The Mayor of London's Annual Report 2023-2024

This is the 2023-24 Mayor’s Annual Report, covering 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024. 

The report is structured under these themes: 

• Working in partnership to address London's complex, cross-cutting challenges
• Economic development
• Skills and employment
• Culture, creative and 24-hour London
• Policing and crime
• Fire and resilience
• Environment
• Housing and land
• Planning and regeneration
• The Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC)
• The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC)
• Civil society and sport
• Health, children and young Londoners
• Communities and social policy
• Transport, infrastructure and connectivity. 

This report constitutes the statutory progress update against the Mayor’s seven statutory strategies, required under the GLA Act 1999 (section 46). It is designed as a short report, summarising the Mayor's major achievements, including (but not limited to) the above areas.

There are more details on the Mayor’s strategies on our strategies and plans pages.

Find out more

Find out more about the Mayor's activity online on our:

• Website: www.london.gov.uk
• Facebook: @MayorofLondon
• Twitter: @MayorofLondon

The London Partnership Board began in March 2023, forming from the London Recovery Board. It brings together London's public, private and voluntary sector organisation leaders to address the city's complex, cross-cutting challenges through working in partnership. In its first year, the Board has: 

• Agreed joint action to prepare for cost of living pressures over winter 2023-24, including sharing learning and best practice, with over 20 Londonwide organisations showing interest in training frontline staff to give initial advice. 
• Committed to a joint economic case for London's housing, commissioning research into housing impact on London's productivity - funded jointly by the GLA, London Councils, Trust for London and the G15 Housing Group. 
• Provided expert advice to improve GLA and London Councils joint work retrofitting London's homes. This culminated in ARUP research, commissioned on ways to improve retrofit systems.
• Expanded its membership to represent more diverse voices, including increasing voluntary and community sector representation, and bringing in housing and sport reps for the first time.
• Provided space for the London Partnership Youth Board to run part of the March 2024 meeting, exploring opportunities to access entrepreneurship and green economy skills development support.
• Continued to develop strong GLA and London Councils relationships, working together to build joint London investment cases at, for example, spending reviews.
• Supported (through the Anchor Institutions Network) over 4000 apprenticeships, signing over £1.75bn in contracts with micro, small and medium-sized businesses.
• Designed and delivered a support offer (via the Building a Fairer City Action Plan), so organisations could take action to address key structural city inequalities.
• Agreed with Government to be the main consultation mechanism for their London Levelling Up Advisory Committee workstream, acting as London's key voice and ensuring a strong membership range from the Board to the steering group. 

• London & Partners - the Mayor’s London business growth and destination agency - has delivered £317m in gross value, adding to the economy through increased trade, investment and business tourism. Its work attracting major events to the capital supports London-based business growth. 
• London & Partners also launched its new Grow London Global programme, supporting high-growth businesses with international expansion. This covers London's most exciting, innovative sectors including fintech, enterprise tech, life sciences, creative industries and sustainability. 
• Grow London Local also provided a new small business support service, with a ‘single front door’ to access the right support, in the right way, at the right time. 
• The 2014-20 European Regional Development Fund programme successfully concluded and closed in December 2023. This programme:
  • supported over 16,000 small businesses
  • created over 7,000 net new jobs
  • developed over 2000 new company products
  • worked with over 1,000 businesses, alongside London’s world class research base
  • matched over £450m of private matched investment  
  • reduced 1,000’s of tonnes of CO2 via energy saving and low-carbon initiatives. 
• The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (a £144m investment) committed to support local businesses, communities, places, people and skills, via scores of projects - delivering benefits Londonwide. 
• Over 260,000 people now work for one of the 155 Mayor’s Good Work Standard accredited employers, all paying the London Living Wage. These employers have committed to the best equality, diversity and inclusion standards.
• Over 3,700 employers with London HQ are now accredited with the Living Wage Foundation, a sixfold increase since 2016. Over 130,000 Londoners received a pay rise due to London Living Wage rate yearly increases - currently, this is £13.15 per hour. The Mayor co-chairs the Making London a Living Wage City campaign steering group, focusing activity to increase Living Wage uptake in low pay sectors like hospitality, services, health and social care, and night-time work. The programme achieved initial ambitions ahead of schedule, with over 1,500 new employers becoming accredited since launching in September 2021. The GLA has become a Living Hours employer, leading by example to address insecure work and exploitative contracts.
• Through the London Anchor Institutions’ Network, which the Mayor has spearheaded, some of London’s biggest organisations are using procurement, recruitment and estate-management capacity to:
  • get more Londoners from underrepresented backgrounds into good work
  • help small, diverse-owned businesses grow by entering their supply chains
  • take action to tackle the climate emergency, by decarbonising estates. 
• Since 2021, LAIN members spent over £1.75bn with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and diverse-owned businesses, supporting over 100 small businesses through supplier-readiness programmes and events. They also supported over 4,000 apprentices, uplifting over 7,200 Londoners pay via new London Living Wage accreditations.

Adult Education Budget (AEB)

• Through the circa £340m per academic year AEB (including Free Courses for Jobs funding), the Mayor funds education and training delivery for learners aged 19+. 

• Over 230,060 Londoners gained skills with the AEB in the academic year August 2022-July 2023. This is a four per cent increase in learner participation, compared to the previous academic year. 

• The programme supported 158,970 learners from August 2023 - January 2024, an increase of two per cent compared to the same period 2022-23. This makes 1,046,970 learners supported since the programme's beginning in 2019-20.  

• Of those supported in 2022-23, 26,970 learners earned less than the London Living Wage. All of these were able to access free training, gaining skills through the Mayor’s introduction of Londoner free training entitlement, for those earning below the London Living Wage. This is an increase of 16 per cent from the academic year August 2021- July 2022. 

• Of those supported in 2022-23, 2,590 adults gained skills through Level 3 qualifications introduced by the Mayor, helping those impacted by the pandemic. This is an increase of 13 per cent compared to the previous year.  

• 7,200 out-of-work learners who are outside benefit arrangements (including asylum seekers) also participated in the programme. 

• 69 per cent of the 230,060 learners in 2022-23 were female; 59 per cent were from a Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic background; the majority (62 per cent) were aged 24-49; and 15 per cent considered themselves to have a learning difficulty, disability and/or health problem. 

• In the 2023-24 academic year, 18,890 low-wage earning learners were supported by (and benefited from) Mayoral policy changes.

Other skills and employment programmes

• Government-funded Skills Bootcamps programme delivery started in 2022-23. The programme is designed to deliver flexible training programmes, based on in demand employer/sector needs. The GLA secured grants of of £18.9m (round 1) and £19m (round 2), supporting 6,970 Londoners since the programme began. The GLA also been awarded additional £21.6m for a third round, which will aim to support over 5,000 Londoners gaining relevant skills in 2024-25. 

• The £41m Multiply programme to improve London adult numeracy began in August 2022, and has supported over 10,000 Londoners in the 2023-24 financial year. This brings total Londoners supported via the programme to over 24,000, from when it started in August 2022. The GLA continued to outperform the rest of England, via the largest Multiply programme delivery and participation nationally.  

• The Mayor’s Helping Londoners into Good Work mission supported 15,731 Londoners into work (including apprenticeships and work placements) in 2023-24. Of these, 65 per cent were from a Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic background; 46 per cent were female; 20 per cent were disabled and 50 per cent were aged 16-24. Contributing programmes include the European Social Fund (ESF), Mayor’s Construction Academy and Mayor’s Skills Academies (MSA). 

• The MSA is a £14m programme, supporting sector-specific academies in growth (digital, green, creative, hospitality, health, and social care) sectors, while giving Londoners advantages to secure good jobs. The programme reached a milestone in the 2023-24 financial year, supporting over 10,000 Londoners into good work outcomes, securing sustainable employment that pays at least the London Living Wage and does not involve zero-hour contracts. 

• The Skills Capital programme is a £214.1m London Economic Action Partnership-funded programme, providing capital grants to FE institutions - supporting creating suitable buildings and facilities. As a result of the programme, 5,118 additional learners were assisted via FE facility capital investments in 2023-24 financial year, taking the total number of supported learners over 70,000. 

• The Mayor’s Careers Programme continued to invest in London’s four sub-regional Careers Hubs, supporting 700 of London’s state-funded secondary and post-16/FE institutions - including special schools and alternative provision. London’s careers programme raised employer-led, careers education quality, ensuring all young Londoners know about labour market opportunities, and are better prepared for next steps to access these. Quality careers education and equality experience, social mobility, and positive progression outcomes for all young Londoners, reduces how many are not in education, employment, or training (NEET). 

• £38 million of London’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund was allocated to the Mayor’s People and Skills investment priority, funding employment and skills activity until March 2025. £25m was awarded to London’s four sub-regional partnerships in 2023-24, providing intensive, holistic employment support to over 7,000 economically inactive and unemployed people locally. Over £11m was awarded to 23 lead, Londonwide delivery providers, supporting over 4,000 young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), while delivering quality work experience to 4,000 students at NEET risk.  

Culture and creative industries

• The Mayor delivers his Culture and Creative Industries policies via the Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries' work, with the Culture, Creative Industries and 24-Hour London Unit. 

• From April 2023 - March 2024, the Mayor continuously supported creative industries through his Creative Economy Growth Programme. Film London worked with industry and stakeholders, assessing challenges and advocating on sector behalf to the government. This period attracted £1.07bn inward investment (across film, screen and animation), generated 14,780 job opportunities and backed 114 productions. Film London delivered the Mayor of London Gala with British Film Institute, expanding the Equal Access Network to over 8400 members. 45 per cent of network members were Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, 31.6 per cent LBGT+ and 21.57 per cent people with disabilities. Film London and Games London also progressed with internal equality, diversity and inclusion commitments.

• London Design Festival (LDF) took place on 23 September 2023 across thirteen design districts, hosting two trade fairs, over 140 exhibitions and installations and more than 160 events - spotlighting diverse design talents via annual awards. With 540,000 visitors (including a 25 per cent international attendance rise), LDF generated £185.6m in Londonwide economic impact. Media coverage extended to 1.1bn readers, with over 500 press articles worldwide.  

• The British Fashion Council (BFC) delivered three London Fashion Weeks for its 40th Anniversary, recording sales of £63.5m. Its media coverage reached 51.5bn people with over 15,000 articles. Securing £1.2m UK Shared Prosperity Funding, BFC initiated a two-year Circular Fashion programme to support 50 designers to achieve sustainability. BFC continued the Fashion Showcasing Fund supporting start-up designer-businesses and introduced ‘The Fashion DEI Census’ outlining a business case with measurable levers to accelerate diversity, talent recruitment and retention. 

• On 14 September 2023, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries attended Vogue World London at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The event showcased outstanding performances from London’s theatre, dance, music, film and fashion with global press coverage reached over 6bn people. Through the generous support of Anna Wintour, global Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, and Edward Enninful, former editor of British Vogue, and the Mayor’s facilitation, the event raised £2m to support arts and cultural organisations across the capital. 

• Launched in May 2023, Unpacking the Credits raises young Londoner creative industry career opportunity awareness. Partnering with HBO, Bloomsbury Publishing, Disney’s The Lion King, Sony Music, Grimshaw Foundation and (the artist and designer) Yinka Ilori, it distributed six short films and educational resources to schools and Alternative Provisions across all London Boroughs. The programme has reached 2.9m viewers on social media, held eight workshops in Pupil Referral Units and four events with the GLA Careers Hub.  

• The Mayor’s Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme supported cultural and community organisations at acute and immediate risk of losing the space from which they operate. Since March 2020, the programme has provided tailored support to over 1,500 cases, including business planning and legal support, advice on navigating the planning and licensing systems, advocacy and relationship building. At any given time, the programme supports between 80 and 90 cases, with 80 per cent (as of the final quarter of  2023-24) of supported organisations led by underrepresented groups. 

• Through the Mayor’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, more Untold Stories project outcomes were delivered, including five new permanent Rainbow Plaques celebrating LGBTQ+ histories, and the launch of Everyday Muslim’s ‘Empire and Partition Heritage Trail – Westminster Edition’ at a ‘Remembering Partition’ event at City Hall. In December 2023, the Mayor announced £130,000 in funding towards London’s first HIV/AIDS permanent memorial. 

• Since 2017, London Borough of Culture has involved 12 boroughs, 569 schools, 4570 volunteers and over 2357 artistic partners. The programmes supported 24,114 young people with development and employment opportunities and reached audiences of over 2.9m in person and online. £19m has been leveraged from over 20 programme funders using the Mayor’s investment.  

• This Is Croydon, London Borough of Culture 2023, has reached audiences of over 600,000 (308,508 in person and 295,105 online). As of April 2024, it had recruited 875 volunteers, involved over 14,482 young people, and engaged with 120 schools. 

• Liberty, the Mayor’s free festival celebrating D/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse artists, took place in Croydon between 1 and 3 September 2023 as part of This Is Croydon, London Borough of Culture. Over three days in five venues, 83 artists, supported by 15 volunteers, were involved in 42 events including workshops, installations and artist commissions.  

• The Haringey Feast Cultural Impact Award brought together over 2,000 residents, artists and cultural organisations, culminating in Haringey Feast day at Alexandra Palace on 19 November 2023. Over 200 free workshops and events led by local creatives were held across more than 90 community spaces, resulting in 40 creative commissions and 45 projects involving 146 artists. The celebration day saw 92 volunteers supporting, 191 performers and 146 artists involved. Creations from the event are being donated to local venues, schools, and care homes. 

• In March 2024, round three winners of London Borough of Culture were announced. 10 boroughs applied. The 1.35m title was awarded to Wandsworth for 2025 and Haringey for 2027, and Cultural Impact Awards of £200,000 each for exemplary projects were awarded to Barnet, Greenwich and Merton.  

• The Fashion Residency programme at Studio Smithfield launched in February 2024, backed by a £175,000 mayoral investment. The programme is being delivered by the Mayor, Projekt and Paul Smith’s Foundation, with GQ’s support. From 2024-26, it is offering three cohorts of six fashion designers free 400sqft studio space for 12 months each, with mentoring and business planning training. It puts the Square Mile at the heart of London’s fashion industry and supports growth in the capital’s world-leading creative industries. 

• In November 2023, UAL’s London College of Fashion officially opened at East Bank, bringing its 6,500 students and 1,000 staff under one roof for the first time. UCL East’s campus also fully opened by September 2023, delivering education and research facilities for 4,000 students as well as public creative learning, events, and activities. East Bank represents the biggest cultural investment ever made by the Mayor of London, with more than £600m funding.  

• The 14th Fourth Plinth Commission, ‘Antelope’ by Samson Kambalu, was installed in September 2022, remaining until September 2024. It has generated media reach over 310m, with value exceeding £1.75m. In February 2024, the Fourth Plinth Shortlist exhibition opened at the National Gallery to select 16th and 17th commissions, attracting over 25,000 visitors and more than 10,000 public shortlist votes. 2026 and 2028 winners are Tschabalala Self and Andra Ursuța. The Fourth Plinth Schools Awards 2024 received entries from 31 London boroughs, totalling 32,500 entries since 2008.  

• The Museum of London moved ahead with developing the Smithfield Market site for a new museum, to open in 2026. The new museum’s foundation stone was laid in October 2023, a key milestone for the project to transform the historic buildings of Smithfield Market into a state-of-the-art museum. The Museum of London Docklands continued to hold major exhibitions such as ‘Fashion City – How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style’. 332,960 visitors attended the Docklands site in 2023, marking the best year ever for visitor numbers. It also reached a new record of over 36,000 schoolchildren. Overall, the museum engaged over 57,000 schoolchildren onsite and digitally across London, the UK and Europe.  

• In July 2023, the Mayor launched three new Creative Enterprise Zones in Brent, Islington and Westminster, which shared £210,000 to support young Londoners to embark on creative careers. The three zones are supporting 200 businesses and creating 3,000 sqm of affordable creative workspace. They join Croydon, Haringey, Hounslow, Lambeth, Lewisham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets with London Legacy Development Corporation, Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing with Old Oak Park Royal Development Corporation, and Waltham Forest. By 2026, the 12 zones aim to deliver 71,000 sqm of affordable workspace, support 1000 businesses with at least 40 per cent with diverse leadership, and help 5,000 young Londoners to enter the creative industries. 

• A new report revealed that the first six Creative Enterprise Zones were helping to reverse the trend of artists being priced out of areas with a 10 per cent increase in affordable creative workspace provision across London. The zones have also become centres of the creative economy resilience, recovering faster from the pandemic than the London wide creative economy. The zones experienced a 22 per cent increase in creative jobs at a time when London experienced a 4 per cent loss, all while supporting local communities and young people to take up exciting creative careers. The Mayor announced that nine projects across the zones had been awarded a share of £1.2m to make workplaces greener and more sustainable, benefiting more than 500 creative businesses. 

• In December 2023, the Mayor’s London Made Me retail training programme returned. Featuring products from 60 creatives across the Creative Enterprise Zones, the total sales of the London Made Me shop in Carnaby Street came close to £82,000, more than double last year’s figures. Visitors also participated in over 20 creative activities and viewed live art being created during the month-long trading period. 

• The Mayor is Patron of the World Cities Culture Forum (WCCF), a leading global network of 44 cities placing culture at the heart of city planning and investment. In 2023, WCCF achieved charitable status. The Mayor, with Edinburgh and WCCF, jointly supported Kyiv, Ukraine, to join the Forum for three years. In October 2023, the Forum delivered its annual summit in Sao Paulo, the first in Latin America. The summit on Culture, Courage and Leadership for a New World was attended by over 100 senior leaders from 40 cities, including new member cities Bengalaru, Chicago and Rio de Janeiro.  

• In October 2023, tying in with the 20th anniversary of the Frieze London art fair, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries launched London Creates, a new campaign to reaffirm the city’s pre-eminence as a world’s creative capital against increasing global competition. London’s visual arts sector led the campaign, in partnership with the Evening Standard, which reached a total publication-wide audience of 19m. 

• The Dementia Friendly Venues Charter, delivered in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society, is in its third year. Between April 2023 and April 2024, 65 venues became accredited. These include London Olympia, Hackney Empire, English National Ballet, the Kiln Theatre, Museum of London and City Hall. A lived experience panel and five accredited venues participated in a mystery shopper pilot led by Resonate Arts. Since its launch 123 venues have become accredited. 

• Thriving Through Culture held a 2.8 Million Minds event at Whitechapel Gallery and the Rewire Young People’s Mental Health event at Stanley Arts with Boundless Theatre. Co-curated with young people, the programmes engaged with over 150 young Londoners. Policy makers took part in discussions about access to child and adolescent mental health services and the role of culture in supporting mental health and wellbeing.  

• The Mayor created the first embedded creative health role, working in partnership with NHS South East London and its six boroughs. It supports arts organisations, practitioners, health and social care professionals to improve quality and connections enabling more Londoners to improve their health and wellbeing through culture. 

• London Creative Health City: Building It Together engaged over 500 participants with sector and lived experience in a six-month policy co-design process. Culminating in a November 2023 event at Battersea Arts Centre, the event showcased vital cross-sector partnerships in tackling health inequities across London, highlighting the pivotal role of culture and creativity in enhancing public health. 

• The first ever Black On The Square event was held on 2 September 2023. It was delivered with creative programme support from fynn studio and a Community Advisory Group. This free event showcased and championed the breadth of the capital’s Black creative talent. Bringing in 18 traders and 10 catering stalls, the event saw over 15,000 attendees and over 1m views and interactions on social media.

24-hour London

• The Mayor delivers his policies for a city that works for people from 6pm - 6am, through the Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, the Night Czar and the 24 Hour London team's work.  

• The Mayor’s three Night Time Enterprise Zones in Bromley, Lambeth and Greenwich showcased the potential of high streets at night time. 56 events took place across the three zones, boosting local spending by up to 70 per cent between 6pm and 9pm. Over 69 per cent of people surveyed felt safer during events, and the majority felt more positive about their area. 

• Continued investment from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime expanded the Women’s Night Safety Charter to over 2,150 signatories, including all of London’s seven Premier League football clubs, Boots and Tesco. Support for signatories continued, with two summits sharing best practice and a new monthly Lunch and Learn programme. 

• The Mayor helped deliver the Race Equality in Music Event Licensing project to address concerns about inequalities in the music industry. The partnership includes City Hall, the music industry, artists and the Met Police. Funding from City Hall and the Musicians’ Union has commissioned new research to identify the impact that policies can have on Black, Asian and ethnically diverse music events and develop recommendations on how they can be addressed. 

• An updated London at Night Evidence Base was published on the London datastore, including data and analysis on night workers, travel, the economy and footfall. New research was also commissioned with University College London to understand the experiences and challenges faced by the 1.32m Londoners who work at night. 

• Three boroughs, Hackney, Merton and Westminster, each received £20,000 from round two of the Business Friendly Licensing Fund, supporting businesses in operating more easily at night.  

• A new Night Test has been developed to ensure policies and programmes take account of the impact they would have on London at night.  

• The Night Time Borough Champions Network and Night Time Policy Forum continued engagement with boroughs, helping them develop their holistic night time strategies. A masterclass programme worked with over a third of London boroughs to support their strategy development. Wandsworth and Camden have since launched their Night Strategies. 

• Six in-person night surgeries were held in Bromley, Greenwich, Kensington and Chelsea, Lewisham, Lambeth and Barnet. These events allowed businesses to speak directly to the GLA and the borough. They also help boroughs to implement their night time strategies. 

• A programme of business engagement has held industry roundtables with the pub, hospitality, culture and events sectors across the capital. The engagement advocated and supported individual businesses alongside the Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme, helping to secure later licences and working with landlords to negotiate rents. It also included chairing three National Event Safety Roundtables, which brought together events industry leaders to tackle safety concerns across the country. 

The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC)

• The safety of Londoners is the Mayor’s first priority, and in 2023-24 the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) continued to deliver key priorities from the Mayor's Police and Crime Plan 2021-2025. This plan aims to increase Londoner sense of safety by: 

  • reducing and preventing violence

  • increasing trust and confidence

  • better supporting victims

  • protecting people from exploitation and harm.

• According to Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) data, comparing the 12-month period to May 2016 and the 12 months to January 2024:

  • London homicides fell by 3 per cent

  • the number of young people injured with knives fell by 19 per cent

  • gun crime fell by 19 per cent

  • burglary fell by 18 per cent.

• Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show that violent crime rates are lower in London than the rest of England and Wales. In the twelve months to December 2023, there were 28.4 per 1,000 violence against person offences in the Met area, below England & Wales's average (34 per 1,000 population).

• Following Baroness Casey’s review publication into MPS culture and standards, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley published his New Met for London reform plan in July 2023. In it, he sets out priority activity areas to achieve less crime, more trust and higher policing standards.

• MOPAC and the MPS agreed a £4.4bn budget for financial year 2024-25, supporting Police and Crime Plan ambitions, as well as those in the New Met for London Plan.   

• The London Policing Board (LPB) was established by the Mayor in response to one of Baroness Casey’s MPS review recommendations. LPB members bring a variety of skills, insights and experiences, supporting the Mayor to oversee and support the MPS, while improving openness and transparency when holding the Met Commissioner to account. The Board met publicly, in full, three times during 2023-24, with an additional three Committee meetings. At these sessions, the Board considered issues including public trust and confidence, protest policing and the MPS workforce.

• The Mayor proactively brought in His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), providing enhanced oversight and scrutiny to areas of concern. This includes inspecting errors identified in the Stephen Port police investigation, which the Commissioner accepted the findings and recommendations of. In late 2023, HMICFRS reported on another inspection commissioned by the Mayor, into how the MPS handles criminal and sexual child exploitation cases. They found two immediate accelerated causes of concern, and a further one at time of final report publish. Bringing these issues to light has let the MPS prioritise and drive needed improvements. HMICFRS and MOPAC will continue overseeing delivery.

• In May 2023 MOPAC worked closely with the Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP, producing draft legislation to encourage Government action on reforming police misconduct and performance frameworks. The Home Office eventually adopted many suggested proposals, including: 

  • automatically suspending police officers charged with indictable offences 

  • creating statutory officer requirements to hold vetting – supporting legislative routeways to dismiss officers failing this 

  • Chief Constable appeal rights 

  • delivering new, robust guidance on discharging probationers (Regulation 13) 

  • streamlining unsatisfactory performance procedures (UPP). 

• MOPAC continued to operate its Independent Custody Visiting (ICV) scheme, where volunteers visit police custody suites unannounced to check service standards and detainee welfare. In 2023-24, ICVs carried out 508 visits, seeing 1801 detainees. 

• A MOPAC-funded community scrutiny pilot launched in Hackney in July 2023, with a diverse local group meeting monthly to hold the police to account for a wider range of powers and practices. MOPAC wants to make this a collaborative process, working with local authority colleagues, and local voluntary/community organisations, and communities. MOPAC’s Evidence and Insight team will evaluate the pilot.

• The MPS has made dramatic improvements in call handling, backed with £2.5m in MOPAC funding. In January 2024 the Met answered 91 per cent of 999 calls within 10 seconds - above the national 90 per cent target.

• ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales data shows public MPS confidence has stabilised since September 2022. Latest available ONS data (year ending June 2023) shows public MPS confidence (51 per cent) was higher than England & Wales average (50 per cent), as well as the most similar forces – Greater Manchester (40 per cent), West Yorkshire (44 per cent) and West Midlands (47 per cent).

• Latest MOPAC Public Attitude Survey (PAS) data from 2023-24 quarter 2 found the proportion of respondents worried about local crime fell by 9 per cent over the last year, to 41 per cent. The proportion of respondents worried about local anti-social behaviour fell by 14 per cent, to 36 per cent. Corresponding falls were seen for worry about local knife crime (down by 6 per cent in the last year, to 49 per cent ) and worry about local gun crime (down by 29 per cent in the last year, to 17 per cent).   

• The Mayor’s Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy delivery continued in 2023-24, championing a public health approach encouraging all Londoners to play their part to end the violence against women and girls (VAWG) epidemic. Highlights include:

  • A further £15m investment to continue and strengthen the Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation (DASA) programme in London, which provides safe accommodation and wrap-around support for domestic abuse survivors and their families. Run by the GLA and MOPAC, and funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), DASA has already supported over 70 Londonwide projects since launching in December 2021. 

  • MOPAC convened NHS London, Integrated Care Board, Directors of Public Health, and local authority community safety and safeguarding lead partners. Together, they signed up to various pledges tackling misogyny, sexual harassment and VAWG through services and in-health environments. These help prevent VAWG across London.

  • The Mayor announced £3m additional funding for grassroots projects delivering vital services for women and girls experiencing domestic abuse/sexual violence. 

• The Mayor and Commissioner convened a City Hall roundtable, with world-leading mobile phone manufacturer and network representatives (including Apple, Samsung and Google). This discussed how police, City Hall and the mobile phone industry can work better together, finding the most effective mobile phone crime deterrent – a significant, growing London issue. 

• The MOPAC GPS tagging crime scheme (launched 2019) surpassed 1,500 tagged offenders in 2023-24. Electronically monitoring knife crime and domestic abuse offenders on prison release ensures they comply with their sentence terms, protecting their victims and putting onus on perpetrator behaviour change. 

• The Mayor’s Shared Endeavour Fund continued supporting cross-London community projects tackling hate, intolerance, extremism and radicalisation. In 2023-24 it provided funding for 22 projects, with up to 50,000 beneficiaries. Additional delivery was funded after the tragic Israel terrorist attack on 7 October 2023, and ensuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza to counter increasing antisemitism and Islamophobia levels.  

• MOPAC made hadway in overseeing multi-agency progress against reccommendations in Lord Toby Harris’ latest London terrorist attack preparedness and response report. Much good progress happened, and 57 recommendations were closed by MOPAC, with 100 further recommendations currently being considered to close. London Assembly members receivied a one-year on publishing report was sent to London Assembly Members during 2023-24.

• MOPAC investment supported expanding Project ADDER in 2023-24. ADDER is a police, council and health service partnership helping drug users from the criminal justice system into treatment and recovery services. It began operating in one part of London in 2021-22 and is now expanding cross-capital.

• The Home Office and MOPAC provided £5m each in 2023-24 to fund Operation Yamata. This tackles intra-London drugs lines, preventing associated homicide and serious violence by dismantling Class A drugs supply networks. Operation Yamata works with Project ADDER, supressing drugs supply and reducing demand.

• The Mayor committed £3m to support improvements in the way the MPS cares for crime victims. This helped support new initiatives including My Met Service - an instant service for victims to submit instant officer feedback via QR code, email or SMS.

• The Mayor pledged an additional £250k funding for the Community Alliance To Combat Hate (CATCH) Partnership. This eight-organisation partnership (including GALOP) supports victims of all hate crimes – from racism and religious discrimination to anti-LGBTQ+ abuse. This funding is additional to £2m CATCH already received from MOPAC, enabling it to reach over 3,500 hate crime victims.  

• The Mayor announced £170,000 funding for a dedicated London cybersecurity expert team, better protecting Londoners from online harm. The new investment is part of a one-year pilot boosting (award-winning charity) The Cyber Helpline’s reach and capacity. It has already helped 600,000 people nationally since 2020, directly supporting over 40,000 victims.

• MOPAC’s Evidence and Insight Unit published further evaluation and research reports, including a ground-breaking study by UCL showing how the cost-of-living crisis has impacted London's crime and safety.  

The London Violence Reduction Unit 

• London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) led a partnership approach to tackle violence through prevention/early intervention across London. Since setting up in 2019, the VRU has funded over 350,000 positive young people's opportunities, diverting vulnerable Londoners to education and employment, and away from gangs and violence.

• The VRU's community-led MyEnds programme, operating in eight Londonwide neighbourhoods, won an MJ award in the ‘Better Outcomes’ category for its partnership approach to violence-tackling solutions. This approach resulted in over 50,000 young and community people supported through nearly 40,000 activities and interventions, including after-school support, mentoring, sport and holistic support.

• The VRU developed and published London’s first-ever Inclusion Charter, tackling rising suspensions and persistent absenteeism. Backed up by research of 4,000 young people and teachers, it has four guiding principles, underpinned by £1.4m investment in UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Schools Award programme. 24 boroughs have already signed up to the Charter, and adopting its principles.

• The Charter is backed up by £10m educational investment, tackling exclusions and developing healthy relationships via an effective Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) mentoring programme across all 32 boroughs. Funding also supports speech, language and communications skills in 70 schools, with an approach to early identify special educational needs and disability (SEND).

• This approach is supported by a £3.4m fund, delivering positive opportunities and targeted after-school interventions for 17,000 young people.

• The VRU has developed (and built on) London's youth work support. Its Rise Up programme has helped 470 youth workers further develop leadership skills, better manage conflict with young people and support those affected by violence and trauma.

• It also invests in street-based youth work and frontline custody suite and hospital practitioners. The VRU has expanded custody suite youth work models, by increasing funding so frontline practitioners are embedded in all 12 of the Met's Basic Command Units (BCUs), supporting young people age 10-25. Since 2020, 5,000 such young people have been supported, with over 2,000 activities delivered - including mentoring and education, training and employment opportunities. 

• The VRU also funds youth workers embedded in Major Trauma Centres and A&Es cross-capital, supporting young people at the ‘reachable, teachable moment’. It has supported over 1,700 young people since April 2020, with data showing youth worker engagement seeing reduced violence exposure and involvement.  

• Alongside this, the VRU has established itself (via Parent/Carer Champion Network) in nearly almost every London borough, working to provide support, guidance and neworks for over 7,000 parents and carers.

• It has also developed and established a girls and young women’s programme, including training teachers and support staff to better identify and intervene in school vulnerability early stages.

• The Mayor continues to fund London Fire Brigade (LFB) above and beyond government settlement. In February 2024, he provided LFB an additional £18.4m for 2024-25, on top of the government’s settlement.

• This means firefighters have necessary resources to keep Londoners safe. Over the past year, LFB has invested in new training, vehicles, and equipment (like its new breathing apparatus sets).

• LFB has continued its transformation programme over the past year. In March 2024, it completed all 29 recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry's Phase 1. This includes firefighter training changes, refreshed managing major incident processes and introducing innovative firefighting support technology.

• Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 recommendations will be published in September 2024. If additional LFB recommendations are made, further action will be taken to address them.

• LFB has also continued its response to the independent culture review by Nazir Afzal OBE. In March 2024, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services recognised LFB's progress by taking it out of enhanced monitoring (‘Engage’).

• LFB’s work in this area includes rolling out leadership training, and embedding a new values set. Alongside this, LFB is modernising People Services - including via a new Professional Standards Unit, and improving staff wellbeing support.

• In a wider organisation transformation context, LFB continues to respond effectively to emergency incidents. Fire engine response times in 2023-24 exceeded LFB’s response standards, with first appliances arriving at incidents (on average) within five minutes and 20 seconds.

• LFB’s preventative work continued to help make London safer. Fire fatalities and injuries continued to fall, with LFB exceeding its target performance levels.

• The Mayor continues to ensure London is prepared to face its growing, evolving risks.

• The London Communities Emergencies Partnership (LCEP), part-GLA funded and established in 2023, continues enabling collaboration between London’s formal emergency response structures, charities and community groups with vital local knowledge.

• LCEP provides dedicated resource, so London’s community diversity is represented in local efforts to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies. In the past year, it has contributed vital coordination support during Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) activation, and the Sudan evacuation.

• GLA Resilience, working with London Plus, continued the Community Resilience Fund - awarding grants to 11 voluntary and community sector organisations in 11 boroughs. The grants support partnership projects between London’s communities and Borough Resilience leads, and bring the project number to 22, in 22 boroughs.

• Community Resilience Fund round 1 projects are receiving further support, focussing specifically on climate risk and resilience planning.

• GLA Resilience funded the London Boroughs Faiths Network, running three community resilience training cohorts for Faith leaders in Kensington and Chelsea, Tower Hamlets, and Southwark. Topics included first aid, hate crime, Martyn’s Law, and climate resilience. Further sessions are being planned for this financial year.

• For the fourth year in a row, the Cool Spaces map pointed Londoners to places where they can find heat respite while out and about during summer. The project runs during the public health heatwave period (1 June - 15 September). The map has seen indoor venue numbers growth each year.

• GLA Resilience has commissioned insights research, on how best to work with equalities organisations and informal neighbourhood networks. Reports (with recommendations) are available and we are using findings to inform future work planning. Further social cohesion and local resilience space research is ongoing. 

The Mayor has continued taking ground-breaking action to tackle London's air pollution, carbon emissions, climate risks and biodiversity. Key interventions included: 

Air quality 

• Expanding the world’s first 24-hour Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) London-wide in 2023. This has transformed the capital into the world’s largest clean air zone of its kind, with over 95 per cent of vehicles driving here now compliant with ULEZ emission standards, up from just 39 per cent in 2017. 

• TfL has continued to decarbonise the bus network, hitting the milestone of over 1,400 zero-emission buses by the end of the Mayor's second term. As of March 2024, London had over 19,400 public charge points, around one third of the UK’s total. 

• The Mayor of London and London Air Quality and Health Programme Office developed new Healthcare Air Quality Alerts - introduced in February 2024. With NHS support, new high/very high air pollution episode alerts will go directly to healthcare professionals in General Practices and Emergency Departments. 

• In February 2024, the Mayor announced allocating £2.7m to install PM2.5 filters in classrooms across 200 primary schools. Filters will be supplemented by school engagement, educational resources, and filter monitoring/maintenance, ensuring children breathe cleaner air in schools. If successful, this pilot could expand to every London school. 

• Now in its fourth year, the Breathe London Community Programme comprises over 400 low-cost Londonwide monitoring sites to supplement the city’s reference grade monitoring network, including poor air quality, limited green space or high deprivation level areas. Through funding partner Bloomberg Philanthropies, during 2023-24 20 additional free sensors were awarded to community groups, enabling local action. 

• In March 2024, the Mayor announced 17 borough-led projects selected to receive a share of  the £5.3 million Mayor’s Air Quality Fund. Project aims include reducing particulate matter emissions, running more sustainable events, improving indoor air quality, and protecting the most vulnerable Londoners from pollution exposure. Pan-London projects receiving round four funding include a Healthy Waterways project (in 14 boroughs), an Idling Action Project (in 20 boroughs), and the London Woodburning Project (creating a Londonwide, borough officer training scheme). 

Climate mitigation 

Delivery against the Mayor’s climate emergency declaration included: 

• Publishing the London Emissions and Greenhouse Gas Inventory (LEGGI) for 2021 (latest data available) - London’s CO2e emissions were 28.7 million tonnes. This is 37 per cent less than 1990 levels, and 44 per cent less than peak 2000 emissions. 

• In 2022, London Plan climate policies led to proposed strategic development emission reductions being over 50 per cent greater than national building regulations - which meant saving over 59,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2). As well as 96 per cent of referable developments including solar PV (116,000 m2 of solar panels), these policies ensured 31,000 new homes and 3.69 million m2 of non-residential floor space will be supplied via heat pump-led heating systems.  

• The GLA Group Climate Budget for 2024-25 was published in March 2024. The budget outlines funding allocated to climate mitigation and adaptation measures Londonwide, as well as the GLA Group’s estate/fleet over the next three years. 

• Since 2021, the Mayor’s Business Climate Challenge (BCC) has supported 225 businesses to tackle energy use, emissions reduction and energy bill money-saving while contributing to London’s net-zero target. The main aim is to reduce commercial space energy emissions by 10 per cent in one year. By September 2023, supported businesses had already achieved an average four per cent savings, and nine per cent compared to January-September 2022. So far, this equals average cost savings of almost £1,300, and carbon savings of 2 tCO2e over 2023's first nine months. 

• The Future Neighbourhoods 2030 programme implemented its second delivery phase in 2023-24, providing £1.6m funding to projects in Somers Town and Notting Dale. These were co-designed with the community, to help empower communities in deprived areas with high climate risk levels - creating a greener, healthier, more resilient London. Activity examples included increasing green space access/areas, community cooking and growing classes, cycling infrastructure improvements and upskilling communities in bike maintenance, peer-to-peer resident energy support advice, local school behaviour change initiatives and circular economy market delivery.

Energy  

• The Warmer Homes Advice Service has helped over 24,000 vulnerable and low-income households with small energy measures and energy bill saving advice since 2018. Working with Londoners in (or at risk of) fuel poverty, the service arranges home visits to support individual circumstances, and identify support areas. Launched in November 2022, Energy Advice London was the first Londonwide service for all Londoners, for a decade - since helping over 16,000 households. Run by Energy Saving Trust and supported by the Mayor, free, impartial advice can help all Londoners manage bills while making homes more energy efficient and tackling the fuel poverty crisis. 

• To help deliver a net zero London whilst tackling the city's excessive fuel poor home numbers, the Mayor’s Warmer Homes programme has been running since 2018. Since 2018, a total of 5,112 homes have been upgraded heating, insulation and ventilation improvements

• On 16 March 2024, the London Partnership Board focussed on London's delivery models, particularly a paper to review London's retrofit landscape and address devolved, outcome-based funding opportunities while supporting retrofit advice. The LPB agreed that the GLA and London Councils should take forward a joint funding model, approach and capability workplan - aiming for high-volume home retrofit.

• The Mayor's Energy Accelerators for Homes, Workplaces and Local Energy turns buildings into eco-friendly spaces, by promoting retrofitting and renewable energy adoption. They help public bodies develop net zero project business cases, helping unlock additional financing. The Mayor’s Energy Accelerator initiatives have led to 13 MW renewable energy capacity installation - projected to rise to 19.6 MW in 2024. 

• The Mayor’s Retrofit Accelerator-Homes Innovation Partnership (RA-HIP) – the main RA-H delivery mechanism – aims to deliver whole house retrofits whilst driving down costs and developing supply chains. Seven social housing providers and four building firms signed up to this RA-HIP, which has supported over 101 homes to undergo deep retrofit by 2024. Since 2016, the workplace version (formerly RE:FIT London) has also supported over 770 public sector buildings, saving over 38,000 carbon tonnes and 178 MWh energy each year. This programme offers schools, universities, hospitals and local authorities fully-funded support to retrofit their buildings, improving energy efficiency, lowering carbon emissions and saving money on public sector bills.  

• The Mayor’s £6m Local Energy Accelerator programme (launched November 2020), continues transforming how London generates, supplies, integrates and uses clean local energy in buildings and transport. About £3.7m was committed to 31 projects since 2020 (and 44 projects via predecessor programme DEEP). Once installed, this should save over 15,000 tonnes CO2e in 2024. It is estimated over 7,500 tonnes CO2e per year will be saved in 2024 (from installed projects, operating by end July 2023). The programme has funded projects currently forecast to deliver over 100,000 tCO2 savings per year, and over 100MW renewable energy capacity by 2030 (at full build).  

• The Mayor’s London Community Energy fund has made over 168 grant offers through six funding rounds since 2017, totalling over £2.1million. Buildings benefitting so far include schools, community centres, GP surgeries, churches, and sports centres. The majority are enabled solar PV installations, alongside energy efficiency retrofits and renewable heating. To date, the fund has supported installing over 2.6 MW of community-owned solar PV, equivalent to covering the Wembley Stadium pitch twice. 

• Up to another 30 grant offers will be offered through LCEF phase 7, with projects delivered through 2024 working closely with Community Energy London.

Green infrastructure 

The Mayor continues supporting urban greening investment, which directly helps improve Londoners quality of life. He has done this in these ways:

• Since 2016, the Mayor has made more than £30m available for green space and tree planting projects. These improved and/or created some 1,035 green space hectares between 2017-18 and end 2023.  

• Following the Mayor’s London Rewilding Taskforce’s recommendations, the GLA established a London Rewilding Action Group to support developing a large-scale rewilding pilot from 11 taskforce-identified zones. The GLA also opened the Rewild London Fund's round three, launching a communications campaign to help Londoners engage more with wildlife and green spaces. This third funding round awarded £1m in March 2024 across 21 projects, increasing nature across London. Projects delivered in rounds 1 and 2 have included:

  • supporting reintroducing water voles to Kingston's Hogsmill river, where 101 water voles were released in August 2022

  • installing floating rafts on the Wapping Ornamental Canal, Tower Hamlets to create ecosystems for nesting birds, fish and aquatic invertebrates

  • new wildlife corridors linking Buckthorne Cutting Nature Reserve in Lewisham to its surrounds (including ancient woodland)

  • improving The Grove, Hillingdon, restoring wet meadows that support amphibians and native wetland plants

  • releasing a beaver family back into west London for the first time in 400 years, transforming the area into a flourishing wetland 

• As of the 2023-24 tree planting season, the Mayor has funded planting over 500,000 trees Londonwide since 2016.  

• In November 2023, the EU-funded CLEVER Cities project, led by frontrunner cities Hamburg, London, and Milan, came to an end. Over the project's lifetime, GLA staff worked together with Peabody, Groundwork London, and local residents to design and implement nature-based solutions in the South Thamesmead Garden Estate. The project took an innovative approach to co-creation, including recruiting and training a group of Thamesmead residents who were paid to be formal project team members. They helped guide this public realm and landscape project, as well as a grant programme which helped local residents bring green ambitions to life. The project also delivered on-the-ground change, including:

  • 111 m2 land now draining to sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS)

  • 70 m2 edible playground planting

  • approximately 6,500 m2 meadow planting

  • 739 new trees planted

  • 1110 m2 of new play areas.

Climate resilience  

• The Mayor commissioned an independent London Climate Resilience Review by Emma Howard-Boyd CBE, taking stock of actions under way since he was elected. This makes recommendations to guide London's extreme weather preparations, and has now published an interim report with 20 key, Londonwide recommendations for stakeholders including the Mayor of London, UK government, local authorities and the community/voluntary sector. The full report is due to be published later in 2024. 

• In the Mayor's budget, he provided an additional £1m every year for three years to support this review's recommendations. The London Resilience Partnership will run a heat scenario exercise, Exercise Helios, later this year.

• The £1.5 million Climate Resilient Schools Programme, together with the Department for Education and Thames Water, enhanced climate resilience in 95 of the most climate-vulnerable schools, and was completed in 2023. It installed 564 planters in 72 schools, helping reduce flood risk while installing water-efficient measures that saved 558,892 litres of water per day - or one Olympic swimming pool per week. Bespoke Climate Adaptation Plans were also completed for 60 schools, providing practical actions for schools to prepare and respond to climate impacts and risks.

Heat 

• The Mayor commissioned and published the ‘Roofs Designed to Cool’ report, outlining how retrofitting city roofs with reflective materials or solar photovoltaic (PV) panels could help contribute to cooling existing homes, reducing carbon emissions by easing cooling and electricity generation demand. 

• The Mayor commissioned and published a 'Properties Vulnerable to Heat Risk' report, mapping London's heat risk across hospitals, care homes, residential properties and neighbourhoods, in the wake of climate change.

Flooding  

• The retrofit Sustainable Urban Drainage (SuDS) map was launched, showing London's sustainable drainage system locations. It shows 60 hectares SuDS drainage at 494 locations, highlighting good work happening to tackle surface water flood risk by boroughs, TfL and other delivery organisations.  

• The Mayor has used his strong convening powers to bring together the London Surface Water Strategic Group (LSWSG), better managing London's risks. The LSWSG has now published GLA webpage updates, highlighting progress against various review recommendations undertaken since 2021 flooding. London’s first city wide surface water flooding strategy is well developed, completing later this year. 

• Two integrated water management strategies were published in 2023, identifying opportunity areas across London, the Royal Docklands and sub-regional Lee Valley. 

Making London a zero-waste city  

The Mayor continues to support cutting waste, building a green, circular economy with these key achievements:    

• The Mayor required boroughs to draft waste Reduction and Recycling Plans (RRPs), covering April 2023 - end March 2025. Through these plans (collectively including over 850 actions and commitments) boroughs must set out how they are working towards the Mayor’s London Environment Strategy (LES) commitments, while delivering effective action to:

  • move waste up the waste hierarchy

  • boost recycling

  • minimise waste operation environmental impact

  • adopt circular practices in local communities. 

• As of October 2023, all 33 boroughs now meet dry recycling minimum service levels, as set out in the LES. This happens by collecting six main dry recyclable materials (glass, cans, paper, card, plastic bottles and mixed rigid plastics), and is up from 28 boroughs in 2016. 28 boroughs now provide weekly food waste collections (or trials) to property kerbsides, up from 23 in 2016 - with three boroughs introducing food waste trials under plans to roll-out full food waste collections borough-wide.  

• The Mayor’s 110 drinking fountain network helped avoid consuming over 5.8 million single-use plastic bottles since it was installed. The Mayor continues supporting City to Sea’s Refill London campaign, a water-refill scheme where people can go to shops/businesses and ask for free water refills instead of buying new. There are now over 4,600 cross-city refill points.

A Green New Deal  

• The Mayor of London Better Futures programme is a leading London public and private sector organisation partnership. It helps address London's sustainability and Net Zero challenges, supporting cleantech innovation to develop products, services and everyday Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) transition to net zero. Currently in its third delivery phase (funded under the UKSPF), phases one and two (European Regional Development Fund and GND) supported 280 cleantech businesses, and over 300 everyday businesses in this net zero transition.  

• The Mayor launched his London Climate Finance Facility in June 2023, accelerating funding towards his net zero objective and wider environmental aims. As part of the Facility, the London Green Finance Fund will lend up to £500m to public sector energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean transportation projects. £185 million in funds have been committed so far, including deploying solar PV on the London stadium's roof. The Facility will also provide £15 million to support developing London’s project pipeline, including through a new zero carbon accelerator.

• In December 2023, the Mayor announced the Edge Fund, providing further decarbonisation project funding - including organisations unable to access the Green Finance Fund. It is initially supported by £50 million from the GLA, and £50 million from SDCL, who manage the fund.

Leading by example  

• The GLA Group is leading by example, delivering the Mayor’s environmental vision for London. Transport for London (TfL), the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), London Fire Brigade (LFB) and the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) are all implementing plans for their estates to achieve net-zero. 

• In 2023, Walthamstow Fire Station became London’s first zero-carbon fire station, and England’s second.    

• GLA Group decarbonisation projects have secured £42.6m in government funding since 2022, supported by the Mayor’s Low Carbon Accelerators. 

• TfL are currently tendering for a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) (between 80-200GWh) to ensure operations can be net zero by 2030. This tender encourages the market to increase renewable energy volumes supplying the National Grid, providing additionality. The procurement is progressing, and contract award is expected in summer 2024.

• The GLA Group’s 2024-25 budget included a climate budget for the second year, which is a novel approach to mainstream climate responsibility across the organisation, making sure its budget is delivering on the Mayor’s net zero emissions target by 2030. The GLA has also developed a community of practice, together with London Councils, helping 13 boroughs and two waste authorities explore the climate budget approach by adopting it in their organisations.

• The GLA Group procures around £9.5bn of products and services each year. Its Responsible Procurement programme ensures this public spending improves the lives of Londoners (and beyond) by supporting a fairer, more environmentally sustainable city and supply chain. A RP performance report (and related case studies) was published in March 2024, which you can read here. 

• 2023-24 was a strong year for genuinely affordable housing completions, with 10,949 homes completed for Londoners to move into, despite highly challenging market conditions. This is more than double the level that was achieved in 2015-16 prior to the current Mayor first taking office.    

• The Mayor continued to prioritise country-leading standards in new homes he is funding. Investment partners delivering homes through the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026 are required to meet building safety standards, design and sustainability requirements, and to advance equality, diversity and inclusion in their organisations, the wider sector, and communities they house. The Mayor will continue to restrict access to the programme to organisations failing to provide good quality homes and maintain standards, where they are failing to act on regulatory notices or gradings downgrades from the Regulator of Social Housing.    

• The Mayor has followed the success of the Right to Buy-back programme with the launch of a new Council Homes Acquisition Programme in November 2023. This will support local authorities to acquire homes from the open market and convert them into permanent council housing and good quality temporary accommodation for homeless families, as part of a plan for councils to acquire 10,000 homes over the next decade.  

• The Mayor secured £126m grant funding from the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund to be administered as the Refugee Housing Programme (RHP) in London. This programme delivered 300 completed homes in 23-24 for Ukrainians and Afghans who have fled conflict and are homeless, at risk of homelessness or living in unsuitable temporary accommodation. The programme will continue to provide refugee homes in 2024-25 quarter 1, alongside direct Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) local authority allocations.  

• Building homes on the Mayor and GLA Group’s land is also critical. In 2023-24, 672 homes were started on GLA land or through joint ventures, bringing the total to 6,194 since April 2021 and significantly exceeding the target to start 5,000 homes between April 2021 and March 2024.  

•  During 2023-24, further progress was made in the implementation of Lord Kerslake’s recommendations to improve collaboration across the GLA Group and facilitate housing delivery on the Mayor’s land.   A design network of expertise is now well embedded to allow best practice on design matters to be shared between teams. Networks of expertise in planning and land assembly are currently being established to further provide opportunities for knowledge sharing. The sub-committee to the Homes for Londoners Board provided regular oversight of the Group bodies’ housing delivery programmes. 

• In 2022-23, £77m of Land Fund money was committed to projects to enable the delivery of just over 1,470 homes. Overall, of the £736m Homes for Londoners Land Fund, circa £566m has been committed to date. These investments will enable the delivery of almost 16,000 homes, approximately 50 per cent of which are affordable homes. These latest commitments mean the Mayor committed the full £486m allocation from the government (which was part of the Homes for Londoners Land Fund) within the timeframe. More importantly, however, it means he is set to over-achieve the original target of 8,000 homes with that funding, forecasting 14,765 homes – of which 50 per cent will be affordable. Of those forecast starts, 6,076 homes have already started; of these, 838 have completed. Through this programme the Mayor is again increasing the provision of genuinely affordable homes, which will benefit diverse groups and communities that are most likely to live in overcrowded, poor-quality or unaffordable housing. 

• An additional 131 homes for rough sleepers were completed through the Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme and his new Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme during 2023-24. At the end of March 2024, 1,181 people with a history of rough sleeping, or who are at immediate risk of sleeping rough, were accommodated and being supported in units delivered through this programme, including 246 people who moved into the accommodation during 2023-24. 

• The Mayor’s Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund achieved an additional   275 completions in 2023-24 for homes for older and disabled Londoners, bringing the programme’s lifetime starts to 2,201. 

• During 2023-24, the cumulative total of homes receiving capital funding through the Mayor’s Community Housing Fund (CHF) reached 200. One 36-home project completed, bringing the lifetime totals to 95 starts and 66 completions. 

• During 2023-24, the Mayor’s Life Off the Streets core services worked with 5,062 individuals on the streets of London, and supported 3,031 former rough sleepers in their tenancies. 

• This year, the Mayor has focused his work for private renters on better-equipping councils and enforcement agencies to tackle poor standards and conditions, and to prevent illegal evictions. Across 25 different boroughs, 100 council officers have undertaken GLA enforcement training sessions this year, as part of the Private Rented Sector Partnership. In addition, almost 10,500 front-line Metropolitan Police officers have undertaken mandatory illegal eviction prevention training since it was introduced; and the Mayor’s year-long Better Renting qualification, to train more council enforcement staff, is nearing the completion of its third year. The Mayor’s Rogue Landlord and Agent Checker contains almost 3,000 records of private landlords and letting agents who have been prosecuted or fined by councils; these are   recorded as being viewed 44,021 times during 2023-24, and almost 450,000 times in its lifetime. 

• During 2023-24, over 20,000 survivors of domestic abuse in London have been supported through the Mayor’s Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation programme as part of his Part 4 duties under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. 

London Plan  

• The Planning for London Programme supported 59 events and participation opportunities across eight different programmes, as well as continuing established calls for evidence. Over 6,500 participants shared their views, helping inform the next London Plan. This included four co-designed programmes, supporting engagement with young people, those in vulnerable housing situations, social value specialists and industry experts. 

• Current London Plan implementation was supported during 2023-24, adopting London Plan guidance on:

  • characterisation and growth strategies

  • optimising site capacity

  • small site design codes

  • housing design standards

  • large scale purpose built shared living.

• Public consultation concluded on London Plan Guidance for

  • student housing

  • affordable housing

  • development viability

  • industrial land and uses

  • digital connectivity.

• Practice notes were published on Heritage Impact Assessments, and heritage asset settings. 

• As a core part of building an evidence base for future Housing Policy, work began on London's new live digital Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA). Launched in autumn 2022 as LAND4LDN, this allowed boroughs and the wider GLA to use a digital call for sites, site review, data sharing and scenario modelling. The aim is to make a new shared evidence base for all London’s Planning Authorities.

Referable Planning Applications 

• The Mayor considered 112 referral process Stage 2 applications in 2023. Of these, 92 were referred to the Mayor at Stage 2, with borough resolution to grant consent. 

• Of the Mayor's approved schemes, 56 were residential or mixed-use development – providing total 30,609 residential units (C3 use class), of which 11,845 are affordable. This is the highest proportion of affordable homes secured in Mayor-approved strategic schemes (39 per cent) since data was first recorded in 2011. This compares with 25 per cent in 2016, equivalent to 46 per cent affordable housing when measured by habitable rooms. Average affordable housing levels per scheme were 42 per cent (by unit) and 46 per cent (by habitable room). 

• 77 per cent of strategic applications provided 35 per cent affordable housing (or more) in 2023, compared to 53 per cent in 2018. 53 per cent of eligible schemes followed the fast-track route in 2023, compared to 27 per cent in 2018. 

• One major estate regeneration development application (Aberfeldy Estate, Tower Hamlets) was called in on 2 May 2023. The call-in led to the scheme being approved on 26 January 2024, subject to Section 106 Legal Agreement completion. The scheme will deliver up to 1,565 new homes, including 39 per cent affordable housing by habitable room (with 89 per cent low cost rent), as well as retail, workspaces and improved public realm/open space. 

Regeneration and growth strategies 

• The £75m Good Growth Fund continued supporting projects that create new jobs, community spaces, public-realm improvements and affordable workspace Londonwide. To date, 53 projects are complete, delivered by collaborating with local communities while showcasing social impact, design quality, and climate change response. Over £50m match funding was secured, with over 140,000sq m public realm space improved. Projects completed include: 
  • Oru Sutton (awarded £1.3m) - supporting LB Sutton’s leadership to diversify its town centre, by redeveloping council-owned properties. Oru Space is a 500-desk workspace, for start-ups and growing businesses. It also offers a restaurant, wellbeing studio and community rooftop garden.
  • The King's Head Theatre (awarded £800,000) moved from its existing, unsecured premises to a permanent new home at Islington Square. Funding secured the long-term future of this LGBTQ+ community space, establishing a sustainable business model.
  • Industria (awarded £1m), in Barking’s Thames Road Employment area, is the first of its kind in the UK. By densifying industrial workspaces, it is piloting an approach to ensure London provides home and economy space within its boundaries. It won the 2023 Planning Awards “Best Use of Brownfield Land in Placemaking”.
• The High Streets for All Mission continued supporting London high street recovery. This year's delivery included completing 18 of 22 community-led High Streets for All Challenge Fund projects. These engaged over 370 organisations in partnership activities, supporting over 700 businesses, and securing over £4.6m match funding. Projects delivered include: 
  • Acton High Street (awarded £100,000), which enabled local organisation W3 Hive CIC to create the Re-Store on Churchfield Road. Funding delivered the vacant high street unit's fit-out, created an external makers yard, and funded staffing, materials and upcycling workshops over the year's course.
  • Hackney Wick, LB Hackney (awarded £170,000) supported businesses, community groups, London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) and landowners to understand local waste issues. A Circular Economy Strategy was delivered, drawing together innovative local processes to tackle the area’s very specific waste streams with existing/incoming local businesses. 
• The High Street Data Service is a collective data purchasing and sharing partnership, comprising the GLA, London boroughs, and Business Improvement Districts. It continues providing timely, accurate insights on London's 600+ high street and 200+ town centre activity, performance, and faced challenges.
• The positive impact of project investments was showcased at Open House - a citywide celebration of London’s neighbourhoods, heritage and architecture. This highlights how the Mayor's place-based investment provided young Londoner opportunities, while enhancing public spaces and supporting London’s cultural and creative sectors via the Good Growth Collection. Projects included:
  • BLOQs (Enfield) - an open-access makerspace in Enfield
  • Talent House (Newham) - the first permanent UK home for black music and dance companies
  • A House for Artists (Barking Town Centre) - buildings opened over two weekends in September, welcoming 227,000 visitors across the festival. 87 per cent of visitors had never visited the building or space before, and a further 215,000 people viewed Good Growth Collection reels via digital platforms.
• Seven place-base, Mayoral regeneration projects won at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) London Awards - Lea Bridge Library, Holborn House, A House for Artists, BLOQs, BAFTA, National Youth Theatre and Studio Voltaire. These demonstrate how GLA officer and community collaboration has enabled delivering quality outcomes in challenging times. Four of the above also went on to win RIBA national awards - Lea Bridge Library, Holborn House, A House for Artists and BLOQs.

• A House for Artists was nominated for the Stirling prize and Neave Brown Award - two most prestigious UK architecture awards. It went on to win the Neave Brown Award, recognising best new UK affordable housing examples. A UK first of its kind, A House for Artists is an innovative model that delivers affordable, sustainable housing while encouraging community arts engagement. 

Design

• The Mayor has continued to promote quality and inclusion in the built environment, through the Good Growth by Design programme, and by working with Design Advocates. 

• He   expanded the suite of design research, helping to shape policy and inform practice for the built environment sector. This has included Designing Space for Culture, Women, Girls and Gender Diverse People Safety in public space, Designing with Disabled experience, Designing Towards Net zero 2030 and Designing Industrial Intensification and Co-Location.  

• The London Review Panel undertook 10 reviews which included major planning decisions like Bishopsgate Goods Yard, Earls Court and Puddle Dock, as well as supporting Civic Partnership Fund recipients in developing their place-based strategies. The Design Advocates who sit on the London Review Panel have been briefed to provide scrutiny on specific themes like gender inclusive design, designing for disabled experience and zero carbon design. 

• The Mayor has focussed on supporting public sector commissioners, with design quality management or useful methods to secure quality. Six cross-GLA Group teams with the most significant delivery responsibilities committed to Design Quality Management Protocols. The Netw

• Work of Excellence for Design Delivery (including LLDC, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), Places for London and GLA Housing and Land) was established, in response to Kerslake Review recommendations. This ensures the Mayor's delivery teams prioritise design quality, by setting out delivery partner requirements, informing working practice and sharing lessons. Each team had a Design Maturity Assessment, to understand how well design quality is being managed/delivered, and to inform next steps.

• Good Growth by Design Process Notes have provided important public sector commissioner resources, offering commissioner guidance around some knotty issues facing them and their clients. This includes running procurement exercises that integrate Social Value & EDI focus, using grant agreements to push design quality, commissioning a co-design process and successful post-occupancy evaluation. 

• The Architecture + Urbanism Framework provides a diverse, pre-approved panel of built environment consultants, making it quicker and easier for organisations like councils/housing associations to commission high quality expertise for some of London's public sector projects. The framework generated £4.8m of business for suppliers, with 55 per cent of spend going to diverse-led businesses. The framework's impact was recognised as one of three 2024 European Procura+ Award finalists, for Sustainable Procurement of the Year, as well as for the 2023 National Social Value Awards. 

• On 6 March 2024, the Design Advocates came together with over 120 representatives from the wider built environment sector. They looked back on Good Growth by Design programme achievements over the Mayor's past term, while looking forward to future priorities and discussing the city's most pertinent issues.

Planning system digitalisation

The Mayor has led the way to enable Londoner planning system engagement, by providing digital tools, and access to previously difficult-to-share data. Some successes included:

• PLANAPPS – In September 2023 a live PLANAPPS version launched. This is a platform that lets Londoners better understand the Mayor's planning system role, including reviewing applications referred to him, and how to let him know their views. PLANAPPS increases transparency, while already improving planning officer engagement. 

• PLANNING DATA MAP – in December 2023, London's single planning policy map was launched, including all spatial data for the London Plan and Local Plans across London. This means all London's spatial policies plans can be accessed and viewed without admin borders and downloaded and used to promote new innovation, while creating jobs and new ways of thinking about our city's future. 

• PLANNING LONDON DATA HUB – during 2023-24, the Planning London Datahub (the planning system's digital twin), received data on 110,000 planning applications. Public service and infrastructure providers could then use this to better plan for our city's future.

Design Future London 

This was the Design Future London Challenge's third year, which seeks to inspire young people to consider built environment careers. The year was more impactful than ever, with Londonwide schools and youth groups being invited to address local challenges, giving their views and visions on the city's future. Over 170 entries were received, and nearly 650 students entered – more than ever before.  

Approving Old Oak West's business case 

• A significant year's focus was working closely with the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government (DLUHC), Department for Transport (DfT), Homes England, Network Rail and High Speed (HS)2, developing an Outline Business Case (OBC) for Old Oak West (OOW), OPDC’s major new urban district scheme around HS2’s Old Oak Common station.  

• OPDC’s OBC was finalised in Autumn 2023, DLUHC approved it in October 2023 and the DfT Tier 2 Board approved it in January 2024. This marks a significant regeneration project milestone, agreeing a comprehensive government (and its agencies) approach to delivering up to 9,000 homes and 3 million square workspace feet, in a new urban district around (the new) Old Oak Common Station.    

• OBC approval clarifies the OPDC’s role as the public sector delivery agent on behalf of government and rail landowners. It also enables progress with further public and market engagement, scheme development and a DFT / Network Rail land-pooling agreement.

Securing early site delivery investment

• OPDC has secured £53m of early investment from DLUHC’S Brownfield and Infrastructure Land Fund (BIL) and a further £1m from DLUHC’s Capital Regeneration Fund, for key site acquisition. This brings total, OPDC-secured public funding to support site assembly and early infrastructure, to £140m.  

• To date, the OPDC has either acquired (or are expecting imminent completion of) four sites - 6.97 acres, with agreed heads of terms on a further two. Other private landowner negotiations will continue. 

A low-cost, low-carbon District Heat Network 

• In November 2023, OPDC successfully secured £36m of grant funding from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DEZNZ)'s Green Heat Network Fund; the largest single award in the programme.     

• The District Heat Network will provide low-cost, low-carbon heating using surplus heat from local datacentres for up to 10,000 new and existing homes, businesses and a major hospital.  

• In autumn 2023, a procurement exercise was launched to secure a development and funding partner, with the first stage successfully concluded in spring 2024. 

Housing delivery  

• In 2023-24, 2,700 homes were approved by OPDC’s planning committee, with 257 homes starting on site and 761 homes completed. Across the OPDC area, nearly 8,000 homes now have planning permission, with over 6,000 built; 38 per cent of these are affordable.  

• This year, all planning applications were determined within statutory determination timescales or timescales agreed through Planning Performance Agreements with applicants.  

Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs)  

• During 2023-24, OPDC adopted three Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), supporting effective OPDC Local Plan implementation. In June 2023, it adopted the Planning Obligations SPD, setting out how OPDC secures planning contributions from development, towards infrastructure and social value. In November 2023, the Industrial SPD was adopted. This provides best practice industrial scheme promotion guidance, from a placemaking, design and sustainability perspective. It also helps deliver industrial intensification, supporting net gain targets (250,000sqm industrial floorspace). In February 2024, OPDC adopted the Old Oak West SPD, supporting delivering a high-quality place in Old Oak West, with guidance for a comprehensive, coordinated development approach, supported by key infrastructure and services.  

Community Infrastructure Levy  

• In February 2024, OPDC adopted its Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charging schedule. This lets OPDC optimise contributions from development towards infrastructure, and should secure more CIL contributions than would have otherwise happened from purely Section 106 contributions. As a non-negotiable charge, OPDC can also better project potential future CIL income, giving more infrastructure funding and delivery certainty.

The Forge@Park Royal  

• The Forge@Park Royal has now advertised nearly 600 vacancies to local residents, of which more than 205 were filled. The Forge team is outreaching to long-term unemployed residents, working with local employers in the three OPDC boroughs. 

• The team supported the Street Elite initiative, in partnership with the Berkeley Foundation. Fifteen young adults at risk of gang or crime activities took part in this nine-month training programme, with twelve of the cohort successfully entering employment or education as a result. This exceeds the 80 per cent target.   

Acton and Park Royal Creative Enterprise Zone (CEZ)  

• OPDC’s CEZ is a partnership with Ealing Council, and supported a wide activity range during its first year. This included an open grants programme, with funding awarded to ten projects across ‘Creating Space’, ‘Developing Skills’ and ‘Promoting Place’ themes.  

• These projects included:

  • digital media and filmmaking for over 100 young people

  • the Park Royal Open Workshop, providing affordable workspace to makers

  • a regular local makers and food business street market (attended by over 4,000 people

  • the Park Royal Women’s Group. 

• OPDC launched a Small Business Loan Fund, with £350,000 funding available for eligible creative & food manufacturing businesses and workspace providers in Old Oak and Park Royal. Since launching, there was substantial interest - seven interested businesses are currently progressing applications.     

Community engagement  

• In February 2024, OPDC published an updated Community Engagement Strategy, setting out what has been achieved, and how they will build on success. New activities and programmes will involve more people in shaping the area's future, celebrating its heritage and diversity.    

• During 2023, an extensive local engagement programme was held to shape Old Oak West's future. This included 26 events, involving around 200 people in pop-ups, site visits, youth events, exhibitions and co-design workshops. Feedback informed the Old Oak West SPD and regeneration strategy. 

• In July 2023, the first Park Royal Food Festival took place, as part of the OPDC-funded Standard Road Market, celebrating Park Royal's diverse communities and food businesses.  

• The launch of Acton and Park Royal CEZs involved eight events, attended by over 6,000 visitors, to bring businesses together. These included the Park Royal Design District, the Park Royal Open Workshop Launch, the London Made Me pop-up shop and our Creative Enterprise Open Call for Ideas showcase.  

Small Grants Programme  

• In March 2024, OPDC launched a third Small Grants funding round, supporting grassroots community-led projects and charities. The programme previously helped 21 community-led projects, reaching over 45,000 beneficiaries. This year, it allocated £70,000 funding to another fourteen local projects including food banks, skills and training, local schools programmes and arts, and heritage and culture initiatives.

Equity Diversity and Inclusion  

• Our EDI annual report was published in September 2023, providing a key achievements overview in promoting EDI - both internally and externally. These include:

  • 45,000 beneficiaries reached through 21 local Small Grants-funded projects 

  • more people from diverse backgrounds (now 72 per cent) participating in online community engagement activities.    

• Events hosted throughout the year at London Stadium, London Aquatics Centre, Copper Box Arena, Lee Valley VeloPark and across the Park, included:

  • Burna Boy, The Weeknd and ABBA Voyage concerts

  • Major League Baseball (MLB)

  • Monster Jam

  • UK Athletics Diamond League

  • Apex Legends

  • UCI Track Champions League Grand Finale

  • Great Get Together

  • an international (Spain vs Colombia) football friendly.

• Economic impact reports for both MLB London Series 2023 and ABBA Voyage noted both events made a significant contribution to the London economy. The return of MLB – when St Louis Cardinals faced Chicago Cubs – was worth nearly £53m to the capital. ABBA Voyage opened in May 2022 and has become a key highlight, attracting an additional 1m visitors to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park since starting. In its two years of running, the show generated £320m for London’s economy.  

• Over the past year, LLDC has re-let operational contracts for several venues and attractions, including the London Aquatics Centre and Copper Box.  

• On 10 May 2023, organisations across the Park joined forces to launch a Women and Girls’ Safety Charter, enshrining their pledge to promote and protect the safety of women on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and across the wider LLDC area. 

• On 15 May 2023, LLDC Director of Design, Peter Maxwell, joined Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, residents from Carpenters Estate and project partners to mark the start of construction works for a new entrance to Stratford Station.  

• On 15 June 2023, the Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub), which the Mayor launched at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2016, received £31m from the government’s UK Aid fund - part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The GDI Hub, developed by the LLDC and University College London (UCL), works worldwide to help improve assistive technology access for disabled people. 

• In July, LLDC was awarded the coveted Green Flag award for a tenth consecutive year. The award is the international quality mark for parks and green spaces. 

• Between 24 July - 4 August 2023, over 300 young east Londoners took part in East Summer School - a free, two-week programme of interactive workshops and courses. 

• On 1 August 2023, major Stratford station redevelopment plans were submitted to government. The submission, developed by Newham Council, Network Rail, TfL and the LLDC, sets out ideas for Stratford Station (and the surrounding area) upgrades. The work follows increasing overcrowding concerns, and ides about the east London station's future capacity.  

• On 4 September 2023, Tamsin Ace was appointed as East Bank’s inaugural Director. 

• On 18 September 2023, Olympic champion and former UCL student Christine Ohuruogu joined the Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, Justine Simons and other senior dignitaries, marking UCL East's official opening.  

• In the week commencing 25 September 2023, another East Bank project milestone was reached, when UAL’s London College of Fashion opened its doors to students. 

• On 1 November 2023, the Mayor visited East Bank to mark the official opening of UAL’s London College of Fashion at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park's Stratford Waterfront site. He was also there when the first season of joint cultural programming across the East Bank site was announced – The Music Is Black: A British Story. 

• On 24 October 2023, a photocall was held to mark early phase two stages of East Wick and Sweetwater. The second development phase, built jointly with Places for People and Balfour Beatty Investments, will deliver 210 new homes, including 45 under the London Living Rent tenure. The Hill Group is building phase two. 

• On 25 October 2023, the Mayor joined Living Wage UK at London Stadium, to announce the London Living Wage rise. The London Living Wage, paid by London Stadium, the LLDC and many other employers across the Park, increased to £13.15 an hour from £11.95. This is a welcome pay rise for 130,000 Londoners, particularly when energy bills, mortgage costs and rents continue to rise. 

• In January 2024, the Mayor confirmed LLDC’s Mayoral development area would reduce to the core area it owns, manages or operates land from, with changes taking effect from 1 December 2024. This followed a formal proposal consultation last year. This is another important LLDC evolution milestone, which sees LLDC’s Town Planning powers return to the four Growth Boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest on 1 December 2024. LLDC will maintain status as a Mayoral Development Corporation, continuing as a GLA a functional body - but with reduced functions, and a reconstituted Board/governance structure from 1 April 2025. 

• LLDC’s senior leadership appeared in front of the London Assembly a total of four times between 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024 with the most recent being a plenary hearing on 7 March 2024. 

• Between 4-8 March 2024, East Careers Week was held over five days, with 1,000 young people from east London schools attending. 

• The Building Strong Communities Fund 

  The Civil Society and Sport Unit funded 89 community-led projects, through the Building Strong Communities (BSC) grants. Project objectives were to:

• help Londoners support and shape their communities post COVID-19
• help amplify unheard voices, so they are heard and communities can influence and control decisions
• support feelings of belonging, increasing connections within/across communities
• reduce loneliness and social isolation.

• Youth Social Action 

  The Mayor’s Youth-led Social Action programme empowers underrepresented young Londoners, addressing local issues and amplifying their voices. It works in these ways:  

• Young Ambassadors connects young people to their communities through alternative provision and school-based social action. It supported 8,295 young people, particularly those at risk of exclusion and with special educational needs, with over 131 grants awarded to schools for equalities projects between September 2022 - March 2024.  

• HeadStart Action engages those aged 14-18 in youth-led community social action, offering employability and training opportunities. Between April 2022 and March 2024 it supported 817 marginalised young people through capacity-building support to 11 grassroots organisations in 13 London boroughs.  

• My London provides support and funding for community organisations to collaborate and designing local community action models to improve young people's (aged 11-24) mental health and wellbeing. It supported 428 marginalised young people across six London boroughs, between March 2022 - March 2024. 

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  Go! London 

  Go! London is a five-year, £19.5m partnership between the Mayor, London Marathon Foundation and Sport England.  

  More than £4.4m has been awarded in its first year (2023-24) to organisations across 32 London boroughs, expecting to reach 60,000 young people.  

  In February 2024, ten young Entrepreneurs were selected in principle for a year-long programme with support from the School for Social Entrepreneurs, receiving grants of up to £15,000 each. Their ideas will be brought to life across communities, helping people from low-income families, ethnically diverse communities, and disabled Londoners to access sport and physical activity across the capital. Project focus includes:  

• Tackling the challenges Muslim & Black Asian minority ethnic women face in football, providing an accessible space for all women to play. 

• Creating safe spaces for young women (above age 12) to learn boxing and muay Thai as a way of self-defence.  

• Creating a safe space for football and basketball sessions to 7 – 11-year-olds struggling with secondary school pressures. 

• Building a digital marketplace, for young people facing financial barriers to request equipment or financial aid, and local organisations/small businesses to donate items or provide sponsorship.  

• Creating sportswear that is sustainable, affordable, inclusive of different body sizes and is modest.

•  

  Using the Mayor's Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC) Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) funding, the sport team has delivered as follows: 

• London Sport Internships, launched in December 2023. This programme will enable 16 young people aged 18-24 from diverse backgrounds to access high-quality, 12-month paid internships at seven different sporting organisations and National Governing Bodies. Each young person will be provided with a mentor. 
• In March 2023, the Future Ready Fund awarded 13 organisations up to £25,000 each to pilot an after-school sports and mentoring programme. The programme focussed on supporting children in years 5 and 6 who were experiencing difficulties, or may have been excluded in the short term - supporting their transition from primary to secondary education. In March 2024, eight of the organisations received a further £50,000 to continue their work over the next two years. 
• The Mayor of London Sport Leadership Academy delivered leadership training and mentoring, supporting 120 young people from diverse and underserved backgrounds across London, providing additional support and skills to access sports sector employment opportunities, between the period of April 2023 - March 2024. 

•  

  Sport Unites 

  Sport Unites is the Mayor's flagship community sports programme. It supports his long-term vision to make London the most active and socially-integrated city in the world. In 2023-24 work included: 

• The two year NFL Foundation UK London Partnership Programme with investment from the Mayor’s Sport Unites initiative was launched in March 2022. It focuses on supporting under-served young people through NFL Flag Football. By February 2024 1,002 young people had regularly attended sessions; of which 38.3 per cent are female participants; 75.6 per cent are from an ethnically diverse background and 24.5 per cent are living in the top 30 per cent most deprived areas in London. 

• In March 2023, the London Coaches Programme (LCP) was launched in partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and delivered by Basketball England. Between March 2023 - March 2024, this partnership supported 194 aspiring London-based coaches aged between 16 -30 years and has mentored 4713 young people. 

• The London EmpowerHER Programme in collaboration with England Rugby launched in February 2024. The project involves non-contact rugby and will promote physical fitness, employability and leadership skills, for young women and girls in Redbridge and Brent. The project is creating safe spaces and is committed to supporting London’s campaign tackling violence against women and girls by focussing on raising awareness and education. 

• The London Youth Games Disability Inclusion programme aims to improve sport accessibility sport for disabled young people, improving talent pathways and social action opportunity access. Between March 2023 - February 2024 a total of 1,451 disabled young people competed across 13 para-games events, and 160 across new events and sports. 85 volunteers with an identified disability were also recruited. 

• Model City London (Years 5 & 6), is a place-based programme in partnership with Laureus Sport for Good and Nike, delivered in three London boroughs; Barking, Haringey and Hounslow. The programme improves participation in sport and physical activity, reduces social isolation, and improves mental health and wellbeing for young people. Between March 2023 and January 2024 633 participants engaged in activities and leadership opportunities designed by local youth forums.

•  

  Team London/Major Events volunteering 

  Acknowledging positive outcomes volunteering offers in terms of wellbeing and skills, the Major Events and Volunteering team delivers a high-profile accessible volunteering programme with opportunities across London. In 2023-24 the team:

• recruited, briefed and deployed 438 diverse volunteers to aid delivering the King’s Coronation on 6 and 7 May 2023. Of these volunteers, 212 or 48.4 per cent deployed were from underrepresented groups. 

• provided 899 individual volunteers across 19 events/opportunities, who completed a total of 2462 shifts. Specific measures were taken, including creating a new recruitment approach and volunteer selection process, supporting the programme team to make sure each volunteer event team reflected London’s diversity as far as possible (in line with ONS 2021 Census data). 

• linked all events to community activity, spaces/places and community cohesion and nearly half had strong representation of young people. There was strong representation from BAME communities, LGBTQIA+, seen and unseen disabilities, women and girls with 43 per cent.

• supported volunteers at events engaging with London’s diverse communities, including Black on the Square, Eid in the Square, Vaisakhi on the Square, and the UNESCO Day Remembrance of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its Abolition. Of all volunteers participating across the year, 50.5 per cent identify as being from targeted underrepresented groups - namely 18-24 years old, Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, and/or identify as having a disability. 

•  

  The events were all linked to community activity, spaces/places and community cohesion, with nearly half having strong young people representation. There was also strong representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities; LGBTQIA+; those with seen / unseen disabilities; and women and girls. Together, these groups made up 43 per cent of participants.

  Civil Society Support and Championing Volunteering 

  The Civil Society and Sport Unit undertook a number of programmes to support the VCS and champion volunteering in 2023-24.  

• The Civil Society & Sport Unit held two Equality Diversity and Inclusion Volunteer Managers Forums in 2023-24, with 52 organisations participating. These forums, designed and delivered by the members, bring together a diverse range of voluntary organisations and grass root groups to learn about best practice around EDI and how to implement these policies. The work encourages the sharing of knowledge, challenges and successes amongst this network enabling them to feel more confident in EDI practices. 

• The London’s Lifelines website, launched 2022, shared 100+ stories. These stories showcase London's volunteering scope and scale, promoting it, recognising Londoner contribution to their communities, and raising volunteering profiles amongst the general public. As of March 2024 there have been over 5,000 visits to the site.  

• The London Volunteering Strategy Group (LVSG) exists to champion and promote volunteering. It met three times in 2023-24 and expanded to grow representation. Current membership includes representatives from faith groups, young people’s umbrella bodies, LGBT Consortium, and global majority groups.  

• The Team worked with Simply Connect over 2023-24, developing London's new volunteering platform - Simply Volunteer London. The site launched on 27 February 2024, and by 31 March 2024 it had 429 organisations registered and promoting volunteering roles - with 4500+ interested volunteers. The platform removes volunteering barriers, so it is easier for all Londoners to find appropriate volunteering roles.  

•  

  Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, 5713 Londoners have benefited – with over 3404 of them identifying as minoritised groups. Over 645 volunteers supported BSC projects to date during that time - and since projects began in July 2022, 9373 Londoners benefited from 127 community projects. 1298 Londoners volunteered to support these, up until end March 2024.  

  Mayor’s Community Weekend  

  The Civil Society and Sport Unit partnered with The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF), to deliver London’s first Mayor’s Community Weekend on Friday 23 - Sunday 25 June 2023. TNLCF awarded £244,000 through 184 grants, to community groups hosting local events and activities with these aims:  

• celebrating London community resilience and diversity, particularly the role young people can play

• bringing communities together – connecting and strengthening relationships between neighbours and neighbourhoods  

• bringing together volunteers and promoting volunteering 

• creating more chances for communities to enjoy green spaces.

Mental health and wellbeing  

• This year, over 100,000 Londoners have participated in Mayoral-funded mental health and wellbeing events, accessed wellbeing resources, attended training and engaged in community projects. This takes the total number of Londoners championing mental health to more than 240,000. The Mayor is making excellent progress on his ambition to have 250,000 London Wellbeing Champions by 2025.  

• Through the Mayor’s #ZeroSuicideLDN campaign, as of March 2024, 390,563 Londoners (including the Mayor) have taken the Zero Suicide Alliance training. This helps raise suicide awareness, supporting conversations, reducing stigma and signposting to support sources. The campaign also rolled out 80 wellbeing ‘grab bags’, including practical mental health advice and support for Transport for London River Service staff in December 2023.  

• A £90,000 investment in 2023-24 funded a further 12 community and grassroots projects through Right to Thrive, focused on supporting mental health and wellbeing of those experiencing higher levels of unfair treatment and discrimination. As of March 2024, over 1,400 Londoners benefitted from this investment, with reach and impact expected to grow as delivery continues into 2024-25.  

• The Mayor has funded a variety of free trainings, boosting voluntary and frontline mental health and wellbeing support sectors for Londoners. This has included:

  • hosting six resilience and conflict resolution webinars for frontline staff (attended by 1,600 Londoners)

  • promoting free digital training on trauma-informed practice (taken by almost 12,000 Londoners as of March 2024)

  • sharing specialist resources with over 12,000 professionals working in youth and education settings across London, promoting a trauma-informed approach.  

School Superzones  

Between April 2023 - March 2024, the Mayor provided over £700,000 to expand the School Superzones programme, resulting in 86 schools participating in this initiative in 28 boroughs. These are situated in the most disadvantaged areas, and a wide activity range took place to improve the environment around the schools. These include improving:

• food retail environment(s)
• green space(s)
• traffic-calming measures
• community safety
• ways to tackle smoking and vaping.   

Water-only schools  

Work continues to support London’s primary and secondary schools to become water-only.  By doing so, schools are continuing work to support children’s health, by reducing sugar intake and encouraging healthy hydration.  

Engagement with school and borough teams indicate at least 478 schools across 32 boroughs are currently water-only.  

London’s Health Inequalities Strategy  

The Mayor has successfully delivered against commitments made in the London Health Inequalities Strategy Implementation Plan 2021-24. The following was achieved against six key commitments: 

• Healthy Children - having surpassed the target of having up to  50 School Superzones supported by 2025, 86 total schools are now participating. 

• Healthy Minds - with over 240,000 London community wellbeing ambassadors, the programme is well ahead of schedule to meet the target of a quarter of a million ambassadors by 2025. 

• Healthy Places (1) - Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion and extensive partnership work to improve air quality mean London is much closer to being a net zero carbon city by 2030, meeting the World Health Organization’s interim target for PM2.5.  

• Healthy places (2) - strong progress has been made towards making London a Living Wage City. 

• Healthy Communities - this commitment was met by establishing the London Anti-Racism Collaboration for Health (LARCH - see below). 

• Healthy Living - since the COVID-19 pandemic, many more Londoners now take part in at least 20 minutes of active travel each day to stay healthy. Further work (across all sectors) is still needed though, to increase walking and cycling more substantially. 

The Mayor remains committed to working with partners, delivering the rest of the commitments in the plan to improve Londoners’ health and reduce health inequalities. He has done this through (for example) chairing the London Health Board, which oversees the London Health Equity Group's work. 

• The GLA grant-funded the Institute of Health Equity (IHE), collaborating on a project building evidence for health inequalities in London. This explored data and literature to identify key health inequality issues, and how to reduce them. Over two years, reviews were published on housing, the cost-of-living crisis and skills. These have already influenced GLA and partnership work, leading to – for example – a London Health Board cost-of-living task-and-finish group, that took forward several recommendations. Work continues on the (fourth and final) structural racism, ethnicity and health inequalities report, which the IHE is focussing on for the first time. We are also working with the Race Equality Foundation, co-producing London-focussed recommendations (informed by this evidence review) to support focussed London partnership action.  

• LARCH was launched in November 2023 at City Hall, supporting London-wide action to tackle structural racism as a health determinant - a key Health Inequalities Strategy commitment. LARCH is a commitment between London’s statutory partners - the National Health Service (NHS), integrated care systems (ICSs), the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), London Councils, the Association of Directors of Public Health for London (ADPHL), and the GLA, as well as community and race equity sectors. The LARCH collaboration is underpinned by a systematic approach, using data, governance and partnerships set out in “A Strategic Framework to Tackling Ethnic Health Inequalities through an Anti-Racist approach” (published August 2023). This commits to tackling structural racism as a cause of ethnic health inequalities, creating change. Co-production with communities and people with lived experience has been central throughout LARCH’s development phases. The Race Equality Foundation, together with Health Innovation Network South London, were appointed March 2024 as delivery partners in March 2024.  

Defibrillators launch on the TfL network, and City Hall London Lifesaver training  

• On 16 October 2023 (World Restart a Heart Day) the Mayor, together with Transport for London (TfL) and the London Ambulance Service (LAS), announced rolling out publicly accessible defibrillators across the entire London Underground and Overground network. Publicly-accessible defibrillators are also available at all dial-a-ride offices, TfL-owned piers, and some main bus stations and interchanges.  

• Boosting people’s knowledge and confidence is key to enable them to act. The Mayor, with LAS and TfL, produced a short training video, showing how to perform chest compressions and use a defibrillator. This video is available via a heart-shaped QR code on every defibrillator on the TfL network.  

• Also on 16 October, City Hall supported launching the LAS London Lifesavers campaign for schools by co-hosting a CPR/defibrillator training session for 214 year eight students from Hackney, Redbridge, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Ealing.  

Mayor’s six tests  

The Mayor submitted responses to three public consultations regarding major proposed NHS service changes, based on his six tests:  

• In December 2023, he responded to an NHS England consultation on the future location of very specialist cancer treatment services for children living in south London and much of the South East. His response called for further analysis on inequalities in the current service; plans and targets to reduce inequalities; and more information on change impact on other children’s services.  

• In January 2024, he responded to a consultation by North West London ICS on the future of acute mental health services in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea. His response called for analysing the reasons behind current service inequalities, and for final plans to directly address structural racism.  

• In March 2024, he responded to a North Central London ICS consultation on the future of maternity and neonatal services in north central London. His response called for clear plans and targets to reduce health inequalities, alongside additional modelling to ensure sufficient resource in north west London to cater for changed patient flows.  

GLA Group Public Health Unit  

• The GLA Group Public Health Unit (PHU) continues to provide the Mayor and GLA Group with expert advice. This supports their role in London’s response and resilience to public health threats – many of which disproportionately impact diverse communities, and contribute to widening health inequalities.  

• London’s health shock and stressor resilience was enhanced by strengthened PHU operating procedures, providing support for the Mayor and GLA Group. This included GLA Group-wide criteria to escalate health protection issues, developed through the GLA Group Public Health Forum.  

• Public health advice and messaging to mitigate impacts has been put in place, including for winter and summer health resilience, and for measles.   

• The GLA Group PHU has continued to engage with teams across the GLA Group to socialise and embed a ‘health in all policies’ (HiAP) approach across different policy areas, including air quality, community safety, homelessness and severe weather.  

• Systematic consideration of Londoners’ health and wellbeing is being strengthened through the development of the HiAP skills programme for the GLA Group. The skills programme launched with the first masterclass in October 2023, and webinars and skills resources are in development.  

• The GLA Group continues to support public health workforce development by providing work placements for Public Health Speciality Registrars and the Unit established a Public Health Practitioner Apprenticeship in January 2024 to support improved diversity across the public health workforce.  

Children and young Londoners  

Universal free school meals  

In year one of the programme, the Mayor provided an historic £135m emergency, one-off funding plan, helping families with spiralling cost of living by ensuring children in London’s state-funded primary schools receive free school meals in the 2023-24 academic year. This helped up to 287,000 primary school children, saving families around £440 over the year.  

• Between introduction of universal free school meals and the Easter Holidays (March 2024), the Mayor funded more than 32m meals, providing families a much-needed safety net.  

• The Mayor announced in January 2024 another £140m to extend the programme for the further 2024-25 academic year, helping families save up to £1,000 per child over the two years.  

 New Deal for Young People  

• In total (between Sept 2020 - April 2024) the Mayor invested over £34m in his New Deal for Young People (NDYP). NDYP focuses on increasing the mentoring and youth sector's quality, quantity and sustainability, with an ambition to provide high-quality mentoring to 100,000 disadvantaged young Londoners by the end of 2024.  

• Between April 2023 - April 2024, over 35,000 disadvantaged young Londoners (aged 10-24) had access to high-quality mentoring. This brings the total number of young people reached through NDYP to over 82,000, with thousands more to be engaged over the coming months.  

• Mentoring has helped these young people build trusted relationships, supporting their skills development, confidence, positive opportunity access and improving mental health and wellbeing.  

• To ensure mentoring organisations deliver the best-quality mentoring possible to young Londoners (partnering with Action for Race Equality and Bloomberg), the Mayor created a Mentoring Quality Framework - a tool to support mentoring quality across London. They also invested in a Mentoring Support programme including training, networking and resources for youth-mentoring organisations. Between April 2023 - March 2024, over 350 organisations downloaded the Mentoring Quality Framework and/or received support through the support programme, improving mentoring practice quality.  

Healthy Schools London and Healthy Early Years London 

The Mayor’s Health Early Years London and Healthy Schools London programmes saw an increase of 27.6 per cent take-up of its Bronze Award, across early years and school settings. As part of the Mayor’s investment to improve the programmes, an intensive engagement phase with borough programme delivery leads took place from January 2023 - March 2024.  

Early years  

• The Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Children and Families have consistently called on the government to better support the early-years sector, ensuring it can deliver high-quality provision for all families. For example, responses were submitted (on the Mayor's behalf) to government consultations on early-years foundation-stage regulatory changes, and funding to extend early-years entitlements (summer 2023). They called on the government to:

  • increase overall funding to the early-years sector, to a level adequate to deliver high-quality provision for families

  • work closely with the sector

  • ensure necessary infrastructure is in place to support early-years providers to deliver places families need

  • ensure early-years sector reforms serve to reduce inequality.  

• The Mayor continues to promote childcare support offers and entitlements through his Cost of Living Hub – signposting users to the government’s Childcare Choices website for more information.  

Youth engagement  

The Mayor is committed to ensuring young Londoner voices are heard, and embedded across his work. As future leaders of our city, their insight and opinions are vital to help design solutions to some issues we face.  

• The Mayor’s Peer Outreach Workers team is a diverse group of young people aged 15-25, many of whom are not in employment, education, or training. They play a vital role in shaping London policies, strategies and services, bringing young people from across the city together to have their say on important issues like safety, the environment, housing, mentoring and mental health.  

• The Lynk Up Crew represent often-unheard voices of children and young people aged seven to 14. They act as an advisory group to the Mayor and his policy teams, working with external organisations to provide valuable insights into issues affecting this age group. In 2023-24, they participated in key events on environmental issues, city planning and child protection, as well as playing a pivotal role in the Mayor's Universal Free School Meals initiative.  

• The London Partnership Youth Board is a dedicated group of diverse young Londoners who support London Partnership Board work, providing their views and insights on some challenges London faces. The group played a pivotal role in helping the London Partnership Board identify its priorities, presenting at its meetings on a quarterly basis.  

Equalities team 

• Building a Fairer City (BFC) is a flagship cross-sectoral programme, addressing London's structural inequality. It aims to deliver actions in the BFC action plan, over four themes:

  • labour market inequality

  • financial hardship and living standards

  • equity in public services

  • civil society strength.  

• In year one, the programme produced activities to advance 14 actions under these themes, bringing together multiple sectors (health, education, business, and the voluntary and community sector) and multiple stakeholders (the NHS, business groups, regional strategic partnerships, London borough councils, and community organisations), as well as a range of GLA teams. BFC also connects with the London Anti-Racism Collaboration for Health, closing London's racialised health disparities with a range of partners.  

• In May 2023, the GLA launched its Make it Accessible toolkit developed by the Equalities team. The toolkit provides a tailored set of guidelines for GLA staff on best practice developing inclusive, accessible communications, events, meetings and consultations. The toolkit has improved staff knowledge and confidence in these areas, ensuring access and inclusion of Deaf and disabled people in all our work.  

• In November 2023 the Mayor launched his Age Friendly Action Plan, setting out how he will make London one of the leading cities in the world in which to grow old. The plan was produced by the GLA Equalities team in partnership with key stakeholders.  

• On 14 November 2023, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor Debbie Weekes-Bernard were joined by 70+ Deaf Londoners at City Hall, to sign the Charter for British Sign Language. The Charter has been designed by the British Deaf Association as one way to address discrimination, empower Deaf communities, and build stronger relationships between the GLA and wider Deaf community.  

• The Equalities team continues to engage with key community stakeholders through its range of fora. These bring together target constituencies, experts and GLA colleagues on issues that matter most to Londoners, informing our policy work. 

• Examples include the Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations forum, feeding into the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime’s (MOPAC’s) redesign of victim-support services for adults and young people, as well as the ULEZ expansion. It also contributed to Transport for London’s new Equity in Motion Plan, aimed at making London transport fairer, and more accessible and inclusive.  

• The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Advisory Group supported:

  • BFC programme development

  • signing the British Sign Language Charter

  • the Women’s Policy Summit

  • the Age Friendly Action Plan.  

• In the wake of the Casey Report, the team organised engagement (led by external facilitators) between communities affected by disproportionate or uneven policing, MOPAC and the Metropolitan Police Service. These meetings were chaired by Deputy Mayor Debbie Weekes-Bernard. 

• The GLA’s framework for conducting equality impact assessments was revised with new guidance, considering structural inequalities in comprehensive terms to build upon Public Sector Equality Duty requirements. This is being embedded to inform decision-making processes across the GLA.  

Workforce Integration Network 

• The Mayor’s Workforce Integration Network (WIN) works to address structural inequalities faced by underrepresented Londoners in the labour market. The project has a specific focus on Black Londoners, as well as Londoners of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage. 

• The second phase of the Mayor’s Design Lab programme was launched. This is a 10-month bespoke offer, supporting businesses in London’s growth sectors to improve on EDI and anti-racism. The programme supported 11 of London’s largest NHS hospitals and trusts (representing over 100,000 employees) to develop 13 projects addressing barriers to career progression, inclusive recruitment, and organisational practices for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff. The programme is also supporting 11 leading creative industry businesses, representing around 9,500 employees and six employers in the green economy sector.  

• Last year, WIN launched its Inclusive Employer Toolkits. These are open-access, digital resources with practical actions and guidance for employers in creative, health, hospitality, green economy and digital sectors - driving workforce equality and inclusion forward. The toolkits are sector-specific, and tailored by business size to address EDI challenges.  

Community engagement 

• 21 organisations received further funding as part of the Civil Society Roots Fund's third round, in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund and City Bridge Foundation. Civil Society Roots is a £1m funding programme, supporting equity-led organisations led by and for those impacted by structural inequalities. Grants of up to £30,000 were awarded to each organisation, including women-, disability- and migrant-led groups from Bromley, Enfield, Harrow, Hillingdon, Havering, Newham, Hounslow, Redbridge, Sutton and Wandsworth. 

• The Community Engagement team recognises key national, cultural and religious community dates. As such, this year it highlighted dates like Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month; Ramadan; Chanukah; Christmas; and Black History Month. This is done by coordinating Mayor and the Deputy Mayor for Communities and Social Justice visits and events. The team’s monthly Community Newsletter has a readership of over 5,000 community organisations. 

• The Community Engagement team has given advice and support on developing engagement plans and activities across several GLA policy areas, including public health, air quality, housing, financial hardship, and skills and employment. A team priority was to work with policy teams, supporting them to design and deliver engagement activities and ensure those most affected by GLA policies have their voices heard - for example, groups facing barriers to participation, such as racism, digital exclusion, language, insecure immigration status, limited support service access and public institution mistrust. 

• After a successful pilot year, the London Engagement Collaborative (LEC) – our pan-London, cross-sector network aimed at improving engagement practice and collaborative working – relaunched in November 2023. The network continues to hold monthly online and face-to-face collaborative sessions, bringing together Londonwide representatives. These include local authority representatives, academics, GLA staff, community / art organisations, and community activists. Over 200 individual members have registered for / attended network meetings. The LEC also produces a regular newsletter, with a current mailing list of 448. We strengthened engagement practice across the GLA through tool, guidance and network access, better equipping policy teams to engage diverse communities in policymaking. This included convening the internal Engagement Working Group (a GLA officer community of practice) every two months. We delivered action learning training to GLA staff, helping them develop their own peer-to-peer support focused on community engagement. In addition, we commissioned developing a toolkit, supporting GLA policy teams to incorporate peer-led, participatory policymaking and programme delivery research.

• In July 2023, we delivered the Future of Participation (FoP) programme, consisting of 14 sessions. This was developed in collaboration with the GLA’s Community Engagement team and a cross-sector steering group, including local authority, civil society and community organisation membership. The programme aimed to challenge how we think about and ‘do’ community participation, to inspire developing deeper, more nuanced systems and practice with community participation across City Hall and London. FoP had over 1,200 registrations and over 560 attendees. Over 90 per cent of evaluation respondents wanted to see the programme repeated.  

• We funded 13 boroughs via the Supporting Borough Engagement Grant programme, in partnership with London Councils, helping them better connect with local communities and give voice to issues mattering to residents. This was a partnership with London Councils, enabling boroughs to support engagement diversifying communities they engage with, while testing new ways of engaging, and learning from/sharing with other boroughs. 

• In February 2024 we launched the Civic Futures programme's fourth cohort, a year-long fellowship for civic, local government leaders (including five GLA staff). Thirty fellows are now connecting, and have begun to reflect on how to collectively build a better future for Londoners. We also began Civic Futures alumni delivery network delivery, bringing together all 115 fellows who have participated in the fellowship so far. There are currently seven funded alumni projects underway, delivered by multi-cohort groups, who are exploring new ways to engage and encourage Londoner participation in designing a better future for their city. 

• We continued to develop the Community Insights Hub, which is now online and ready to go through a final user testing phase before launching later this year. We worked with Big Ideas, delivering 14 new content pieces based on what Londoners believe makes a strong community – gathering videos, photographs and artworks from organisations serving young Londoners, carers, Deaf Londoners, elder Londoners and veterans, faith groups, and more.

Financial hardship 

• In 2023-24 the Mayor invested over £9m in interventions, supporting Londoners in financial hardship and helping households mitigate the worst cost-of-living crisis effects. The majority of interventions focused on maximising incomes by raising financial rights and entitlements awareness, boosting social welfare legal advice access, and tackling food insecurity - particularly holiday food insecurity.             

Income maximisation 

In 2023-24, the Mayor’s income maximisation interventions collectively provided support to over 42,000 Londoners, generating more than £24m in additional income for some of the most disadvantaged households - which took cumulative totals to 60,000 and £30m since April 2022. This included: 

• Funding a pension credit awareness-raising campaign that ran from February - August 2023, securing £8.4m in benefit claims for pensioners across the capital. Over 8,200 households made successful claims, worth more than £3,800 each a year. 

• Continuing to fund the London Citizens Advice and London Legal Support Trust’s pan-London advice service networks. This resulted in over 30,000 Londoners receiving advice on topics including welfare benefits, debt, housing and immigration; and just under £13m generated in additional income for beneficiaries. 

• Continuing to fund 10 community advice partnerships through the Advice in Community Settings programme, resulting in over 3,500 households from the most disadvantaged and excluded communities receiving advice (many for the first time), generating just under £3m in additional income for beneficiaries.             

• In addition, the Mayor’s Cost of Living Hub, which signposts Londoners to trusted information and guidance about financial rights and entitlements to help with living costs, continued to be updated and promoted (via various channels) through 2023-24. Over 250,000 leaflets, with key Hub information, were also distributed to households in the most deprived and digitally excluded neighbourhoods all over the city.       

Food insecurity  

• The Mayor’s emergency free holiday meals programme helps plug gaps in the Government’s existing Holiday Activities and Food programme, reaching London's children and families with highest need levels. As financial hardship is food insecurity's main main driver, the programme provides information for families, signposting them to advice. The Felix Project and Mayor's Fund for London worked in partnership, delivering 12.3m holiday and weekend meals to low-income families in the programme's first year. 

• In autumn 2023, the Food Roots programme was also relaunched, supporting local food partnerships in 22 boroughs to embed more sustainable, resilient approaches to tackle food insecurity in their communities - including through wraparound support. The programme uses grants, mentoring, expert learning sessions and peer support to build sector capacity, developing robust cross-sector partnerships. 

Migration 

• The Migrant Advice and Support Fund provided grant funding to newly arrived and historically marginalised communities, to promote creating enduring partnerships, ensuring civil society capacity grows to meet new, historically under-served needs. Projects provided direct support to over 1,000 Londoners, working with Windrush families, Roma communities, Deaf Londoners, LGBTQI+ migrant Londoners, Albanian communities, people seeking asylum, and young people from the Horn of Africa. 

• The Mayor continued to fund the Frontline Immigration Advice Programme, providing wrap-around support for small, user-led organisations to register with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), to give qualified immigration advice. The process is expensive, has a high failure rate, and poses a barrier to organisations to offer more complex advice. By providing barrier removing support, we increase overall supply, as well as supply base diversity. This specific project plugs a gap in the London strategy. with most funding targeted at more complex Level 2+ advice by creating an organisational pipeline - specifically supporting equity-led groups to become qualified. 

• Through Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) funding, the GLA (investing in the Hong Kong Community Fund) provided funding to grassroots organisations, prioritising those led by and for Hongkongers. This ensures a sustainable, effective civil society where newly-arrived Hongkongers can engage and seek support. Funding went to 21 organisations, supporting over 11,000 Hongkongers. DLUHC funding also enabled us to invest in bespoke resource and training development, meeting Hongkongers' cultural and linguistic needs when accessing mental health support. 540 services accessed training, and through a Thrive LDN partnership seven organisations were funded to develop tailored Hongkonger support - including suicide prevention. 

• By collaborating with philanthropic funders and civil society, the Citizenship and Integration Initiative seconded frontline organisation experts into the GLA, with this year's focus on addressing migrant work exploitation. The Mayor invested in a bespoke training programme, equipping 32 advisers across 15 organisations, with knowledge to recognise employment rights breaches, and offer support to migrant clients. The Mayor also invested in research into intersecting needs of migrant exploitation victims, making recommendations to London decision-makers on how to mitigate risks. 

• The Mayor has continued to invest in the Migrant Londoners Hub. This resource - for all Londoners with immigration needs - includes accessible information on various topics, with targeted sections for Windrush families, European Londoners, undocumented young people and refugees. The Hub had over 90,000 users, and was a key part of the Mayor’s London for Everyone campaign, ensuring people were signposted to information and support. 

• Through Home Office funding, the GLA continued to convene the London Strategic Migration Partnership, the most senior board in London that manages migration-related issues. It sits at the centre of governance tapping into other pan-London networks, maximising reach and impact. The team delivered work supporting Afghan arrivals (matching them to London accommodation), Ukrainian arrivals, resettled refugees, people seeking asylum and English learners. 

• The Mayor invested in the Asylum Welcome Design Labs programme, with 11 London local authorities. Together, they launched a toolkit, with best practice and guidance resources that provide in-depth, tailored support to local authorities. This means they  can better work with refugees and people seeking asylum, to:

  • redesign services to meet these people's needs

  • adapt to contingency accommodation impact

  • maximise opportunities through new government funding.

Transport 

• In July 2023, Transport for London (TfL) opened 10 new low-traffic cycleways, helping make cycling accessible to even more people across the capital. In March 2024, TfL and the Mayor hit the milestone of quadrupling the cycle network, growing from 90km in 2016 to over 360km. As a result, more than 1.26m daily cycle journeys were undertaken in 2023 - up 6.3 per cent from 2022. 
• The Mayor and TfL have continued to invest in zero-emission buses, reaching the milestone of 1,000 buses in August 2023 – including over 80 launching in the Sutton area. By March 2024, there were over 1,400 electric buses in the fleet. 
• In September 2023, Dial-a-Ride hours were extended to support older Londoners (and those with long-term disabilities) socialising more at night. The service saw a 12 per cent bookings increase from 2022 - 2023. Operating hours were increased following stakeholder engagement, and higher booking request demands after the pandemic. 
• In November 2023, the Mayor secured £23m in funding from the government’s Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land Fund, delivering a bus transit scheme linking Thamesmead (in south east London) with Woolwich and Abbey Wood. This new express service will improve connectivity, supporting new housing in the area. Alongside this bus transit scheme, the Mayor continues to work with local partners and government, investigate feasibility to extending the Docklands Light Railway to Thamesmead, from the current terminus at Beckton on the river's north side. This would provide Thamesmead with a long-overdue direct connection to central London, which could unlock up to 25,000 to 30,000 new homes. 
• In November 2023, TfL collaborated with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, the Metropolitan Police Service, and charities Brake and RoadPeace to launch a new pilot victim-support service, helping improve victim support for London's most serious road traffic collisions. The pilot ensures families left bereaved, and those catastrophically injured, can more easily access enhanced support.
• On 19 January 2024, the Mayor announced he would freeze TfL fares in 2024, supporting Londoners struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and the city's pandemic recovery. This means 2024 fares are 14 per cent lower than if they had risen in line with National Rail fares; and 21 per cent lower than if they had risen in line with the retail price index since 2016. To further support Londoners and aid the city's pandemic recovery, the Mayor also asked TfL to trial off-peak pay-as-you-go fares all day on Fridays on the Tube and National Rail network Londonwide (and in parts of the South East) from 8 March - 31 May 2024.
• In January 2024, the first overhauled Central line train was brought into passenger service, featuring CCTV on the line for the first time. As a result of campaigns like Report It to Stop It and Project Guardian, and campaigns against sexual harassment, there was an increase in the number of people reporting these crimes with confidence action would be taken. Introducing CCTV on the Central line goes one step further, ensuring customers are (and feel) safe travelling on the network. The Central line CCTV complements TfL’s existing network of more than 77,000 cameras operating across all TfL modes, with over 17,000 across the Tube network.  
• In February 2024 the Mayor announced a historic reimagining of London’s public transport network, with a unique name and line colour for each of London’s six Overground lines. This significant change, including a major update to London’s world-famous Tube map, will make it easier for customers to navigate London’s transport network while celebrating the city’s diverse culture and history. The much-loved orange roundel will continue to be used across the London Overground network. 
• In February 2024 the Mayor and TfL launched Equity in Motion, a new plan setting out over 80 new actions to help make London transport fairer, more accessible and more inclusive. The ambitious plan sets out various commitments, including improving customer safety / accessibility and making London's public transport more affordable.
• In March 2024 TfL completed its Lowering Speed Limits programme, with 264km of the TfL Road Network now subject to a 20mph speed limit - up from 35km in 2016. Collision data from around the world is very clear - the faster a person drives, the less time they have to react to avoid a collision, and the more severe resulting injuries will be. Through this programme, a 20mph speed limit was introduced on all TfL roads in the Congestion Charging zone, and in 36 town centres with high road danger levels.
• In March 2024, TfL and the Mayor delivered the ‘loop’ of the Superloop network. The orbital loop comprises 10 routes circling the entire city, providing quicker links between town centres, hospitals, schools and transport hubs. The first phase was completed by August 2023 by rebranding four existing routes - and demand on all Superloop routes increased above the network average. Between November 2023 - March 2024, five brand new express routes were launched, connecting North Harrow and Walthamstow Central (SL1); Walthamstow Central and North Woolwich (SL2); Thamesmead and Bromley (SL3); Bromley and Croydon (SL5); and Harrow and North Finchley (SL10).
• Santander Cycles saw another record-breaking year for 2023 member hires - at 6.75m. This is the highest since the scheme began, highlighting e-bike and membership option popularity. A new daily tariff was launched in March 2024 - for £3, riders can make unlimited 30-minute hires within 24 hours. This helps to make the scheme more accessible, constituting one of London's cheapest ways to travel.  

Infrastructure  

The Mayor’s Infrastructure Coordination Service (ICS) continued to deliver across all three service lines (Streets, Planning and Development), reducing road disruption while supporting delivery and London's long-term infrastructure planning needs. It has achieved the following:  

• Accelerated collaborative street works, with 10 such projects having been completed last year (saving Londoners over 210 days of disruption) with over 40 more in the pipeline. These collaborative efforts have saved approximately 4.5 tonnes of CO2, contributing air pollution reductions. This brings total completed street works to 30, with over £10m worth of societal benefits delivered. Whilst these projects only represent a small proportion of London’s street works, the ICS has used them to develop best practice, continuing embedding collaborative approaches across London’s utilities, so the approach can scale up widely across the industry.  
• Tackled electricity capacity challenges in west London, through the Mayor’s convening power. Working with the electricity sector, Ofgem, boroughs and the government, the ICS implemented short and medium-term solutions allowing many affordable housing schemes to progress where they would otherwise have stalled. To date, the delivery of 7,800 homes (of which 2,900 are affordable) has been unlocked through GLA support, introducing innovative solutions through London's electricity networks. The ICS continues to convene partners, to work towards longer-term issue solutions.
• Successfully convened boroughs and energy networks to deliver West London's first subregional Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) – also launched work on subregional LAEPs in north and south London. Subregional LAEPs are funded by the Mayor, ensuring all areas of London are better prepared to support new, affordable housing delivery and decarbonisation, translating the Mayor's net-zero target into action. The ICS continues to support boroughs to build on the work of these subregional plans, with a final subregional LAEP for east London beginning in 2024-25.  
• Successfully applied (in partnership with Thames Water) for £1.5m funding from Ofwat’s innovation fund, to develop, test and pilot a method to scale up delivering sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS), seeking to annually install SuDS in some of the city's 160,000 planned utility streetworks. The project's market-based approach will match those looking to deliver SuDS (Thames Water, boroughs) with organisations delivering routine streetworks (utilities, highways teams) efficiently and at scale. 
• The Mayor continues to work with his London Infrastructure Group (LIG), comprised of senior executives from across infrastructure providers, regulators, the government and wider industry. The LIG has committed to working collaboratively toward the Mayor’s net zero by 2030 goal, continuing its programme to improve diversity and inclusion in infrastructure and construction sectors. As part of this work (and leveraging the Building Future London primary-school outreach pilot programme's success) a schools engagement curriculum is being developed to enhance, or kick-start, LIG-undertaken school engagement activities, seeking to raise aspirations and showcase career opportunities in the sector.  
• The Mayor has continued to convene two diverse panels to support his work on infrastructure – the Mayor’s Infrastructure Advisory Panel and his Young Professionals Panel. These bring together a diverse leader range in infrastructure and development sectors. Panel members share key aims, addressing the sector's lack of diversity. They do so by offering a platform for innovative ideas to be brought forward by highly skilled (but often under-represented) women and ethnic minority professionals.  

Connectivity

• The Mayor’s Connected London programme has delivered 448 public sites with full-fibre connectivity, delivering new or improved digital services to Londoners, taking fibre directly into London’s neighbourhood. The network (which the Mayor has allocated £16m of grant funding to), plans to connect another 550 public buildings in 2024 – such as libraries, youth centres, community buildings and hostels. 
• The Mayor’s flagship digital inclusion service, Get Online London (delivered by the London Office of Technology and Innovation, and the Good Things Foundation) has helped nearly 60,000 Londoners get online by providing a device, as well as data and/or digital-skills training. The programme is approaching its third and final delivery year, with a target of 75,000 Londoners. 
• The Connected London team and London Plan team are coordinating to develop London Plan Guidance (LPG), supporting Policy SI 6 of the London Plan. The guidance will provide specific planning guidance for digital connectivity, using the Mayor’s general powers. A draft LPG has been through public consultation, closing in January 2024. Formal review is now taking place, with adoption earmarked for summer 2024. 
• The way telephone services are delivered is changing, which could potentially impact millions of people - particularly those using telehealth services. The Mayor established a monthly working group - to share information, raise awareness, and identify challenges faced by boroughs delivering services using the Public Service Telephone Network. The Chief Digital Officer has been lobbying the government and Ofcom to launch a nationwide communication campaign, establishing a data-sharing agreement considering borough requirements (and not just communication providers), working with these providers to ensure boroughs are informed about specific switch-off plans. 

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