Mayor’s Equality Report 2020/22

Inclusive London set out that the communities Londoners live in should help them to reach their full potential, making London a great place for everyone. This chapter describes the actions the Mayor took to deliver this for Londoners. These actions include developing more high-quality homes that are affordable, and that meet Londoners’ needs; and tackling homelessness, rough sleeping and fuel poverty. They gave communities a voice in the development of their neighbourhoods, and the regeneration of the most deprived parts of London in a way that supports good growth, and opens up opportunities for the most disadvantaged groups. Through these actions public spaces were designed to be more inclusive; the air that people breathe was, by necessity, made cleaner; and access to green spaces was provided. 

Objective 1: To work with housing associations, councils, developers, investors and government to create more homes that are genuinely affordable to buy or rent. This will help to address the inequalities experienced by certain groups of Londoners most affected by the city’s shortage of affordable homes.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Worked proactively with councils and developers to ensure that schemes referred to the Mayor deliver the maximum possible affordable housing. In 2020-22, 32,040 affordable homes were started with support from the Mayor.

• Invested in building new affordable homes for Londoners through Transport for London (TfL).2 Among TfL’s housebuilding, 50 per cent is affordable housing. In 2020-21 and 2021-22, TfL started construction of 277 affordable homes, 43 per cent of the total housing starts on TfL land.

• Published the London Plan 2021, the statutory spatial development strategy for Greater London. This ensures that planning applications referred to the Mayor support the increase in affordable housing in London. Policy H4 ‘Delivering affordable housing’ sets a strategic target of 50 per cent of all new homes delivered across London to be genuinely affordable.

Objective 2: To work with councils, landlords and government to help improve property conditions, management standards, security and affordability for private renters. This will help to support the growing numbers of households with children in private rented homes, as well as groups who are more likely to live in the sector.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Continued to deliver the Rogue Landlord and Agent Checker. This holds more than 3,000 records of enforcement action where landlords have been prosecuted or fined. In 2020-22, the checker was viewed 132,985 times, and Londoners submitted more than 2,398 reports of rogue landlords or agents through the ‘Report a Rogue’ tool. 

• Launched a property licence checker tool in November 2020 to enable Londoners to check if their home should have a property licence. If it doesn’t, and they think it should, they can report it to their local authority to investigate. This checker was viewed 98,075 times in 2020-22. 

• Secured government funding to create a programme helping boroughs improve standards and practices in the private rented sector. In 2020-22, 300 individual council officers from 31 different boroughs undertook GLA enforcement training sessions. 

• Called on government to empower the Mayor to freeze private rents in the capital for two years, to help thousands of Londoners struggling to cope with the rising cost of living.

Objective 3: To work with government, councils, housing associations, communities and neighbourhoods to protect Londoners living in social housing, including those affected by estate regeneration projects. The aim is to ensure that their views are properly heard and acted upon. This will benefit disabled people; Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups; and single-parent households who are most likely to live in social housing.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Implemented his resident ballot requirement on a growing number of estate-regeneration schemes, ensuring that larger projects involving the demolition of homes and receiving GLA funding have the support of residents. In 2020-22 there were 13 ballots, where residents supported the proposals.

• Included policy H8 in the London Plan 2021, which requires social landlords planning estate regeneration to consider alternatives to demolition. It also states that, if they do demolish affordable homes, they must be replaced with at least the same amount of new affordable housing; and that rents for existing tenants must be set on the same basis.

• Extended funding for the London Housing Panel to 2025. This panel brings together 15 organisations from the voluntary and community sector and helps shape the Mayor’s housing policies; and includes the London Tenants’ Federation, which represents social housing tenants. The chair sits on the Mayor’s Homes for Londoners Board.

Objective 4: To work with councils, housing associations, government and communities to help improve the supply of homes available to meet Londoners’ diverse housing needs. These include needs for accessible and adapted housing, specialist and supported accommodation, and Gypsy and Traveller sites.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Approved over 3,260 new accessible and adaptable homes; and over 630 homes for wheelchair users. 

• Introduced a requirement that larger schemes (those with 10 or more homes) funded through the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 provide a minimum of 10 per cent of homes at Building Regulation M4(3) standard for wheelchair users, with all other homes at the M4(2) standard for accessible and adaptable dwellings, reinforcing the policies set out in the London Plan 2021. 

• Started 322 homes for older and disabled Londoners across 2020-21 and 2021-22 through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund. 

• Started building 195 units for single people, including young people, who are facing or have experienced homelessness across 2020-21 and 2021-22. This is through the Homelessness Change and Platform for Life programmes. 

• Started more than 1,000 homes with support for former rough sleepers and victims of domestic abuse, through the Rough Sleeping Accommodation and Move On Programmes.3 

• Included policy H14 in the London Plan 2021, which encourages boroughs to identify the need for Gypsy and Traveller pitches in this area and set out plans to meet this need, while protecting and improving existing provision. 

• Launched a new assessment of the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers in London. 

• Allocated a further £1.7m for 24 new and replacement Gypsy and Traveller pitches. 

• Administered the £38m London Community Housing Fund; this supports community-led groups to deliver housing that adopts specific ownership, and tenancy arrangements that best suit local circumstances and preferences. During 2020-22, £11.7m of revenue and capital funding was allocated to enable the delivery of more than 200 community-led homes; the first 66 of these started on site.

Objective 5: To work with councils, government, the voluntary sector and communities to make preventing homelessness a priority, and make sure that people who lose their home are helped into sustainable accommodation.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Successfully advocated for the government to support a pan-London approach to safe accommodation for victims/survivors of domestic abuse, with the GLA receiving just over £20.7m of new funding and responsibilities to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse in safe accommodation.

• Published London’s first Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Strategy in December 2021, prioritising early intervention, access to safe crisis accommodation, and access to second-stage and move-on accommodation.

• Commissioned a range of services – including those from ‘by and for’ providers, and those for under-served groups of Londoners. This work is supported by a new multi-agency Board – the London Domestic Abuse Partnership Board.

• Housed 42 survivors of domestic abuse through his Move On Programme.

Objective 6: To work with the government, councils, the voluntary sector and communities to ensure rough sleepers are helped off the streets as quickly and sustainably as possible. There should be a way for every rough sleeper in London to leave the streets.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Pioneered the ‘Everyone In’ approach (ensuring people sleeping rough, and in accommodation where it was difficult to self-isolate, were safely accommodated during the coronavirus pandemic). GLA provision was open to people without recourse to public funds to ensure migrants could access bed spaces without fear. Working with boroughs, the GLA accommodated over 10,000 people.

• Continued to provide his core Life off the Streets services to ensure an immediate and sustainable route off the streets for anyone sleeping rough in London. In 2020-21, these services worked with 7,349 people and in 2021-22, with 4,988 people.

• Allocated over £120m in capital, and £34m in revenue, for the delivery of homes and support for rough sleepers through the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme. Funding for over 1,467 homes was allocated, with 1,002 starts and 836 people with a history of sleeping rough housed. In addition, 188 people with a history of sleeping rough were housed through the Move On Programme.

• Successfully piloted the capital’s first dedicated pan-London youth accommodation service. The GLA worked alongside London Councils and charity partners to provide an immediate route off the streets for young people sleeping rough and those at imminent risk of homelessness.

• Launched three support programmes for non-UK-national rough sleepers: the Roma Rough Sleepers Mediator Service; an accommodation and support service for people sleeping rough with medium to high support needs; and a training programme on migrant homelessness.

Objective 7: To work with boroughs, communities, transport providers and businesses to help regenerate the most deprived parts of London. This will be in a way that supports good growth and opens up opportunities for the most disadvantaged groups.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• 40 per cent of his £70m Good Growth Fund supported initiatives in the top 20 per cent deprived neighbourhoods where 3.5m Londoners live. 81 projects within 30 of the 33 London boroughs were supported, over half (56 per cent) of which were delivered in partnership with cultural and civil society organisations.

The Mayor, through TfL, delivered the following:

• Worked with London boroughs and communities to develop Opportunity Areas, key locations with potential for new homes, jobs and infrastructure. In March 2022, the Mayor consulted on the draft Royal Docks and Beckton Riverside Opportunity Area Planning Framework developed in partnership with the London borough of Newham to ensure that growth will be delivered locally, fairly and democratically. 

• Delivered an unprecedented number of Healthy Streets schemes during the pandemic, which have prioritised deprived locations including:

  • more than 100 Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods

  • 147 cycle hangars (882 bicycle spaces)

  • more than 400 School Streets – temporarily restricting motorised traffic on roads outside schools at school drop-off and pick-up times

  • construction of over 100km of new or improved cycling infrastructure. 

• Extended 90km of bus-lane hours (to 24 hours a day, seven days a week) on London’s busiest roads, reducing the journey times of deprived communities who rely more on travel by bus. 

Objective 8: To work with government, boroughs, communities, businesses, schools, transport providers and others to help protect and provide the social infrastructure needed by London’s diverse communities.

The Mayor, through TfL, delivered the following:

• Published Connective Social Infrastructure, a report commissioned through the Mayor’s Good Growth by Design programme. This set out how social integration can be supported through social infrastructure. 

• Included policies in the London Plan 2021 that require:

  • those in planning and development to build strong and inclusive communities, by providing access to good-quality community spaces, services, amenities and infrastructure that accommodate, encourage and strengthen communities; increase active participation and social integration; and address social isolation (Policy GG1)

  • boroughs to carry out local needs assessments of social infrastructure, and use these to inform future policy implementation and prepare their Development Plans (Policy S1); this ensures the social infrastructure needs of London’s diverse communities are met. 

• Worked with boroughs, and business, education and community partners, to deliver 55 social infrastructure projects funded by the Mayor’s £70m Good Growth Fund. Among these were the West London Disability Hub and the Polka Theatre for children. 

• Launched the £750,000 Community Spaces at Risk recovery pilot programme to protect spaces that were critical for supporting vulnerable groups during the pandemic. The fund supported 101 organisations’ spaces across 29 boroughs, 46 per cent of which were in the most deprived areas in England. Three-quarters of supported organisations were led by under-represented groups, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities; LGBTQ+ communities; Deaf and disabled people; and women-led groups. 

• Supported Healthy Streets Officers (HSO) embedded in boroughs who helped community groups and schools to reduce car journeys and support cycle-skills training. The HSO team worked with over 600 schools and supported over 300 through the TfL school outreach programme, STARS (Sustainable Travel, Active, Responsible, Safe). 

Objective 9: To work with government, boroughs, developers, businesses and communities to promote inclusive design through planning, procurement and commissioning of projects and programmes. We will also contribute to the development of national technical standards, initiatives, training and professional development programmes.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Included specific provisions in the London Plan 2021 around inclusive design and accessibility. To support the implementation of this, he has also published Planning Guidance relating to Characterisation and Growth, Housing Design Standards, Optimising Site Capacity and Small Sites Design codes, as well as Supplementary Planning Guidance on Character and Context.

• Implemented the Public London Charter and related guidance, which requires schemes to provide public access to appropriate communal spaces and put in place a framework to ensure they are appropriately managed. This delivers more inclusive environments, enabling all Londoners better access to, and benefits from, major schemes across the capital as they happen.

Objective 10: To support effective ways to involve communities in the development of their neighbourhoods and the wider city.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Managed consultation platforms which enabled communities to be involved in, and contribute fully to, the development of planning policy during national lockdowns. 

• Launched the High Streets for All Challenge in March 2021, which provided £4m of strategic enabling funding targeted at advice and knowledge-sharing opportunities; and supported achievement of the mission target of an exemplar project in each London borough. Thirty-four projects were selected for seed funding to engage locally and build capacity: 42 per cent of these were led by Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic people; 16 per cent included organisations led by older people; and 55 per cent involved young people. 

• Launched a schools’ outreach programme to get planning taught in the classroom, so young people can learn how to influence the future of their communities and discover ways into careers shaping the future of their city. 

• Launched the Planning for London Programme, engaging communities in shaping the future of their city. 

• Appointed a new cohort of 42 Mayor’s Design Advocates (MDAs) to support equality and inclusion. Diverse representation was a central ambition: more than half of the new cohort were women; and 45 per cent came from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds (19 per cent of this group were Black). Disabled people and LGBTQ+ community representatives were also among the MDAs. 

• Published Night Time Strategy Guidance, helping councils engage with diverse communities (including night workers; young disabled people; young women; families; and people of various faiths) about what they want from their areas at night. 

• Established the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, to review and improve diversity across London’s public realm; and launched a £1m Untold Stories grant fund for community-led projects. 

• Set up the Liberty Advisory Group to shape the vision for Liberty, an annual festival for d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists and audiences, as part of the London Borough of Culture. 

• Funded research and development of eight creative projects for Liberty 2022 as part of Lewisham’s London Borough of Culture programme, in addition to the annual festival. 

• With URBACT EU Funding, created the first London Action Group for Access to Culture, which demonstrates how to place communities at the heart of policymaking. 

Objective 11: To work with all relevant partners around actions to clean up air and mitigate the effects of air pollution. These will be informed by an understanding of the groups most likely to experience poor air quality.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Helped to further reduce the exposure gap between the most and least deprived communities; and between communities where Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Londoners are most and least likely to live by expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) up to the North and South Circular Roads. By December 2021, 93 per cent of vehicles in the zone met the ULEZ standards, with 11,000 fewer vehicles travelling in the zone on an average weekday.

• Published research on inequalities in exposure to air pollution in London, which showed a continued gap between the most and least deprived areas; and between the areas where Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Londoners are most and least likely to live. The research also showed that the gap for deprivation-related exposure to NO2 had narrowed by up to 50 per cent between 2013 and 2019; for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Londoners, this gap had narrowed by between 15 and 37 per cent.

• Supported the scrapping or retrofitting of over 15,500 vehicles, including over 9,600 cars, 5,800 vans and minibuses, and 120 HGVs.

• Launched the Breathe London network, involving funding for 136 air-quality sensors at priority locations with high levels of pollution. A community programme offered 60 free sensors to minoritised communities and areas with poor air quality, limited green space, or high deprivation. The network now has almost 300 active sensors, and gives all Londoners access to hyperlocal data via the Breathe London website.

• Hosted the London Clean Air and Health Summit in February 2022, which brought together leaders from national and local government, the health and care system, NGOs and academics. Attendees agreed partnership actions to raise awareness of the impacts of air pollution and tackle health inequalities.

Objective 12: To work with government, businesses, transport providers, voluntary groups and all relevant partners to help ensure our approach to tackling fuel poverty and improving green spaces is inclusive.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Supported the retrofit of 2,224 fuel-poor homes through his £50m Warmer Homes programme; and provided small energy measures and advice on energy bills to over 12,100 households through his Warmer Homes Advice Service, which worked with referral partners supporting disadvantaged communities. Over 50 per cent of service users were disabled people, and/or from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.

• Awarded £2.1m through his Grow Back Greener Fund to 79 community projects to create and improve green space. Projects are being delivered in neighbourhoods with poor access to green space and high levels of deprivation.

• Awarded £3.44m to six large-scale projects from his Green and Resilient Fund. Projects are located in areas of the city where communities are most vulnerable to climate change due to health and income inequalities. Projects will improve access to green space; build green skills; and promote health and wellbeing. A further £520,000 of development funding was awarded to 13 projects to support them to work on their designs and community engagement.

• Awarded £440,000 to support planting more than 4,500 trees in areas of the highest deprivation and where communities have the lowest levels of tree cover in London.  

• Launched a Climate Risk Map for London, to identify areas of London that are most exposed to climate impacts, with high concentrations of vulnerable populations. These will help him, and other London-based organisations, deliver equitable responses to the impacts of climate change and target resources to support communities at highest risk.

• Launched the cool spaces initiatives to help Londoners – particularly those who are vulnerable to and/or at risk from extreme heat, and communities with no or limited access to green space – to take respite on hot days. In 2021 it included 313 outdoor cool spaces and 43 indoor cool spaces across London, with 19 boroughs having registered their cool sites.

This chapter describes the actions that the Mayor took to improve childhood experiences, making London a great place for young people to live. These actions included tackling emerging inequalities early on and addressing the root causes of poverty. Working with government, boroughs, childcare providers, early-years providers, schools and businesses, the Mayor worked to improve children’s and young people’s health and well-being, and educational and employment outcomes. He helped parents to find childcare, with a particular focus on London’s most disadvantaged families. The Mayor funded projects to support vulnerable children and young people, including supporting them in the transition from primary to secondary school, and creating work experience and wider career opportunities. This included supporting children, families and schools to stay connected and maintain educational attainment during the pandemic. Through these actions the Mayor helped set the course of every Londoner’s life.

Objective 13: To work with government, boroughs, early-years and childcare providers, and businesses to help address the root causes of child poverty. These include affordability of housing, childcare and transport, low pay, and lack of flexible working, as well as the welfare system.

The Mayor delivered the following: 

• Launched the Advice in Community Settings programme, which funds partnerships between advice organisations and community locations, including schools and baby banks to help households maximise their incomes. As part of the programme, an evaluation was commissioned that will enable an understanding of impact by disability, ethnicity, gender and other characteristics. 

• Invested in building capacity among local authorities to better identify children and young people under their care who have immigration needs; and help them to secure and maintain their status so they can participate fully in the life of the city, and access further education, employment and welfare. 

• Exceeded targets by securing more than 190,000 views of the expanded Employment Rights Hub, which helps Londoners understand their workplace rights and how to access support if they have a problem at work. Some content on the hub is tailored for parents and carers; it includes information about pregnancy and maternity rights, as well as employment rights relating to school closures and childcare during the pandemic. 

• Advocated for the retention of the temporary £20 uplift to Universal Credit, publishing detailed analysis showing the potential impact of removing of the uplift on levels of poverty in London, and on the incomes of households sharing a range of protected characteristics.  

• Published a report on access to benefits for Londoners with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) to highlight the impact of these conditions on levels of child poverty in London; and to strengthen his argument that NRPF should be abolished entirely. 

• Further advocated for essential changes to the welfare benefits system, needed to reduce levels of child poverty. These include:

  • the suspension of the two-child limit

  • Local Housing Allowance to be increased back to the median of local market rates, so that renters can cover their housing costs

  • scrapping the benefit cap

  • providing extra funding to local authorities to make discretionary payments to households facing shortfalls. 

Objective 14: To help understand which groups of children and young people are most likely to experience physical and mental health issues, and help them to access treatment and support.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Funded over 100 projects, through the £45m Young Londoners Fund, that provided positive opportunities and support for over 35,000 vulnerable children and young people aged 10-21. Of these, 48 projects focus on supporting the mental wellbeing of children and young people; and 19 provide sports activities that develop the physical health of young people.

• Funded 16 mentoring projects through the New Deal for Young People Mission, which will collectively reach 5,000 young people in particular need of support, including those with physical and mental health needs. Three of these projects are specifically targeted at young people with mental health issues, providing personalised support and signposting.

• Rolled out suicide-prevention training to 183 further education and higher education settings. This equipped staff and institutions with the knowledge and skills to better understand suicide and suicide prevention, and develop appropriate safeguarding procedures for vulnerable students.

Objective 15: To work with London Councils, boroughs and childcare providers to support improved access to high-quality, flexible early education and childcare for all. Provision should respond to the diverse needs of London’s families, so children from low-income families can better access all forms of childcare and early-years provision.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Launched an online toolkit capturing key learning and resources from the Mayor’s Early Years Hubs Programme. The hubs aimed to improve access to high-quality early education – particularly for London’s most disadvantaged families.

• Commissioned research into the business-support needs of London’s early-years sector and how its sustainability could be supported (by the Mayor and others) through the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research highlighted the challenges faced by many early-years providers – especially those in more disadvantaged areas.

• Launched his London Early Years Campaign, helping London-based parents of under-fives to understand the range of early education and childcare support offers available. It included a social media campaign targeting parents on Facebook and Instagram that, between the start of December 2021 and the end of March 2022, had exceeded its targets and generated 37,846 ‘clicks’ from ads on Facebook and Instagram.

• Granted Healthy Early Years London (HEYL) awards to 642 more early-years providers between April 2020 and March 2022, bringing the total to 2,180. The HEYL awards scheme is targeted at areas with high rates of deprivation and indicators of poor child health.

• Funded the Wandle Early Years Hub to pilot work supporting better social, emotional and mental health within the early years, in response to the pandemic.

• Delivered ‘Strong Early Years London’ – a programme of business support for London’s under-pressure nurseries, preschools and childminders. The programme aimed to support the sustainability of London’s early-years sector, helping providers to survive the pandemic and continue to serve local families – particularly the most disadvantaged.

Objective 16: To work with schools, boroughs and London Councils to support greater educational progress for the lowest-attaining groups, and reduce disparities in exclusions.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Commissioned the Royal Society of Arts to investigate how London schools, multi-academy trusts and local authorities can engage in early intervention work to reduce the number of exclusions. This resulted in the production of the Inclusive and Nurturing Schools toolkit that brought together eight case studies, and outlined how to embed best practice into a school’s individual context.

• Partnered with The Black Curriculum in October 2020 to lead an expert review and refresh the London Curriculum’s Key Stage 3 history resources. These provided teachers with more knowledge, tools and confidence to teach Black history throughout the entire academic year – not just during Black History Month.

• Delivered the Mayor’s London Scientist programme, providing funding and training webinars to schools with high numbers of students under-represented in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects. This included students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND); on free school meals; or from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic backgrounds. This supported over 10,000 young Londoners to complete a STEM project and achieve the nationally recognised CREST Award.

• Funded 29 schools to deliver the Stepping Stones programme, which supports lower-attaining and vulnerable pupils with the transition from primary to secondary school. The programme provides peer mentoring, and aspirational and career-based activities to support pupils to achieve their potential. In response to the pandemic, schools were given flexibility with how they could use their funding. This provided an option to purchase additional laptops/digital devices to help students stay engaged with the programme.

• Launched London Learning at Home to bring together free learning and cultural offers that children could access from home during lockdown in 2020. This supported families, teachers and nurseries to maintain educational progress of young Londoners, and keep them connected. This was complemented by a live webinar series supporting teachers with pedagogy and careers guidance.

Objective 17: To work with London businesses, boroughs and the voluntary sector to create more opportunities for young people to gain work experience and wider career and employment opportunities. This focuses on the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), digital, cultural and creative sectors.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Created a £32m Good Work for All fund to help Londoners to gain relevant skills, retrain, and move into good work in sectors key to London’s recovery. By January 2022, the programme had supported 4,030 learners, of which around 10 per cent were young adults aged 19-23.

• Delivered his Digital Talent programme, which supported over 1,100 young Londoners to develop their digital skills; and 545 learners into digital work placements in different digital areas. More than 80 per cent of learners were from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background; 53 per cent were young women; and 15 per cent were disabled young people.

• Funded seven science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) mentoring projects that will provide opportunities for over 1,000 young people from groups that are less well represented in these sectors. For example, STEM Learning will give 400 young people, from lower-income backgrounds, an opportunity for mentoring with STEM role models.

• Developed partnerships with key STEAM employers such as the NHS, TfL and Film London, who will provide mentoring and other forms of support in collaboration with youth organisations as part of the New Deal for Young People.

• Procured a delivery partner to run Building Future London to reach over 1,800 pupils from 30 primary schools to raise aspirations for under-represented groups from an early age, specifically Black, Minority Ethnic, female and SEND pupils, showcasing infrastructure and construction careers in partnership with the Mayor’s London Infrastructure Group and Workforce Integration Network.

• Awarded £52k to the London Music Fund. This provides music tuition to young Londoners whose families cannot afford the cost of lessons; 60 per cent of recipients are from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic backgrounds. The Fund also highlights employment routes into the industry through Amplify London, its partnership with YouTube Music.

• Invested £2.3m in creative-sector skills projects through the Creative Enterprise Zones (CEZ) programme. This is delivering creative work placements and training for over 650 young Londoners, at least 50 per cent of whom are from diverse and under-represented groups.

Inequalities remain widespread in the labour market. This chapter describes the actions the Mayor took to tackle inequalities – working with employers, educational and skills providers, and voluntary and community groups, to ensure as many Londoners as possible could participate in and benefit from the employment opportunities in London. These actions included supporting Londoners to engage in adult learning; funding training for those hardest hit by the pandemic; and ensuring London’s employers had fair and inclusive employment practices. Through these actions, more Londoners with protected characteristics were able to gain new skills and employment.

Objective 18: To work with boroughs, education and skills providers, businesses, and voluntary and community groups. The aim is to help increase the number and diversity of people gaining the skills they need. This includes progression through further/higher level learning and training, and higher level and degree apprenticeships, and into higher skilled work.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Created a £7.3m Skills for Londoners Innovation Fund supporting 28 innovative, outcome-focused projects across London, delivering against the Mayor’s priorities for skills. Among the learners, 70 per cent were women; 61 per cent were from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background; and 14 per cent considered themselves to have a learning difficulty, a disability and/or a health problem.

• Engaged extensively with community groups to shape the Skills Roadmap for London, which will ensure London’s skills system is locally relevant and accessible; and a mayoral campaign to raise awareness of training opportunities. Engagement included conducting a peer-led research project with community groups.

• Supported more Londoners in low-paid work by extending the financial eligibility threshold for AEB learners to London’s Living Wage, supporting almost 20,000 learners to participate in adult learning in the academic year 2020-21.

• Provided training in construction through the Mayor’s Construction Academy; 8,950 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Londoners, and 1,255 female Londoners, completed their training. Of these, 750 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic learners, and 305 female learners, progressed into construction employment or apprenticeships.

• Fully funded learners aged 19 and over, who cannot access spoken language because of their deafness, to study for a first qualification in British Sign Language, supporting 40 learners to participate in adult learning in the academic year 2020-21.

• Provided flexibility, within AEB grant-funded provider allocations, to fully fund relevant learning that upskills eligible teaching and learning support staff to deliver improved support to disabled learners within the adult education sector, with 70 staff participating in 2020-21.

• Provided an £11m Response Fund for Adult Education Budget (AEB) providers in response to COVID-19 in 2020. The fund supported providers to expand their online provision, adapt courses, and build capacity to ensure they are equipped to reach learners who are at risk of digital exclusion.

• Awarded £2.8m in small capital grants across 102 skills providers aimed at building capacity to deliver more online provision and ensure to reach learners who are at risk of digital exclusion.

• Launched the Mayor’s Academies Programme in January 2022 in London’s growth sectors, including creative, digital, green, hospitality, health and social care. Each Academy is comprised of hubs – employer-training provider partnerships delivering high-quality training, work experience and employment support to Londoners who have been hardest hit by the pandemic, the majority of whom have protected characteristics.

Objective 19: To work with employers, education and skills providers, and voluntary and community organisations. The aim is to ensure as many Londoners as possible can participate in, and benefit from, employment opportunities in London. This includes providing employability and skills support for those who are disadvantaged in London’s skills, enterprise and jobs market.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Engaged with organisations representing under-represented groups to shape the No Wrong Door initiative, which aims to join up information and advice on skills, employment and other support so residents can access the services they need to access good employment. This included groups representing older Londoners.

• Created the London Anchor Institutions Charter, with signatories including the Association of Colleges, London Councils, the University of London and London Higher. Signatories have been supported to share best practice on how they can work together and individually as some of London’s largest employers, to remove barriers to entry to employment for under-represented groups, close pay gaps and ensure they provide ‘Good Work’ opportunities for Londoners.

• Changed the funding arrangements for people seeking asylum and eligible to benefit from provision funded by the AEB, to make it easier for them to access funding for adult education.

Objective 20: To work with employers and their organisations, unions, and the voluntary sector. The aim is to help ensure London’s employers have fair and inclusive employment practices to retain and help their employees progress. There will be a focus on those groups that experience major barriers at work.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Published the GLA Group’s Responsible Procurement Policy, setting out his approach to embedding fair and inclusive employment practices by identifying opportunities to encourage suppliers to employ a workforce that is representative of the diversity of London’s population, and promoting the Good Work Standard.

• Supported London’s adult education providers to lead by example as anchor institutions in their communities. Adult education providers funded by the Mayor are expected to be good employers by working towards the Mayor’s Good Work Standard, to build a workforce representative of the communities they serve by 2030.

• Expanded and promoted the Employment Rights Hub, which helps Londoners understand their rights at work and how to access support. It included content about employment rights in the context of the pandemic and lockdowns, with specific information added on disabled workers’ rights, including reasonable-adjustment and redundancy rights. The hub is available in over 20 languages, and in visual as well as written formats. It was viewed by 191,000 Londoners during this reporting period.

• Established the Mayor’s London Infrastructure Group network, focused on EDI, with 23 organisations, so that HR representatives and EDI leads can share best practice in improving diversity and inclusion in the infrastructure and construction sectors.

• Delivered the London Progression Collaboration, which has supported businesses to work towards the Good Work Standard and develop best practice on apprentice recruitment and retention.

Objective 21: To work with skills and training providers, as well as employers, to help increase the diversity of their workforces in vital sectors in London. These include digital, construction, creative and the built environment.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Introduced new minimum EDI employment requirements; and a requirement to develop, publish and implement an EDI action plan, and provide annual updates on implementation. Affordable Housing Programme 2021-26 delivery partners must meet these requirements within a year of their grant allocation being approved. Larger partner organisations were also encouraged to work towards achieving the Mayor’s Good Work Standard accreditation.

• Launched the £44m Mayor’s Academies Programme, which focuses on priority groups of Londoners, including those hardest hit by the pandemic and/or under-represented in London’s priority sectors (digital, creative, green, health, hospitality and social care). Participating employers will also be engaged through the Mayor’s Workforce Integration Network to tackle under-representation and support them to build more inclusive workforces.

• Commissioned research on workforce diversity and inclusion in the green economy, creative and cultural industries, digital and tech, health and social care, and hospitality, to support the London recovery programme and the mission to help Londoners into Good Work. The findings will inform the development of future sector-specific labour market diversity initiatives.

• Developed and funded the Creative Enterprise Zones (CEZs). The project looks to address skills and labour shortages and increase the participation of under-represented groups within the creative sector. It aims to support a minimum of 450 Londoners across five CEZs.

Objective 22: To work with important stakeholders to encourage inclusive growth in London. This is through better planning and provision of business support, including access to finance for businesses led by members of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community, women and people with disabilities.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Invested £20m in businesses led by female, Minority Ethnic, and/or disabled entrepreneurs through the Greater London Investment Fund, the £100m investment fund launched to support the objectives of the Mayor’s Economic Development Strategy.

• Partnered with the Entrepreneurial Refugee Network through his London Business Hub to provide support that enables refugees to open businesses.

• Launched OpenMarkets.London and London Markets Board; for the latter, 47 per cent of experts on the Board are women, and 32 per cent are from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, reflecting the diversity of London’s communities and markets.

This chapter sets out the actions the Mayor took to make transport in London more sustainable, healthier and less expensive. This required new ways of thinking about how we make streets more accessible and inclusive, and transport networks easier to use. These actions included encouraging walking and cycling; funding projects to improve health and wellbeing, and to address social isolation among under-represented and disadvantaged Londoners; providing an affordable and accessible public transport system for the most vulnerable; and improving safety on the transport network for women and girls.

Objective 23: To work through TfL and with London boroughs, development partners and other planning authorities to help change London’s streets and public places. The aim is to address barriers to walking and cycling, and make sure they focus on accessibility and inclusion issues.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Published draft Sustainable Transport, Walking and Cycling planning guidance.

The Mayor, through TfL, delivered the following:

• Awarded almost £750,300 through its Walking and Cycling Grants London to support 150 projects. A new Walking and Cycling Grants Community Ideas Hub was launched to share easily replicable ideas for projects, enabling smaller, more isolated or underprivileged groups to apply for funding. These schemes aimed to help improve the health and wellbeing of Londoners by reducing inactivity and addressing social isolation among under-represented and disadvantaged Londoners.

• Delivered over 100km of cycle lanes through the Streetspace for London programme to facilitate and encourage safe and active travel during the pandemic, including among groups less likely to cycle.

• Together with British Cycling and other stakeholders, hosted a summit on actions to diversify cycling. This is shaping a new joint approach to include more people in cycling, working with a wide range of organisations, funders, campaigners, authorities and community groups.

Objective 24: To work through TfL and with London boroughs, London Councils, and other transport and travel information providers, to offer more affordable transport and to make people more aware of the cheapest travel options on offer.

The Mayor, through TfL, delivered the following:

• Froze fares for the fourth year in a row in 2020; and ensured that the fare rises in 2021 were among the lowest increases in London over the last 20 years.

• Ran a campaign to raise awareness of off-peak fares that enable travel on Tube and rail services from just £1.60.

• Promoted TfL’s range of free and discounted concession schemes through its website, and through liaison with schools and job centres. These schemes cover travel for many of the most vulnerable people in society – young people in education, older people, apprentices and people seeking work.

• Continued the Hopper fare, which gives unlimited bus and tram pay-as-you-go journeys within an hour of first touching in, for the price of a single journey.

• Maintained TfL’s free door-to-door service, Dial a Ride for Londoners with long-term mobility issues.

Objective 25: To work through TfL and with London boroughs, development partners and other planning authorities. This will ensure that inclusive design is an important principle in all new transport schemes and those where major renewal works is being done.

The Mayor, through TfL, delivered the following:

• Sponsored and contributed to a new Publicly Available Specification (PAS), in collaboration with the British Standards Institution (BSI), called PAS 6463 ‘Design for the Mind’. The specification provides advice on how the built environment can be designed to reduce barriers and enhance the experience of neurodivergent people. This is the first formalised national guidance on this subject and should assist in opening up greater understanding and opportunities for people who are neurodivergent, or have neurodegenerative conditions.

• Embedded inclusive design principles, processes and incentives into TfL’s Sustainable Development Framework. This ensures that design teams are embedded with inclusive design expertise, and that it is part of their reporting systems, so that inclusion is considered in the design, construction and post-occupation stages.

Objective 26: To work through TfL and with other transport providers to help increase staff awareness and understanding of how to offer an inclusive service, including providing disability equality training.

The Mayor, through TfL, delivered the following:

• Launched a new virtual classroom Disability Equality Training (DET) course, which enabled TfL to deliver training within COVID-19 restrictions. From its launch in November 2021 to March 2022, 86 TfL staff and 189 London Underground frontline operational staff received training. DET remains a fixed element of the induction week for all new starters in London Underground frontline roles. 

• Launched new e-learning DET on all London Underground staff iPads. 

• Trained 317 staff members through the Dementia Awareness e-learning module. 

• Trained 35 staff in conducting Equality Impact Assessment training. 

Objective 27: To work through TfL and with the London boroughs, transport providers, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), the British Transport Police and the City of London Police to help reduce crime, and the fear of crime, on London’s streets and transport system.

The Mayor, through TfL, delivered the following:

• Launched a programme of 19 key actions to improve the safety of women and girls across the TfL network and organisation, which covers policy, environment/ infrastructure measures, communications, training and legislation. Under this programme, TfL launched a communications campaign about its ‘zero-tolerance approach’ to sexual harassment; began the rollout of sexual harassment training for frontline transport staff; and received accreditation from White Ribbon UK in recognition of its work to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG).

• Launched the ‘Hands Up’ communications campaign to raise awareness of hate crime; encourage reporting; and reassure customers and staff that all incidents are treated seriously. This campaign was developed by working with community groups and frontline staff to better understand the lived experiences and concerns about hate crime on the transport network.

• Recruited, trained and deployed 90 Transport Support Enforcement Officers to provide direct support to customers and staff working on the frontline.

• Rolled out 4,500 body-worn video cameras available to 6,000 staff during the pandemic to keep staff and customers safe.

The Mayor is determined to ensure that London is a city where everybody can live a safe, healthy and enjoyable life, supported by strong communities, diverse relationships and access to culture. This chapter sets out the actions the Mayor took to reduce inequalities in crime and health in the city. These actions included funding projects to work with young people and communities disproportionately impacted by crime; holding the MPS Commissioner to account for the exercise of duties relating to equality and diversity; and coordinating work to tackle health inequalities in London. Through these actions, support for victims of crime increased, London’s police force became more accountable to and reflective of the communities it served, and community and grassroots projects were supported.

Objective 28: To work with local authorities, the MPS, criminal justice agencies, and voluntary and community sector partners to help reduce the disproportionate impact of crime on children and young people, who are at risk of becoming either victims or perpetrators of crime.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Projects funded by the £45m Young Londoners Fund provided positive opportunities for children and young people at risk of exclusion or involvement in crime, as part of his public health approach to addressing youth violence.

• Through the Violence Reduction Unit, introduced a mentoring scheme across London that helped young people most at risk of exclusion from school.

• Maintained the provision of the clinically embedded youth work service which operates out of four of London’s major trauma centres and eight accident and emergency departments. The service helped young people cope and recover from their experience and prevented revictimisation. In 2020-22, 4,149 children and young people were referred into the service. Of these, 36 per cent were between 15 and 17, and 32 per cent were between 18 and 22; 75 per cent were boys or young men; and 25 per cent were girls or young women. Of those whose ethnicity was recorded, 34 per cent were Black.

• Completed and evaluated the pilot of the Lighthouse, a multi-agency co-located service that supports children and young people who have survived child sexual abuse. Between October 2018 and  March 2021, 889 children were referred and 510 received an initial assessment. Of these initial assessments, just over 80 per cent were girls; and just over half were aged 13-17 and/or from a Black Asian or Minority Ethnic background. The Lighthouse continues to be funded as an ongoing service.

• Continued investment in the Response and Rescue (R&R) partnership, which provides one-to-one support for children and young people exploited by county lines activity (the transportation of illegal drugs from one county to another), and includes specialist support for girls and young women. In 2020-21, although 69 per cent of the county lines cohort aged 25 and under were between 18 and 25, only 22 per cent of R&R referrals were in this age range. Of the 596 young people referred to R&R, 86 per cent were young men (compared to 94 per cent of the county lines cohort), and more than 54 per cent were Black.

• Published an evaluation of the impact of the London Gang Exit (LGE) programme, which supports children and young Londoners who are involved with or affected by gangs to escape the harm they face. The evaluation found that those who engaged in the programme saw reductions in violent offending and victimisation. The LGE cohort was predominantly young, male and Black. Nearly 90 per cent of referrals were male, and the median age was 19.

Objective 29: To work with local authorities, the MPS, criminal justice agencies, and voluntary and community sector partners to help address the impact of crime on those groups and communities disproportionally affected. This is particularly with respect to hate crime, domestic violence, and violence against women and girls.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Signed up more than 800 organisations to his Women’s Night Safety Charter; and provided training and guides to help organisations put the Charter’s pledges into action.

• Increased the support available to victims of hate crime by recommissioning the new Hate Crime Victim Service with an uplifted budget to over £1m, and an increase in the capability to triage and refer victims into a network of specialist support services across London. In 2020-22, 6,158 victims were supported. Of these, 74 per cent were from a Black or Minority Ethnic background; 54 per cent were women; 33 per cent were from the LGB community; 3 per cent were trans; 26 per cent were people of faith; and 20 per cent were disabled.

• Funded, since 2019, the London Victim and Witness Service Independent Domestic Violence Advisers service. In 2020-22 the service provided support to over 10,600 people experiencing high-risk domestic abuse. Of these, 82 per cent were women; 55 per cent were between 25 and 44; and 18 per cent were disabled.

• Developed the Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation programme. In 2020-22 1,252 survivors of domestic abuse in London gained access to safe accommodation support. Of the £15.5m programme funding, £3.6m was ringfenced for specialist services to support Black and minoritised survivors; and £2.9m was awarded to grassroots by-and-for-led specialist service providers, which included support for LGBTQI+ survivors, people with learning disabilities, and men.

• Provided funding of more than £7.3m to manage the increase in demand for projects supporting victims and survivors of VAWG in London. Over 17,300 referrals were made in total through the London Stalking Support Service; the Women and Girls Network’s CouRAGEus project; Southall Black Sisters’ London Holistic Advocacy Wrap-Around Service; and Solace Women’s Aid’s Ascent Advice Plus programme. The latter provided support to organisations working with LBT+ women; D/deaf and disabled women; women with learning disabilities and/or autism; and women with no recourse to public finance.

Objective 30: To work with all relevant partners to help reduce differences in groups’ experiences of policing, victim satisfaction and perceptions of policing and the criminal justice system. To hold the MPS Commissioner to account for the exercise of duties relating to equality and diversity.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Published his Action Plan for Transparency, Accountability and Trust in Policing to improve trust and confidence in the MPS; and to address community concerns about the disproportionate use of certain police powers affecting Black Londoners. As part of this, MOPAC has:

  • commissioned research to assess the effectiveness of cannabis enforcement in relation to tackling violence in London – both of which disproportionately affect Black communities 

  • continued to support the Stop and Search Community Monitoring Network, which conducted more than 330 body-worn video reviews to ensure the quality of the encounters; of these, 90 were flagged for opportunities to improve practice

  • expanded the role of Independent Custody Visitors (ICVs) in London through a new process enabling ICVs to look through complete custody records with an initial focus on children; as a result of these reviews, the MPS have already reinforced practice and supervision

  • established a new Disproportionality Board, bringing partner agencies together to tackle disproportionality across the criminal justice system. 

• Overseen the MPS’s efforts to make London’s police force more reflective of the city it serves by increasing the number of female recruits, and those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, including by:

  • offering a bespoke fast-track candidate-management programme that targets the areas of highest process-fail or attrition; and provides a differentiated offer for different groups, including more tailored ‘meet and engage’ sessions

  • running positive action workshops and one-to-one sessions to assist Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates prepare for their assessment and refreshed assessor training to include input on unconscious bias

  • developing an ‘Almost There’ programme to support Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates who have failed initial assessments by a small margin, in advance of being fast-tracked to retake the assessment at the next available opportunity

  • implementing a vetting and Police National Computer review to ensure decisions are proportionate

  • ensuring Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates have support from the point of the submission of their application, with clear explanations of what is needed, and why, for vetting

  • allocating ‘frontline friends’ and MPS buddies to help support candidates from the start of their recruiting journey into the MPS.

Objective 31: To work with government, local authorities, the MPS, criminal justice agencies, and voluntary and community sector partners. The aim is to help reduce inequality and disproportionate representation within the criminal justice system.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Published his new Police and Crime Plan, which sets out his priorities for keeping Londoners safe. Reducing inequalities in outcomes and experience is at the heart of this plan, which aims to ensure all Londoners are and feel safer.

• Oversaw an MPS pilot to record vehicle stops under the Road Traffic Act to identify any disproportionality relating to ethnicity. This approach has been adopted in the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing Race Action Plan for all police forces in England and Wales.

• Continued to oversee making the Gangs Violence Matrix a fairer and more transparent tool for tackling violence. As a result. the matrix cohort has reduced from nearly 3,811 in August 2017 to 1,908 in March 2022. There are also fewer people under 18 on the matrix; and there is an emphasis on providing diversions and interventions, where appropriate, to prevent young people becoming exploited by gangs and pulled into violence.

• Launched the Youth Justice Ethnic Disproportionality Action Plan, which outlined a series of actions that youth justice agencies can take to address disproportionality in the criminal justice system, right from a child’s experiences in police custody to their resettlement into the community. Actions range from developing training to include cultural competency for staff who come into contact with children in the justice system, to working together to consider how to ensure that children from ethnic minorities have equitable access to legal advice in police custody. A Youth Justice Ethnic Disproportionality Challenge Fund was set up to take forward the work of the Action Plan.

The Mayor, through MOPAC, delivered the following:

• Implemented an annual deep-dive review of disproportionality in the use of force, including Tasers, firearms and stop-and-search, to tackle the disproportionate use of intrusive policing tactics. This led to actions such as:

  • improvements in the recording and publishing of use of force data

  • implementing mechanisms to identify disproportionality in the use of handcuffing; and new policy and guidance for officers to ensure handcuffing is being used lawfully and proportionately.

  • community members participating in the MPS’s refreshed Safety Training package for all officers, on how to best de-escalate situations. 

• Published a unique data dashboard aligned to his Transparency, Accountability and Trust Action Plan, which presents a wide range of key data (perceptions; use of force and stop-and-search; workforce; and related data), enabling an assessment of the levels of disproportionality across these areas. It showed the following: 

  • In April 2020 Black people were 3.6 times more likely to be stopped and searched. This had fallen to 3.1 times more likely at the end of March 2022.

  • Workforce diversity improved overall. The percentage of police officers of Black and Minority Ethnic heritage increased from 15.2 per cent at the end of March 2020 to 16.4 per cent at the end of March 2022. 

Objective 32: To work with all relevant partners to help understand and reduce the gap in risks of fires between different communities and engage local communities to better understand and respond to their needs.

The Mayor has delivered the following:

• Engaged fully as a core participant in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry to ensure lessons are learned and responsible parties held to account. The Mayor wrote to the Grenfell Inquiry in July 2020 highlighting the importance of focusing on race and discrimination.

• Strongly advocated for the protection of disabled residents by asking for Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) to be required; and for government to make central funding available so that the cost of implementing PEEPs does not fall to residents.

The Mayor, through London Fire Brigade, has delivered the following:

• Committed mobile shelters in densely populated areas where residents have limited access to transport routes, allowing clinical professionals to bring the COVID-19 vaccine to large groups of vulnerable people who couldn’t get to vaccination hubs. Faith leaders helped to dispel myths and increase vaccine take-up at the shelters amongst reluctant or apprehensive Londoners.

• Developed a new video resource to address the fire risk to people who are in receipt of adult social care. Its aim is to support care agencies and organisations to improve their fire safety education.

Objective 33: To lead, and help coordinate, work to understand and address health inequalities and support at-risk communities. The aim is to increase their health skills, knowledge and confidence.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Chaired the London Health Board (LHB) which oversees the Health Inequalities Strategy. The LHB established the Health Equity Group (HEG), which:

  • advised on and oversaw the review of the London Health Inequalities Strategy implementation plan (published in December 2021), which focused London commitments on pandemic priorities – in particular tackling poverty and income inequalities, and addressing ethnic health inequalities (including a commitment to tackle structural racism)

  • mitigated the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable groups, including older people; people with learning disabilities; people living in care homes; and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities. For example, it included engaging with and amplifying the voices of diverse communities in the Beyond the Data (2) report. This informed and centred participation in the health and care system response.

• Worked with partners to address health inequalities including HIV, Hepatitis C, migrant health, social prescribing, and supporting community development approaches. This included:

  • delivering 12 projects through the Fast-Track Cities HIV improvement fund grants, reaching migrants, homeless people, people with substance misuse issues, people from Black and Minority Ethnic populations, women, younger people, people who are socially isolated, and various faith groups

  • launching London’s Routemap to Hepatitis C Elimination, and implementing a delivery plan with partners; this has helped eradicate Hepatitis C from groups where it is highly prevalent, such as injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, sex workers, and people from South Asia and Eastern Europe

  • activity to enable migrants, including undocumented migrants, to access COVID-19 vaccination and testing, for example joint advocacy work with health partners which obtained funding for Find and Treat outreach testing to asylum contingency accommodation in London

  • published the Supporting migrants’ access to healthcare: toolkit for social prescribing link workers.

• Developed, with London health and care partners, the Health Inequalities Strategy Implementation Plan 2021-24, which sets out the action he will deliver through the GLA Group and working in partnership across the system; and published a progress report on his 2018-20 Health Inequalities Strategy Implementation Plan.

• Rolled out a London-wide campaign with partners, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic influencers, that delivered key messages to, and encouraged COVID-19 vaccine take-up among, hesitant audiences – such as people under 35 and specific Minority Ethnic communities. His support helped ensure the uptake of over 9m doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.

Objective 34: To work with communities, employers and the voluntary sector to ensure London’s diverse populations no longer experience stigma associated with mental ill-health.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Awarded over £250,000 in grants to 38 community and grassroots projects across London, which helped support the mental health and wellbeing of those experiencing higher levels of unfair treatment and discrimination. This includes projects for d/Deaf LGBTQ+ Londoners; Asian LGBTQ+ Londoners; marginalised people with lived experience of poor mental health; young people from Gypsy/Traveller communities; refugees and asylum seekers; Black men; and transgender people.

• In partnership with Doctors of the World and Thrive LDN, provided COVID-19 wellbeing guidance in 36 languages to migrant communities.

• Through Thrive LDN’s support for Good Thinking’s London’s digital wellbeing service, provided culturally competent bereavement support for the six major world religions.

• Through the Mental Health and Wellbeing Recovery Mission, funded the Ubele Initiative, a social enterprise led by people from the African diaspora, to facilitate two one-day, in-person immersive bereavement workshops, covering African- Caribbean and Muslim communities. The sessions – which were designed for those who work with people from minoritised and disadvantaged communities living with grief, bereavement and loss – ensured they were culturally appropriate.

• Increased the amount of mental health support available to young people by rolling out Youth Mental Health First Aid training to schools and youth sector organisations, with over 4,000 spaces taken up across all London boroughs.

Objective 35: To work with others to address the inequalities and barriers that limit some Londoners’ ability to build strong relationships and be active citizens.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Supported 3,845 young people at risk of exclusion to undertake their own community projects through the Young Ambassadors programme. This was delivered through 29 Pupil Referral Units, 19 SEND schools, and 43 schools serving areas of high deprivation.

• Engaged 1,660 young people at risk of exclusion through the Young Ambassadors Recovery Grants for Schools programme, enabling young people to take action on issues that particularly affected them during the pandemic.

• Supported 300 marginalised 14-18 year olds – including those at risk of exclusion, those from traveller communities, refugees and asylum seekers – through the HeadStart Action programme to plan and lead their own social action projects.

• Supported 15 organisations, through the My London programme, to design their own social action models, which will support 250 disadvantaged young people (young people who have been impacted most from COVID-19 in terms of their mental health, particularly those from lower socio-economic backgrounds) to deliver social action in their communities.

Objective 36: To work with employers, communities, voluntary sector organisations and others to help reduce the barriers that prevent some people from volunteering.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Recruited, supported and deployed 1,200 diverse volunteers to aid the delivery of the delayed Euro 2020 football tournament. Specific measures were taken to ensure the volunteers reflected the diversity of London; this enabled more Londoners gain access to volunteering opportunities.

• Through his My London programme, supported three partnerships and 15 voluntary and community sector organisations, across six London boroughs, to develop youth-led social action models of delivery to support 677 young people.

• Promoted diversity amongst trustees by funding volunteer centres across nine London boroughs from the areas of highest deprivation, to deliver training to grassroots organisations around the recruitment of volunteer trustees.

• Through his Visitor Welcome and Major Events Volunteers programmes, provided 382 individual volunteers across 14 events/opportunities – such as the New Year’s Eve Fireworks and the UEFA Euros football tournament – who completed a total of 1,602 shifts. Specific measures were taken, including volunteer selection, to support the programme team in deploying volunteers who reflected London’s diversity as far as possible.

• Established an EDI Volunteer Advisory group to help shape positive changes to his Visitor Welcome and Major Events Volunteers programmes; and ensure inclusion and accessibility at all stages of the volunteer experience. The group will focus on disability and race, to reflect groups that remain under-represented within volunteering and that report a less positive volunteering experience.

Objective 37: To work with London boroughs, businesses, venues and voluntary and community groups to help organise and promote relevant and accessible activities. This will enable more Londoners to experience, and engage with, the city’s culture.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Launched the Dementia Friendly Venues Charter and venues network, through which 150 venues have pledged to ensure people living with dementia, and their families, can experience the city’s culture.

• Supported the London Borough of Culture in Brent 2020, which had grassroots creativity at its heart, and included a digital music festival, a visual arts biennial, and a multi-award-winning podcast series. All of these activities empowered young people, and invested in local artists, to support the cultural ecosystem of the borough, and of Lewisham in 2022, with a call to action on the climate emergency. The activities in 2022 served as a celebration of Lewisham’s diverse communities, inspired by the borough’s history of activism and standing up for equality.

Objective 38: To work with London boroughs, businesses, developers and voluntary and community groups. The aim is to help support, save and sustain diverse cultural places and spaces, by promoting good growth.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Relaunched the Culture at Risk Office as the Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme, with an expanded remit to protect grassroots culture and community spaces. The programme has an equity focus, with 80 per cent of casework supporting spaces led by and serving under-represented groups.

• Delivered a £2.3m Culture at Risk Emergency Fund, which included £136,000 of support to 17 at-risk LGBTQ+ venues. Alongside this, he funded the LGBTQ+ Venues and Promoters Forum to help increase the resilience of LGBTQ+ venues across the capital.

• Supported a new LGBTQ+ cultural space, Queercircle, which gave access to affordable space within the Greenwich Design District.

• Worked in collaboration with the East Bank partners to develop their proposals and ensure the delivery of their EDI commitments. This involved, for example, using commissioning budget to support local talent; and setting representation targets for staff recruitment.

• Committed to support the implementation of dementia-friendly design proposals for East Bank, and meet ambitions to create London’s first dementia-friendly cultural, education and innovation quarter.

• Delivered Welfare and Vulnerability Training to over 4,000 venue staff via the Safer Sounds Partnership – a partnership of the Mayor and licensed venues that promotes creating safer events for all.

Objective 39: To work with community organisations, the grassroots sport sector, London Sport and other strategic partners to help ensure diversity, inclusion and social integration are important principles of the new sport programme and strategy.

The Mayor delivered the following:

• Seven community sport roundtables in partnership with London Sport to support community sport through the pandemic. Topics included digital delivery; socially distanced sport; and how to engage with young people when they could no longer access sport in traditional ways.

• Through the Sports Unite Fund, funded 43 community sports organisations using physical activity and sport to support Londoners most affected by the pandemic. The programmes led to greater physical activity, mental health, wellbeing and social integration. For Sport Unites Phase 1 (2018-21), 49 per cent of participants were female; 51 per cent were under 16; 57 per cent were from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background; 12 per cent were disabled; and 3 per cent were 65 or over.

• As part of the London Together Fund, funded three disability sport networks that delivered projects using sport and physical activity to reduce social isolation, and improve mental health outcomes, for D/deaf and disabled Londoners. The funding enabled upskilling, and supported the community organisations within the networks, to provide sport and physical activity opportunities for D/deaf and disabled Londoners.

• Accessible housing: The proportion of new-build homes in London meeting housing standard M4(2), regarding accessibility and adaptability, rose from 66 per cent in 2017-18, to 74 per cent in 2018-19. The proportion meeting standard M4(3), regarding wheelchair accessibility and adaptability, has remained around the same and was 9 per cent in 2018-19.

• Housing affordability: This is defined as the proportion of individuals living in households with less than 60 per cent of contemporary median household income, after housing costs. In the three years to 2019-20, around four in ten (38 per cent) Black and Minority Ethnic households in London were in this situation, compared with 20 per cent of White households in London. There has been no statistically significant variation since the three years to 2014-15, when the proportions were very similar (37 per cent and 22 per cent respectively).

• Overcrowding: Around 8 per cent of London households were overcrowded (according to the bedroom standard) in the three years to 2018-19. The proportion has remained steady over the previous few years. Overcrowding affects around 15 per cent of households in the social rented sector, and around 13 per cent in the private rented sector, compared with 3 per cent of owner-occupied households. In the four years to 2017-18, households headed by a Londoner from a Minority Ethnic background were more likely to be living in an overcrowded household (16 per cent) compared with a household headed by a Londoner from a White ethnic background (6 per cent). In addition, around one-third (33 per cent) of lone-parent households were overcrowded, compared with 19 per cent of households comprising couples with dependent children.

• Rough sleeping: The number of people seen rough sleeping in London in 2021-22 fell by 24 per cent compared with 2020-21. The number (8,329) was roughly similar to that in 2016-17. There has been a decrease in the proportion of those sleeping rough who are from central and eastern Europe. This was 22 per cent in 2021-22, compared with 31 per cent in 2018-19.

• Statutory homelessness: This is defined as households assessed as being owed a prevention or relief duty. In 2020-21, the majority of households owed a duty were either White (31 per cent), or Black/Black British (30 per cent). The measure used before 2018-19 was slightly different, so the earliest comparable data is from 2018-19. The proportions in 2018-19 were near identical to those in 2020-21 (both 31 per cent). Turning to family type, in 2020-21, the majority of households owed a duty were either female lone parents (28 per cent), single males (27 per cent) or single females (25 per cent). The earliest comparable data from 2018-19 shows the proportion of female lone parents has increased since then (20 per cent in 2018-19), the proportion of single males has decreased since then (41 per cent in 2018-19), while the proportion of single females has stayed the same (25 per cent in 2018-19).

• Tenure satisfaction: Around eight in ten (82 per cent) London households were satisfied with their tenure in the three years to 2019-20, broadly similar to the three years to 2018-19 (84 per cent). Satisfaction was near universal for owner-occupiers (96 per cent), but drops to 76 per cent of social rented households and 62 per cent of private rented households. Among household types, lone-parent households are least satisfied with their tenure (68 per cent). This contrasts starkly with households headed by a single person aged 60 or over (91 per cent).

• Air quality: This measure uses a one-off piece of research referring to 2013; there has been no update since then. The measure showed that Londoners living in more deprived areas experienced higher NO2 levels.

• Access to private outdoor spaces: In February 2021, around one in five (18 per cent) Londoners aged 18 and over reported not having access to any private outdoor spaces. This is largely unchanged from February 2019, when 19 per cent reported not having access to any private outdoor spaces. In February 2021, Black, and Mixed and Other ethnicity Londoners were more likely to report not having access to any private outdoor spaces (both 24 per cent), compared with Pakistani and Bangladeshi Londoners (11 per cent). Working-age Londoners were more likely not to have access to any private outdoor spaces compared with Londoners aged 65 and over. For example, around a quarter of Londoners aged 25-49 (23 per cent) reported not having any access compared with 8 per cent of Londoners aged 65 and over.

• Child mental health: The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) helps to identify minor psychiatric disorders in the general population. A coding method is used whereby the maximum score for any respondent is 12, with higher values indicating poorer mental health. Younger Londoners aged 16-29 were more likely to report characteristics of poor mental health compared with older Londoners aged 50 and over, though the gap has narrowed from 17 percentage points in April 2020 to three percentage points in September 2021.

• Child obesity: There was a slight increase in obesity among Reception-age children in London in 2021-22, compared with the period before the COVID-19 pandemic; and a greater increase among children in year 6 (aged 10-11).The rates of child obesity in London for Reception-age children has generally varied little over the years, with similar rates for girls (10.5 per cent in 2021-22) and boys (11.1 per cent). By year 6 the pattern changes, with more children overall being obese, and more boys (29.5 per cent in 2021-22) being obese than girls (21.9 per cent). Children from more deprived areas of London are more likely to be obese. Black children and Bangladeshi children are more likely to be obese than children from other ethnic groups.

• Early-years education: In London, take-up of the free early-education entitlement for two-year-olds hit an annual high of 62 per cent in 2022 (12 percentage points higher than in 2021, when it was 50 per cent). London take-up for children aged three or four was 89 per cent in 2022, up from 84 per cent in 2020.

• School readiness: This is defined as the proportion of children achieving a ‘good level of development’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP), a teacher assessment of children’s development at the end of the EYFS (ie, the end of the academic year in which the child turns five). Due to school closures resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, there is no school readiness data for 2019-20, so the most recent data is from 2018-19. In that year, the gap between the ethnic groups with the highest achievement (Chinese) and lowest (Black) was 13 percentage points. Back in 2013-14, the gap was two percentage points.

• Educational attainment: This has worsened within Key Stage 4 since 2015-16, though it has improved each year thereafter. The average ‘Attainment 8’ score of students in London decreased from 51.9 to 49.7 between 2015-16 and 2018-19 (the final year with comparable data as, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, GCSE exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021). However, ethnic inequalities in educational attainment have increased. The gap in average score between secondary school student ethnic groups with the highest attainment (Chinese) and lowest (Black) rose from 15.2 points to 21.5. Inequalities also increased according to Free School Meals eligibility, with the gap in average score between students eligible for Free School Meals, compared with all other students, increasing from 8.8 points to 10.5. The attainment gap increased between boys and girls (with girls having higher attainment than boys) from 2015-16, when it was 4.4 points, to 2018-19, when it was 5.7.

• School exclusions: due to the pandemic, learning was interrupted in 2019-20 and 2020-21, so the rates of both fixed-term and permanent school exclusions were lower compared with previous years. The fixed-term exclusion (FTE) rate in London for pupils with at least one FTE in the academic year was 1.9 per cent in 2020-21, while the permanent exclusion rate was 0.03 per cent. Inequalities still exist in school exclusions, with male pupils more like to be excluded than female pupils, Black and Mixed ethnicity pupils more likely to be excluded than White and Asian pupils, FSM-eligible pupils more likely to be excluded than other pupils, and pupils with a statement; education, health and care plan or SEND support more likely to be excluded on a fixed-term or permanent basis compared with pupils with no identified SEND.

• Employment gaps: The employment rate gap between men and women has narrowed by eight percentage points between 2012 and 2020, while the gap between disabled and non-disabled adults has only narrowed by half a percentage point. By ethnicity, employment rate gaps, relative to the employment rate for working-age White Londoners, have fallen over time, although progress has slowed – the gap between White adults, and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic adults, has narrowed by three percentage points since 2012.

• Pay gaps: The gender pay gap in London has decreased to 16 per cent in 2021 from 18 per cent in 2020; progress on reducing it has stalled in the last 10 years. Previously, it fell from 22 per cent in the late 1990s to 15 per cent in 2012. The latest ethnicity and disability pay gap data is from the pre-pandemic period covering 2019, when the median gaps were 28 per cent (between White and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic workers) and 17 per cent (between non-disabled and disabled workers) respectively.

• Poverty: Pensioner poverty (measured after housing costs) rose from 18 per cent in the three years to 2014-15, to 25 per cent in the three years to 2019-20. Yet poverty is far less common among this group than it was in the late 1990s, when it peaked at 32 per cent. Child poverty rates have remained about the same over the last few years. However, at 38 per cent in the three years to 2019-20 it is still higher than for other age groups. Working-age poverty rates have not changed much over the last 20 years, and was 24 per cent in the three years to 2019-20.

• Internet non-users: The proportion of Londoners who had never used the internet was much larger for those aged 65 or over, compared with all other age groups. In 2021, around two in ten (20 per cent) Londoners aged 65 or over had never used the internet, compared with 1 per cent or less for all other age groups. The proportion of Londoners aged 65 or over who had never used the internet has decreased since 2017, when it was around three in ten (31 per cent). The proportion of non-users among Londoners aged 50-64 has also decreased in that period, from 6 per cent to 1 per cent. Every ethnic group has seen a decrease in the proportion of internet non-users between 2017 and 2021. The ethnic groups with the largest proportions of Internet non-users in 2021 were the White and Indian ethnic groups (both 5 per cent). The gap in internet non-use between disabled Londoners and non-disabled Londoners (according to the Equality Act definition) was 16 percentage points in 2017 (with disabled Londoners more likely to have never used the internet). The gap has narrowed to 12 percentage points in 2021.

• Public transport satisfaction: Between 2020 and 2022, levels of satisfaction for most modes of transport remained stable, despite the pandemic. These levels of satisfaction remained significantly lower for customers with a disability or impairment across all modes, than for the overall population.

• Public transport use: Between 2000 and 2019, total trips in London increased by 19.3 per cent overall, but dropped during the pandemic. By spring 2022 most people had returned to using public transport for some journeys; however, the frequency of usage declined across all modes, largely driven by more people working from home. There was a marked drop in people aged 45 and over going out. Women aged 44 and under were more likely to go out than older women, but less likely than men of the same age. Disabled people remained least likely to use public transport.

• Adult mental health: The GHQ-12 helps to identify minor psychiatric disorders in the general population. A coding method is used, whereby the maximum score for any respondent is 12, with higher values indicating poorer mental health. In a comparable survey covering 2018-20, 2 per cent of Londoners aged 16 or over were found to have a high GHQ-12 score (four or more on the scale from 0-12). After the first national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020), this figure rose to 32 per cent. As restrictions have eased, so has the proportion reporting characteristics of poor mental health: 22 per cent in September 2021. Female Londoners were more likely to report characteristics of poor mental health, compared with male Londoners. The gap narrowed from 19 percentage points in April 2020 to 14 percentage points in September 2021.

• Adult obesity: The proportion of London adults aged 18 or over classified as overweight or obese has remained roughly the same over the last few years (56 per cent in 2020-21, unchanged from 2019-20). The highest rates are in outer London boroughs such as Havering (69 per cent); and Bexley, and Barking and Dagenham (both 65 per cent). The lowest rates are in inner London boroughs such as Islington (44 per cent) and Westminster (45 per cent).

• Criminal justice: The conviction rate for indictable offences in London has remained fairly constant over the past 10 years, but fell noticeably in 2020, to 56 per cent, from 61 per cent in 2019. It remained at 56 per cent in 2021. The sentencing rate has followed a similarly steady pattern, with a similar fall in 2020 to 55 per cent from 60 per cent in 2019. It, too, was 56 per cent in 2021.

• Hate crime: The number of hate crime incidents of all categories increased in 2021 from 2020. The numbers were also higher than 2019 (ie, pre-pandemic), except for Islamophobic hate crime incidents which was still 19 per cent lower than 2019 levels. The largest rate of increase from 2020 to 2021 was in anti-Semitic hate crime incidents (46 per cent).

• Trust in the MPS: Trust in the MPS has seen a reduction of nine percentage points in Q4 2021-22 from the previous quarter, with just two-thirds of Londoners now trusting the police (66 per cent). When compared with the same period of the prior year (Q4 2020-21), this represents a fall of 13 percentage points. Looking back longer-term, trust has declined by 17 percentage points over the last three years (compared with Q4 2018-19). In Q4 2021-22, trust was higher for Londoners aged 65 or over (73 per cent) compared with Londoners aged 16-24 (59 per cent). Trust was also higher for non-LGBT+ Londoners (67 per cent) compared with LGBT+ Londoners (58 per cent). Finally, trust was higher for White Londoners (72 per cent) compared with Londoners from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities (59 per cent). In particular, Londoners from Mixed and Black ethnic backgrounds had much lower levels of trust, with less than half of Black (44 per cent) or Mixed (45 per cent) ethnicity Londoners interviewed during Q4 2021-22 saying they trusted the MPS.

• Knife crime: The number of knife crime incidents fell by 8 per cent between 2020 and 2021. In 2021, the number of incidents (10,935) was below that recorded in 2016.

• Sports participation: The proportion of London adults aged 16 or over taking part in sport and physical activity at least twice in the past month has fallen slightly since the onset of the pandemic. It was 77.3 per cent in the year to November 2017, and decreased to 75 per cent in the year to November 2020; but has risen slightly to 75.6 per cent in the year to November 2021. Older Londoners aged 75 or over, disabled Londoners, and Londoners in lower socio-economic groups remain less likely to take part in sports and physical activity.

• Stop-and-search: The number of stop-and-searches was 15 per cent lower in 2021 (circa 229,000) than in 2019 (circa 269,000); but remains higher than in 2018 (circa 152,000). The proportion of people stopped and searched who are of a White ethnic background increased slightly in 2022 compared to 2019 (from 38 per cent to 41 per cent). The proportion of people stopped and searched who are, or who are perceived as, Black fell slightly over the same period (from 40 per cent to 37 per cent). Young people aged 15-29 and men also remain over-represented.

• Violence against women and girls: The number of victims of domestic violence incidents decreased by under 3,000 between 2020 and 2021, or 2 per cent; but remained higher than in 2019. The number of victims of sexual offences increased by nearly 5,000 between 2020 and 2021, or 26 per cent, the highest recorded number since 2015.