched an action plan to help tackle the deeply embedded social inequalities affecting the lives of particular groups of people in the capital and build a better city for every Londoner.

The London Recovery Board’s Building a Fairer City Action Plan sets out 14 actions to address inequalities, and brings together leaders from across London’s government, business and civil society, as well as the health and education sectors, trade unions and the police, to oversee the capital’s long-term recovery effort.

Launched today, the plan outlines goals and practical steps that organisations and institutions can do to make changes that will help take to instigate and influence positive change that will improve the lives of Londoners.

They include:

• ensuring everyone has a fair chance at getting a job, promotion or training, with less pay disparity and fewer barriers to work and where everyone feels the workplace is a safe place to be.

• becoming an accredited London Living Wage employer and requiring all subcontractors to commit to paying employees the London Living Wage to address wealth inequalities
• tackling structural discrimination in public services by giving communities a say in how services are run and concerns about data collection and eligibility for services
• working more closely with advice and debt organisations and charities to improve the highlighting of financial and welfare advice
• making digital services properly accessible or providing alternatives for those without digital access
• increasing the proportion of funding for equalities-led, equity groups and civil society work that supports Londoners facing discrimination

Long-standing inequalities have impacted on the lives of Londoners for generations and the pandemic exacerbated this, with people from Black and South Asian backgrounds, disabled and older Londoners significantly more likely to die or suffer serious illness as a result of Covid-19.

The London Recovery Board was established to ensure that a targeted approach is taken to addressing these entrenched inequalities affecting communities throughout London, so that no one is left behind as we rebuild and recover from the pandemic.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Long-standing, socially embedded inequalities made many people’s experiences of COVID-19, and life afterwards, significantly worse. Those who were hit the hardest by the pandemic were Londoners already familiar with hardship and unequal living standards. I urge as many organisations, institutions and allies from as many sectors as possible to adopt this action plan, to not only amplify work already being progressed, but to give momentum for more to happen. Working together, with a common cause, gives us a real chance to build back a better London for everyone – a safer, greener, more equal and prosperous city for all.”

Co-Chair of the London Recovery Board, Cllr Georgia Gould, said: “London is a city filled with diversity and dynamism, but also with deep-rooted, structural inequalities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. This action plan provides a real opportunity for positive change. Working together, we must redouble efforts to tackle those inequalities and to build a fairer, more inclusive city for all Londoners.”

Strategic Advisor at the Black Equity Organisation (BEO), Jake Ferguson, said: “Structural racism is a global problem and has its history in centuries of White superiority. We all need to do more collectively to understand the impact that structural racism has on people's everyday lives and to empower communities, particularly those most affected by systems that have historically oppressed them, to be in the forefront of the change. As a new Black led organisation we welcome the long overdue commitment that the Mayor and public bodies are putting behind this Action. Delivering this work will massively improve trust and confidence.”

Director of Practice at The Ubele Initiative, Michael Hamilton, said: “The impact of racism leaves Black individuals and communities without the ability to live our lives to our full potential. Racism leaves our community traumatised by the drip drip drip of societal violence. We look forward to this action plan with its framework that supports an agenda of real practice change.”

ENDS