London's recovery starts with you

Quality and size of housing needs to be seriously addressed. Too many new homes are like the proverbial rabbit hutches, without sufficient space. A much larger standard footprint for dwellings needs to be established. The poorer sections of the community will suffer mental health issues based on lack of space at home - so it would make sense to address this now. Borough Councils need to ensure that this minimum (once agreed) is enforced even when their centrally mandated housing quotas are not achieved. Currently, councils are incentivised to meet government targets by reducing the footprints of buildings. This is clearly threatening the wellbeing of people on lower incomes.

In addition, the quality of the builds needs to be considered. New almshouses in Walthamstow were recently built to a very high standard, but this seems to be because the funding mandated that quality. Cambridge has recently built passive social housing (giving the tenants very low energy costs). These ideas need to become commonplace. In addition, the pressure on building on very scrap of land in London should now be resisted as many people will realise that they can afford to live further away as they will not be commuting every day of the working week.

I agree with the mission.
To achieve this I would like to see more support given for active transport - walking and cycling.  And less incentive for people to use private motor vehicles.

To encourage walking and cycling I would like to see more pedestrianisation across London, wider pavements, a longer pedestrian phase at traffic lights, more active enforcement of speed limits for motor traffic, more safe cycling routes, and more secure cycle hangars.

I would also like to see the establishment of 'play streets' for young children by blocking streets to through traffic and prohibiting cars on certain sections of streets to allow children to play outdoors.

To discourage private motor traffic, I would like to see the congestion charge doubled to £25 per day; I would like to see more active enforcement of speed limits; I would like to see a doubling of residents parking permit costs; I would like to see a reduction in the number of parking spaces in central London (these spaces could be used for wider pavements, cycle hangars, or cycle lanes instead)

Thank you!

We still know too little.  Why are BAME groups worse affected than others?  How does the danger from wearing face coverings compare with the benefits?  Has the virus mutated?  Are the secondary health effects - to mental health, delays in other treatments, lost quality of life due to unemployment etc. more serious than the direct effects?

Until we can travel without face coverings, or revert to the low traffic levels that made walking pleasurable at the start of the lockdown, very few of us will venture out for other than essential reasons.

There's a cheap and provenly effective method of improving health and well-being, both mental and physical. Get people walking...

Not by cajoling people to walk to work but by introducing them to recreational walking. That way, they will enjoy what they're doing, and once the advantages have become apparent to them, they could-well walk more frequently for all-purposes. There are innumerable studies, learned, medical, and scientific, that demonstrate the considerable benefits of taking-up walking.

London has a splendid network of sign-posted recreational walking routes. In the early 2000s groups such as the then 'London Walking Forum' and 'The Ramblers' persuaded the GLA to spend £6 million on providing that network. To administer the expenditure a body known as 'Walk London' was founded. Part of Walk London's remit was to provide guided walks on the new network during the delivery period up to 2012. After 2012 responsibility for the routes passed to the Boroughs yet, thanks to their popularity TfL continued to fund the guided walks until May 2018.

Unfortunately many Boroughs have failed to maintain the sign-posts etc. and the network is falling into decrepitude. A considerable waste... Somehow, the GLA should find the finance or persuade the Boroughs to revive this network, publicise it, and generally encourage people to use it. The cost would not be great and would be out of all proportion to the savings that the NHS would accrue.

The routes were carefully devised to be most attractive, visit points of interest, and have excellent interface with public transport. They are (were?) are as follows.

• Green Chain Walk. 52 miles.
• Capital Ring. Orbital 78 miles.
• Jubilee Greenway. 37 miles.
• Jubilee Walkway. 12 miles.
• Lea Valley walk. 16 miles.
• London LOOP. Orbital. 150 miles.
• Thames Path. 80 miles.

I agree with making London a greener City and with the support for people in need but I also think, to make London more livable, enjoyable and worth the price of rents and taxes there should be an increase in cleaning schedule and security. London it's very dirty and left on its own. In the public transportation on the streets etc etc...Currently I pay 1600£ between rent and taxes for a one bedroom and and outside looks like I live in a third world country. Mental well-being and everything else in your life is affected by the environment in which you live. There should be more jobs for street cleaners and other staff related to these jobs and in my opinion these jobs should be well paid because of the contribution they bring to the society as well as more police to patrol the streets all over the place and more power to police to be able to control antisocial behavior. London could become a civilized City one day. Like it is now it's an expensive shame

The conditions that made a pandemic inevitable have a great deal to do with habitat destruction. It is my belief that making London a greener city will benefit us all in the end. Key issues are affordable housing, and public transport. I've always thought that looking at public transport as a business, first and foremost, is a mistake. Wide ranging, cheap, if not free, public transport has wide ranging benefits far beyond mobility. As for housing, in my opinion it should be considered a basic human right. Lastly, let us not underestimate culture (as a musician I may be biased, but, again, culture's benefits are far more wide-ranging than may at first be obvious).

All these issues may not seem directly relevant, but they do have a great deal to do with the mental health of a city and its communities. One thing that Covid-19 and the lockdown has shown us is how much we depend on one another, how much we need connexion and social contact.

The mission may be theoretically perfect but does not begin to address the first step of delivering a huge shake up to to tfl which is seriously and adversely impacting the groups most impacted by COVID 19 - the extremely vulnerable.  No sensible member of this group (eg the immunity-compromised or suppressed) would travel on public transport (eg tube, buses or overground). Only necessity will for assuming this risk catching the disease and fatality. The only alternative to the many unable to walk more than short distances or cycle is to sit for what are now much longer periods in the appalling traffic engineered by TFL with the pollution suffered by everyone.
 

mission statement needs to be realistic and achievable. This one sound like a Trump line. 

The NHS is way to slow. I have had an issue with my right foot since mid-January and things are evolving way too slowly, poor communication ,etc... As usual, you just have to wait to die for them to do something and it is even worse with COVID-19 around.

Appalling! I can barely walk for 20 mins and it has been month - such a poor service - underfunded. Everything is always a struggle, again this time round, as it has been on numerous oocasions. I had to wait 6 weeks to view the images of an X-ray... Physios and podiatrists are available only 8-9 am / 4-5 pm. How are you supposed to attend regular F2F appts when you work the same hours?!? And I am still not being referred.

Also, the surroundings of public swimming pools are not clean because people wear their shoes when changing and step in water, briniging the dirt around and in the pool. Some wear flip flops because of that, brought from home and that adds a layer of dirt.

Why can't you have cabins where you get in wearing your shoes, changing and when you exit, lockers immediately available to put your shoes and clothes in and the obligation of walking bare feet?!? That would sort out the problem. I don't like swimming in dirt, thank you very much.

So yes this impacts mental health. I can be resilient but to a certain extent. 

It is clear that COVID has a greater impact on those living in poor housing and/or poverty, who are unemployed or on zero hours contracts.  Public health messaging is insufficient without addressing these underlying problems.  Public health and environmental health teams in local authorities have been cut and diminished in capacity and respect within council services - this needs to be addressed by all London councils with the support of the GLA.  Local messaging is critical for our diverse communities. 

The Pandemic has shown very positive sides of our local communities with the neighbourhood support for those shielding and people working together and supporting foodbanks etc.  How can we hold onto this as people get disillusioned with the ongoing problems. 

The suggested mission raised clarity / purpose issues for me on reading:

“Better”: is that better than has been the case or better than those not affected by Covid?

“Londoners most affected by the pandemic”, crudely will be those who unfortunately died and so are beyond assistance, but how to capture and rate the “most affected”? By short term health impact, long term impact – and then mental, financial, physical, commercial, job loss, other(s)?

I thought better to simply get to the point:

“Achieving health and wellbeing equality for all Londoners through addressing both causes and outcomes. “

I support most of what has been contributed so far. However, a critical condition that must be met if a "new beginning" is to be embarked upon is that lockdown must be ended. For that to happen Parliament must vote out the Covid 19 regulations when they come up for renewal next month.If that is not done then much of what is advocated here will become so much wishful thinking. This is because the government has imposed, with very little opposition, a state of emergency which  combines the authoritarianism and individualism which Thomas Hobbes laid out in his "Leviathan" . One of the best summaries of the present crisis has been given by Private Eye's "MD". For instance, he has pointed out out that Covid 19 is like death, very ageist. In one of his first comments on the disease, he wondered, very presciently, if fear of the virus would produce worse results than the virus itself. In other words, Covid 19 is not the plague. the vast majority who get it recover from it. Those who it does kill tend to be those who are suffering from the long term effects of the worse aspects of "civilization", like heart disease and obesity. Even those in the over 70's cohort who catch it can survive if they are "otherwise healthy", in other words if they have no other co-morbidities..It has also been pointed that the disease has shown up the blatant political, economic and social inequalities that exist in society. In other words it does not help to have a poor working environment, to live in sub standard over crowded housing or live in areas that suffer from poor air quality. These are areas which only a pro active state, aided by civil society bodies like, perish the thought,  trades unions and tenants and resident associations can do anything to alter. Of course, individuals have to make the effort in seeking out a good diet, walking, cycling or using public transport, but the state has to  intervene in order to make all of these options much easier

With changes to ways of working both now and in the future we may find we have a 'surplus' of physical space. There is likely to be underused buildings and spaces throughout the city. There will be many requests of this space and ideas for better use such as using it to help shelter and support rough sleepers.

I think a good use of this would be to support the mental health of Londoners. Despite various services moving to a virtual platform this does not work for many, and having safe physical spaces to support our mental health is still very important - whether this be places to come together to meet others, seek personal 1:1 support about different issues, access training or signpost to other places, the need for human to human contact is vital, more so now than ever for so many people.

You can choose what goes in there later but acting quickly to acquire spaces for Londoners. especially vulnerable Londoners, if possible should be a priority

Having started to use buses the tube and the overground again I am shocked by the number of people who use these services without masks. Nothing is said by the bus drivers and even the recorded reminder that was in use early on in the pandemic seems to be no longer utilised. Whilst walking and peering into buses it is very rare to see one with all occupants following the law. From my experience those people not complying do not seem to have health issues as they are on their phones, eating, chatting or seemingly oblivious to the mask requirements.

No Recourse to public Funds needs to be abolished or investment in charities who can give free immigration advice - this is the most effective way to improve health and wellbeing of thousands of people in London.

abolish the scandal that is Leasehold and insist all new development in London is Commonhold.  Make sure that people who live in flats get proper help with the cladding scandal (not the trauma of having to deal with the roulette game that is MHCLG Building Safety Fund. ) Stop the costs of retrospective change to Building Regulations and Building Safety draft Bill being passed onto leaseholders. Developers or the Government should pay for sorting out this mess. It affects thousands upon thousands of Londoners, most of whom are currently unaware of the juggernaught of cost and EWS1 nightmare heading their way.

We would like to offer our technology free to Londoner's children.  It is an app that guides them away from online risks and also detects poor mental wellbeing...offering them breathing exercises or audio practices to cope with stress, anxiety, low self-esteem etc.  We are SafeToNet...we are a London company and we live in London too.  We are piloting with Tower Hamlets.  Would be great to reach more children and help more mums and dads.

The City of London has made swimming in the Hampstead ponds fee paying..£4.50 a swim, in covid times for 1 hour only and pre booked.

OAP can swim for £2.  These fees are outrageous. You want Londoners to be healthy and fit. what better way than to swim in the open air ponds.  I used tio swim once a day, sometimes twice..briefly, but it was wonderful.  At these prices I cannot.  Please bring every pressure to bear on the city of London to respect what I regard as a given right, free swimming in Hampstead ponds coupled with a voluntary donation if people so wish.  

To keep Londoners healthy and at less risk from epidemics we need more encouragement to lead a healthy lifestyle. I don't mean in a nannying sort of way but by finding what would incentivise people to want to be more healthy. Unhealthy foods could be taxed and healthy ones subsidised. There could also be a scheme to support lifestyle changes which was available all over the country..

There needs to be adequate social housing so that there isn't overcrowding, homeless people have somewhere to go and people such as refugees aren't 'warehoused' in old buildings which are unsuitable for human habitation.

It might mean that the more affluent members of society need to pay more tax but I for one, would be more than happy to do so knowing that I was acting as a responsible member of society.

A number of very good points have already been made and while focusing on health and social care is crucial, I think we must also look at the causes of poor mental health in particular.  I am a financial coach and financial wellbeing consultant and I don't see anything focusing on the financial aspect of people's lives.  While a significant amount of work is being done to increase the provision of debt advice, many people require a different kind of financial advice that debt advice does not cover.  Many people also do not feel like they need help with debt but often need support working through issues such as redundancy, reductions in income and overcoming their own personal money relationship issues, especially those caused by Covid.  These are often areas that can be served by Citizen's Advice although the postcode lottery that exists within CitA and the stigma attached to accessing their services may not deliver the outcomes we need.

A provision for real money advice, not debt or regulated product advice needs to feature across a number of settings including local authorities, healthcare, benefits and food banks.  While protecting the most vulnerable is very important, we must not forget the many people who are one life event away from financial difficulty.  These people will be severely impacted by this crisis. Many of these people will not access the services referenced in most of the responses but will suffer and require support just the same.  We will need an arm of financially knowledgeable people in the community who can support on a wide variety of financial issues.  I have not seen this feature in any government plan to date leaving people to figure it out for themselves or hope they are getting the right guidance from local government or their financial services providers.

I am very angry about the way the government tackled the pandemic. The Nightingale 'hospitals' were all for show and had very limited usefulness. Surely it would have been better to put all the Covid 19 patients in 2-3 large hospitals and left other hospitals for those with other health problems. My husband was due to have a serious operation in March, but that was postponed due to Covid 19. Since then he has not been monitored. This type of situation should never have been allowed to happen, especially as there had been warnings that an epidemic was likely and there should have been availability for 'normal' health care, planned along with Covid 19 care.

So in the 'post-Covid 19' world, I would like to see more preparedness for any epidemic or other social disaster that may happen. This includes having enough PPE and other equipment  and enough trained staff from where-ever we can get them; paid a good salary commensurate with the skills they need and the risks they face. Also, arrangements made so that other health problems can be treated at the same time and an efficient track and trace system from the beginning. I also believe that the government should not be the ones making the decisions, as they don't know what they are talking about and tend to make political decisions rather than ones that are most beneficial for the population.There should be a group of people that understand the situation and what best to do, that make the decisions, with the government supplying financial and other backing as necessary.