London

Introduction

 

Greater London is the UK’s only world city with 7.51 million inhabitants accounting for almost 15 per cent of England’s population, although by size it is the smallest of the English regions at 1,572sq km (1.2 per cent of the total land area of England).

London is governed at a strategic tier by the Greater London Authority, consisting of a directly elected executive Mayor for London scrutinised by a 25 member elected Assembly, and at the local tier 32 boroughs and the City of London.

London has a dynamic and successful economy. It is one of the world’s leading centres for international financial and business services and is the headquarter base for many of the world’s leading companies. But London also has some of the most deprived communities in the country – with 26 per cent of London's neighbourhoods within the top 20 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods in England and over 30 per cent of its working age population workless.

London has also become one of the most diverse and culturally rich cities in the world. Over 300 languages are spoken and there are at least 50 non-indigenous communities of 10,000 people or more.

Map

Demographics for London

Mid-2007 Population Estimates

Figures updated annually. Last update February 2009. Source: Office for National Statistics.

Regional Minister for London: The Rt Hon Tony McNulty MP

Children and Learners

• twenty Local Authorities in London are already involved with the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) national programme. There are 24 BSF projects in Waves one – six of the programme (in 20 authorities) and eight One School Pathfinder schools being built in authorities in the latter waves of the programme. Currently Lambeth, Lewisham, Westminster, Islington and Hackney have signed contracts to start work. In Waves one to four £1.691bn has been allocated to local authorities in London
• eighty local authorities are now engaged in the programme (including recently fast-tracked to begin their projects this summer)
• the consultation management of BSF waves seven to fifteen was carried out this summer. This was followed by an invitation in the autumn to all authorities with projects in waves seven to fifteen to revise their expressions of interest, which include how their schools are grouped into projects. This will give authorities, the opportunity to revise their BSF projects in line with their local priorities. We will announce the revised national programme and work to announcing the next authorities to be started in the programme in 2009
• as part of the DCSF's schools capital announcement in October 2007, covering the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR07) period 2008-09 to 2010-11, 76 local authorities not currently in BSF will receive Targeted Capital Funding (TCF) of £8m each, in addition to their devolved allocations, to undertake capital projects to support 14-19 diplomas and special educational needs provision. There is also an application based TCF Standards and Diversity Fund to which schools and local authorities can apply for proposed projects which meet the criteria set out in published guidance
• Sure Start is the Government's programme to deliver the best start in life for every child.  Sure Start Children’s Centres are one-stop central hubs for children under the age of five and their families, with easy access to family health care, advice and support for parents including drop in sessions, outreach services, integrated early education and childcare and link through to training and employment. Within London 475 children's centres have been designated so far offering services to around 407,000 young children and their families
• National Healthy Schools Programme - as of 18 March 2009 of the 2,440 schools in London targeted by the programme 72% have National Healthy School Status (NHSS) and 98% are participating in the programme. London has therefore exceeded the National Milestone for December 2009 of 65% NHSS and 95% participation
  

Health and Well Being

• NHS London is using the opportunity of London's hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to encourage healthy and active lifestyles for all Londoners.  NHS London is also working to ensure commitments made in the Olympic Bid around the provision of health services and resilience planning are met.  The 2012 Programme at NHS London has worked with M&C Saatchi (the creative team behind change4life, to create a visual identity for the 2012 health Legacy programme to be used in conjunction with change4life branding.  Any London organisation will soon be able to use the new creative material to support the delivery of their physical activity projects
• in August 2008, NHS London announced an investment of £60m to improve standards of maternity services across London
• in August 2008, NHS London announced each of London's 31 Primary Care Trusts (PCT) is to receive an extra £60,000 to raise the uptake of the MMR vaccination. Measles represents the single biggest avoidable infectious disease risk in London today. It is hoped this extra funding and accompanying publicity campaign will raise awareness amongst parents of the importance of getting their children vaccinated against this disease
• on 6 June 2008 NHS London issued figures showing that the NHS across London now has 906 Modern Matrons, whose role is to deliver a safe, clean environment for patient care. This exceeds the government target for London trusts by more than 100
• the Equitable Access to Primary Medical Care programme plays a significant role in achieving the vision of a fair and personalised NHS.  Ministers have announced that the Government will be providing new investment of £250m to support PCTs in establishing:
• at least 100 new general practices in the 25% of PCTs with the poorest provision
• 50% of all GP practices offering extended opening hours, and
• one new GP-led health centre in each PCT in easily accessible locations
• seven PCTs in London are among those with poorest provision and are between them procuring 14 additional GP practices.  In addition each London PCT is procuring a new GP Led Health centre.  The target on extended hours has already been achieved
• Newham University Hospitals NHS Trust opened the £55m PFI buildings Health Central and St Andrew’s Wing in July 2006.  Health Central is the new outpatients unit and houses most of the outpatient's services in one facility that provides close access to central resources such as x-ray and pathology. St Andrew's wing accommodates the new main entrance and provides Care of the Elderly and stroke services across three new wards which have moved from St Andrew's Hospital. The new wing also accommodates Pine Therapies, allowing the Trust to provide physiotherapy and cardiac rehabilitation services on the same site
• the North West London Hospital NHS Trust opened its £69m PFI-funded Central Middlesex Hospital in March 2006. The CABE-award winning new building replaced its 100 year old predecessor and features a new model of care that allows more patients to be treated in the community
• Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust opened the £118m PFI-funded state of the art Princess Royal University Hospital on 1 April 2003. The facility has 525 acute beds, and since opening, a further £10m has been invested in new equipment
• the new University College Hospital opened to patients in June 2005 and became fully operational by the end of 2005. It is phase 1 of £422m PFI building project, one of the largest NHS developments. £26m spent on new equipment, 1/3 of beds in single rooms, designed for infection control, a young people’s floor designed to be a home from home for teenagers. Phase 2 providing maternity services is on schedule to open later in 2008
• Lewisham Hospital's new solar-powered Riverside Health Centre was formally opened by Archbishop Desmond Tutu on 21 May 2007. This £72m facility, phase three of the Trust’s redevelopment programme, contains 419 beds as well as 4 additional theatres, an endoscopy suite and a new integrated Critical Care Unit for the seriously ill
• the 939-bed Queen’s Hospital, Romford, became fully operational in December 2006.  It brought together services formerly provided at Harold Wood & Oldchurch Hospitals, and the capital cost of the PFI project was £238m
• There are also the following LIFT schemes (date opened):
  • Camden and Islington (£7.1m to date) – Hanley Road (June 2006); Bingfield Street (August 2005)
  • East London LIFT Accommodation Service (£49.5m to date) – The Centre Manor Park (September 2004); Boleyn Centre, Barking Road (August 2005); Special Addiction Unit, Mile End (March 2006); Frail Elders, East Ham (November 2006)
  • Redbridge and Waltham Forest (£15.06m to date) – Comely Bank, Waltham Forest; Manford Way; Wood Street, Waltham Forest
  • Barnet, Enfield and Haringey (£21.6m to date) – Vale Drive; Forest Road
  • Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon (£17.5m to date) – Alexandra Avenue; Monks Park
  • Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich (£54.8m to date)
  • Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow (£28.6m to date) – Cloister Road
  • Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham (£31m to date)
  • South West London (£18.48m to date) – Green Wrythe Lane Health Centre (October 2006)

Crime and Drugs

• London achieved a reduction in recorded crime of 21.4 per cent at the end of March 2008, exceeding the challenging target of 19.4 per cent set under the Home Office Public Service Agreement 1 and making an important contribution towards achieving the national target.  Serious Acquisitive Crime in London has continued to fall and has reduced by more than the national average (end Feb 2009)
• there is now a Prolific and other Priority Offender (PPO) Scheme operating in every London borough, with a total of 1,147 registered PPO’s across London.  Of these, 50 per cent are remanded in custody or serving a custodial sentence, 21 per cent are under active supervision in the community, 12 per cent are in the criminal justice system (arrest to sentence), 4 per cent are subject to proactive targeting by the police, 4 per cent are subject to a voluntary rehabilitative intervention and 8 per cent are subject to basic monitoring.
• the London Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Board, Chaired by Mike Lockwood, Chief Executive of the London Borough of Harrow, continues to drive forward initiatives in an effort to tackle ASB in the capital. The 2006-07 Best Value/Local Government User Satisfaction Survey (LGUSS) which involved gauging the perceptions of over 1,100 residents in each London borough in relation to ASB has been subject to detailed analysis. In 2003, 43 per cent of London residents perceived ASB to be a very or fairly big problem in their local area but this figure dropped to 29 per cent in the 2006-07 survey. In 2008/9, the Board has prioritised: environmental ASB; tackling ASB experienced by young people; alcohol-related ASB; development of a pan-London ASBO Register; and tackling ASB around Halloween and Fireworks Night. As part of this, GOL drew down £30,000 each from Home Office for six boroughs to help tackle the problems they face at this time of year. All six used the additional funding innovatively and effectively and saw significant reductions in crime, notably robbery, and ASB. Across London, the co-ordinated initiative led by the London ASB Board helped achieve a 15.5 per cent reduction in robbery during the period (214 less victims as compared with 2007), and  a reduction of 20 per cent in ASB calls from the public to the Metropolitan Police. Considerable reductions were seen in many other crime and ASB types such as criminal damage and secondary fires
• the London ASB Board is in the process of finalising priorities for 2009/10. this will included responses to the results of the 2008/09 Place Survey which gauged the perceptions of residents in each London borough where ASB is concerned. Place Survey results are due to be published on 1 April 2009
• the London Community Safety Partnership has recently adopted “serious youth violence” as a priority work stream. Serious Youth Violence Summit was held on 21 November 2008 has led to the creation of a Serious Youth Violence Board chaired by Darra Singh, Chief Executive of LB Ealing. The new Board will maintain high-level involvement from Children’s Services as well as community safety, health and national and local government
• the London Community Safety Partnership established a London Youth Crime Prevention Board, chaired by Lord Victor Adebowale in 2007. This has brought together a range of partners including schools and Directors of Children’s Services to focus on youth crime prevention. Over the 18 months of Board’s life it has developed and is piloting a Safer Schools Award across schools in London, looking at alternative provision and Pupil Referral Units and has secured funding to support the raising of standards in PRUs and has put in place measures to ensure the Youth Justice System can be made more efficient and more accessible to young people and their families.  The Board will launch its final report at the end of March 2009 but the new Serious Youth Violence Board will take forward the monitoring and support of its workstreams
• GOL has produced a regional statement of priorities for alcohol and, in partnership with the Greater London Drug and Alcohol Alliance, has established a 3 tier structure to deliver on those priorities
• in partnership with the Met Police and Regional Public Health colleagues, GOL is progressing the sharing of anonymised data on violent assaults between a number of key London A&E depts and CDRPs. The objective is to use the learning from these “early adopter” sites to support this type of data sharing pan London
• a number of GOL funded initiatives aimed at reducing the use of powder cocaine in London took place in early 2009. These ranged from harm reduction messages at premier football matches, to outreach work in pubs and clubs
• good progress continues to be made with supporting high risk victims of domestic violence.  GOL has supported the establishment of Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) within the majority of London boroughs; providing pump-priming funding for IDVA posts and accredited training for IDVAs and MARACs
• GOL hosts and facilitates the London Local Authority DV Co-ordinators Network. This is proving to be an effective mechanism for communicating Government policy; supporting local delivery through the sharing of effective practice between boroughs; and ensuring that the views, ideas and priorities of local partners are fed into central government policy-making
• GOL is also supporting regional and local innovation in tackling domestic and sexual violence.  Funded projects include: perpetrator programmes; activity to tackle negative attitudes and perceptions; and interventions to support children affected by domestic violence
• GOL has coordinated a scheme to identify effective and sustainable domestic burglary interventions through sharing and analysing the experiences of relevant London boroughs. The boroughs were encouraged to follow an evidence-led, problem solving approach and tailor responses to local problems, identifying best practice and empowering those tasked with delivering the Home Office Delivery Plan. Interventions ranged from environmental improvements such as alley gating and planting of vegetation; repeat and near repeat victimisation packages; community information and reassurance campaigns and targeting of vulnerable community groups such as the elderly and students. GoL and the Jill Dando institute will hold two workshops to explain the learning and provide delegates with the practical skills, knowledge and toolkits to use problem solving approaches

Transport

• public spending on transport in London has risen dramatically since 2000.  The overall funding for TfL has more than doubled from £1.183bn in 2000-01 to £2.855bn in 2008-09
• improvements delivered on the Underground include 108 enhanced stations, 75 fully refurbished trains on the District line, a major refurbishment of the Waterloo and City line and an additional seventh carriage on all Jubilee line trains, plus four new trains.
• In West London, Shepherds Bush station has been refurbished and reopened to coincide with the opening of the Westfield shopping centre and a new station, Wood Lane, was also opened on the other side of the centre
• the most recent assessment showed average congestion in 2007 was identical to pre-charge levels in 2002.  Traffic levels in 2007 remained stable at 16 per cent below pre-charge conditions
• the Oyster ‘freedom pass’ was introduced in February 2004, giving free travel on London's public transport for disabled, blind and older Londoners, paid for by local councils, and from January 2009 this scheme will be extended to 24 hours working. Just over one million freedom passes have been issued
• children aged 5 to 10 can travel free at any time on buses, buses, Underground, trams, DLR and London Overground services
• children aged 11 to 15 with a valid Oyster photocard at any time can travel free on buses and trams and at child-rate on the Underground, DLR and London Overground services
• all 16 to 17-year-olds can travel at child-rate on bus, Underground, tram, DLR and London Overground services with a 16+ Oyster photocard
• an 18+ student can buy certain student-rate Travelcards and Bus tickets valid for 7 days or more which cost 30 per cent less than the adult-rate.  Students living in London have further discounts available
• London bus patronage grew by 47 per cent between 1997-98 and 2007-08. Service reliability on London's buses is at its best level since records began in 1977. Every weekday 8,300 scheduled buses carry over 6 million passengers on more than 700 different routes, with 2,176 million passenger journeys in 2007-08
• nearly 70 per cent of rail passenger journeys begin or end in Greater London
• the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is now complete, and Eurostar services began operation from St Pancras on 14th November 2007 as planned
• on 11th November 2007, TfL London Overground took over responsibility for local service between London Euston & Watford Junction, Richmond to Stratford via Willesden Junction, Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction via Kensington Olympia and Gospel Oak to Barking lines
• a new station, Shepherds Bush, was opened on the Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction line to coincide with the opening of the Westfield shopping Centre.
• services are expected to commence before the Olympics in 2012 on the East London line extension, which will form part of the London Overground network and run from Surrey Quays station on the old East London line to Clapham Junction. TfL announced it would be pursuing this project in February 2009
• the first Hitachi high speed 'Javelin' train has arrived in the UK. The 'Javelin' service will run on the CTRL and transport passengers from Kings Cross St Pancras to the Olympic park in seven minutes

Social Inclusion and Regeneration

• £525m is being allocated under the New Deal for Communities initiative, over ten years for ten projects to tackle multiple-deprivation and social exclusion
• from 2008/09 the Government has significantly increased local authorities’ flexibility to make their Communities Safer and Stronger, support neighbourhood renewal and tackle violent extremism, by moving £4bn of funding into the new Area Based Grant (ABG).  The ABG will significantly help to tackle social inclusion and regeneration by:
• giving boroughs and their LSP partners the freedom to decide how best to use the money to tackle the local priorities set out in their Local Area Agreement (which is a set of priorities for the borough that has been agreed between local partners and central Government);
• allocating funding on a three-year basis, giving the borough and its partners financial stability and making it easier to plan ahead; and
• reducing the level of bureaucracy and reporting required by central Government, enabling boroughs and their partners to focus on delivering outcomes
  

European Funding

2007-13 ERDF & ESF programmes:

• London will receive approximately £142m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
• London will receive approximately £375m from the European Social Fund (ESF)
• working on behalf of the Mayor of London, the European Programmes Management Unit at the London Development Agency will be responsible for the administration of the European Structural Funds

2000-06 ERDF & ESF programmes:

• a total of £676m has been available in the 2000-06 Programmes. £190m to support Objective 2 (ERDF £168m and ESF £22m) and  £486m to support Objective 3 (ESF only) projects
• many projects spent funds in 2007, with some continuing to spend in early 2008
• the 2000-06 Objective 2 Programme targeted wards in 13 of the most disadvantaged boroughs and aimed to tackle barriers to economic opportunity in areas suffering industrial decline, urban deprivation, low economic activity and social exclusion.
• all funds in the current programme have now been committed
• the priority for GOL now is to close the current Programmes effectively

Source: Office for National Statistics. Last updated 24 March 2009