Today the Assembly agreed a motion opposing any policy to remove funding from deprived urban areas in favour of affluent towns and called on the Mayor to write to the Prime Minister urging him to relinquish the pursuit of any such policy.
Len Duvall AM, who proposed the motion said:
“The cost of living crisis is having a profound impact on the UK, nowhere more so than in London.
“The capital has the highest rates of poverty, astronomical rents and falling wages, but London has been left behind by national levelling up funding.
“With further cuts to local authority budgets and public services on the horizon, it is incomprehensible if money is diverted away from London to more affluent areas.
“Low-income Londoners are being hit harder than any other group in the country – they simply cannot afford to have any more funding withdrawn.”
The full text of the motion is:
This Assembly notes that the cost of living crisis is having a particularly acute impact on London which has:
- The highest poverty rate of anywhere in the UK (27%);[1]
- The second worst levels of child poverty in the country (second only to the North East), with 35% of the capital’s children living in poverty and an estimated 250,000 children living with food poverty;[2]
- The highest intra-regional income and wealth inequalities of any part of the UK;
- Average rents across Greater London of £1,924 – according to Shelter this is leaving one in five Londoners behind or struggling to keep up with their rent; and [3]
- Real wages falling for the lowest paid.[4]
This Assembly also notes that Londoners on the lowest income are hit harder than any other group in any other part of the country according to analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.[5]
This Assembly opposes any policy to remove funding from deprived urban areas in favour of affluent towns and calls on the Mayor to write to the Prime Minister urging him to relinquish the pursuit of any such policy.
Notes to editors
- JRF. (2022). London, the North of England, and Scotland hit hardest by the crisis of spiralling prices. [online] Available at: https://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/london-north-england-and-scotland-hit-hardest-crisis-spiralling-prices [Accessed 28 Oct. 2022].
- Ibid
- ITV News. (2022). Bidding wars and price increases - why renting in London is getting harder. [online] Available at: https://www.itv.com/news/london/2022-09-20/bidding-wars-and-price-increases-why-renting-in-london-is-getting-harder [Accessed 28 Oct. 2022]
- Trust for London. (n.d.). The cost of living crisis and its impact on low-income Londoners. [online] Available at: https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/publications/cost-of-living-low-incom….
- JRF. (2022). London, the North of England, and Scotland hit hardest by the crisis of spiralling prices. [online] Available at: https://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/london-north-england-and-scotland-hit-hardest-crisis-spiralling-prices [Accessed 28 Oct. 2022].
- Watch the full webcast.
- The motion was agreed by 15 votes for..
- Len Duvall AM, who proposed the motion, is available for interviews.
- As well as investigating issues that matter to Londoners, the London Assembly acts as a check and a balance on the Mayor.
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