Centre for London

Housing is the starting point for prosperity, but the capital’s housing market is broken. How can we make practical progress on solving London’s housing crisis? Join us at our London Housing Summit, on 5th June as we bring together key stakeholders to answer this question. Together, we will co-create a mission driven plan for housing in London. The Summit, delivered with the support of Brent Council, The G15, London Councils and the London Housing Directors’ Group, will feature high-profile speakers from across government, leadership and the third sector in an exciting day programme. We are delighted to announce that Mariana Mazzucato, Professor at UCL and Founder of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, will be delivering a keynote speech. Spaces are limited, so register your interest now: https://lnkd.in/eBim2tSE Latest information on speakers and the programme for the day will be uploaded to our website: https://lnkd.in/eBim2tSE

Do you want to shape the future of London’s cultural offering? Centre for London and Talk London want to hear from you as part of their research project ‘Arts for All’. Take the survey to share your experiences of arts and culture in the capital: https://lnkd.in/eQMY3Uca Have your say and help shape the future of London’s cultural offering by participating in the survey, which ends on Sunday 21 July. #London #Artsforall

London’s Santander cycle hire scheme has increased by 900 e-bikes as part of a 200% fleet expansion. More than one million hires have been made on the e-bikes since they were introduced in 2022, and the highest volume of e-bike users on a single day fell on June 27 last month with 3,584 hires. “Cycling has grown considerably over the past two years, with a 20 per cent increase since 2019 alone. This is the fastest growing mode of transport by far and the Mayor and I have been working hard to meet this growing demand,” London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner Will Norman told Zag Daily. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ejzMZRJe

Labour have pledged to build 1.5 million new homes over 5 years in their manifesto.   🏗 At Centre for London, we estimate that a quarter of these homes must be built in the capital to meet demand for housing.   Yesterday, Rachel Reeves gave her first speech as Chancellor, re-committing to Labour’s housebuilding targets and providing insight into their plan to bring these targets to fruition.   From planning reform to re-instating mandatory housebuilding targets and a new housing taskforce to accelerate new housebuilding, she laid-out Labour’s roadmap for policy change to revive housebuilding.   🏡 One key aspect of their policy propositions stood out – the release of ‘grey-belt’ land to allow for strategic housebuilding on low-quality sections of the green belt. This is a solution to housing which we have called for repeatedly since publishing our report ‘Homes Fit for Londoners: Solving London's Housing Crisis.’   Our CEO, Antonia Jennings, comments below:

Labour’s support base has grown broader and shallower in the capital. As the city’s number one challenge, Londoners will expect fast action on poverty to retain confidence in the new government. The Government’s manifesto pledges around inclusive growth, house building and free school meals are welcome news for those struggling in London, but it may time some time for those benefits to be felt. Reversing the two child benefit cap would also lift tens of thousands out of poverty in London, and fast. Pleasure to join Tim Donovan again on BBC London yesterday!

Congratulations to The Labour Party Party from all of us at Centre for London. We look forward to working with you in partnership with London’s government and key stakeholders to create a fair, green and prosperous capital city. We would also like to extend our thanks to The Conservative Party ministers who have worked with us across the last decade and beyond in our goal to build a capital city which functions for all. London, and the wider UK, is facing huge challenges, from the cost-of-living crisis to the housing emergency and the looming threat of environmental breakdown. While no one policy will fix these issues, there are tangible ways the next government could begin to tackle them: 💳 Fiscal devolution to London and fellow combined mayoral authorities. This would incentivise good, sustainable growth within local boroughs for the benefit of all their residents and provide local government with the adequate long-term funding required to deliver their vital public services. 🏡 Build on the green belt. We need to allow housebuilding on strategically defined low-quality sections of the green belt. Building on just 5% of poor quality ‘grey belt’ land around London could unlock space for almost 900,000 new homes. 🚄 Invest in major infrastructure projects Crossrail 2 and the extension of the Bakerloo line have the potential to create thousands of new job opportunities for some of the most deprived communities in the country and could contribute to improving productivity thus increasing tax receipts for desperately needed public investment. To achieve these goals, the newly elected Labour government must support our capital, and make the case for our fantastic capital city. Our CEO Antonia Jennings comments below:

👉 "Improving living standards across the UK is not a zero-sum game." Do you agree? 🟨 EP50: https://lnkd.in/e8nJXGkw With divisive political rhetoric abound, you'd be remiss for thinking that any pro-London policies right now would be a death nail for the rest of the country. Is the "Anti-London Bias" a feature or a bug of levelling up? On this week's episode of How Might We I chatted with Antonia Jennings, CEO of Centre for London about all this & more focusing on the theme: 🔹 How Might We Improve Democracy in London 🔹 Antonia joined Centre for London in September 2023, from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. Prior to joining the team, Antonia worked in numerous charities, think tanks and campaigning organisations promoting new economic thinking. She has expertise across progressive local economic development, deepening democracy and sustainable economics. Antonia holds a Master’s degree with distinction in Politics and Communications, and a BA (Hons) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. She is Chair of the board of Rethinking Economics. 🔹 Connect with Antonia on X - https://lnkd.in/eHkccjqQ 🔹 Find out more about Centre for London - https://lnkd.in/eM_Q6y72 #politics #democracy #London #culture #creative #devolution

🎧 Listen to our CEO Antonia Jennings on the How Might We Podcast with Patrick Scally. Tune in to hear about how all about how we might improve democracy in London and our vision for devolution within the capital. ✂ Here's a snippet: "Why does democracy in London and the UK matter? It matters at the moment more than ever, because the challenges we're facing are playing out very differently depending on where you live. Whether that's the cost of living crisis, the housing crisis, the climate crisis, we know that the roadmaps towards solving those crises are going to need bespoke approaches." Click here for more: https://lnkd.in/ercQjy_Z

Antonia Jennings is the CEO of Centre for London - the capital’s think-tank which provides research and advocacy around London’s biggest challenges. For #10 of Zag’s Women Making Moves series Antonia explains why outer London needs its own sustainable transport strategy and why ULEZ should shift to a pay-per-mile charging system. “If you live in outer London close to the ULEZ boundary, there may be an Asda that's one mile within the ULEZ zone or 20 miles outside of the ULEZ zone. With the current construction, it means that you're perversely incentivized to travel further. And you have a small cohort of drivers who drive huge distances across London and yet still pay the same as someone driving two miles to the supermarket, so it’s a regressive charge.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/g-9M9Jwb

🎨 84% of Londoners believe that the city's cultural scene is important in ensuring a high quality of life. And yet, Londoners are less likely than those living elsewhere in the UK to access the cultural offerings on their doorsteps. 🎵 So, how do we make arts and cultural accessible to all Londoners? We're working with Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan and Culture Mile BID to find out - this research will unpack how policymakers can remove the barriers preventing Londoners from engaging in the city's rich cultural offerings. 📣 Want your voice to be hear? Sign up and take our survey to share your experiences of arts and culture in the capital: https://lnkd.in/eVdgDnbu