London

Introduction

Greater London is the UK’s only world city with 7.51m inhabitants accounting for almost 15% of England’s population, although by size it is the smallest of the English regions at 1,572 sq km (1.2% 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% of London's neighbourhoods within the top 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in England and over 30% 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.

Demographics for London

Mid-2006 Population Estimates

Regional Minister for London: The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP

Children and Learners

• Under the Building Schools for the Future initiative, projects worth £328m are in procurement for improving secondary school buildings and facilities in three London authorities, covering 15 schools. In a further eight authorities projects worth £742m and covering 50 schools are in the planning stage, with three of these authorities expected to enter procurement in the first quarter of 2006.
• In October 2005 the Education Secretary, announced the results of the 2006-09 Targeted Capital Fund (TCF). London boroughs are to receive nearly £240m to meet schools’ priority building needs which are too large to be supported from formulaic programmes, and too urgent to wait for Building Schools for the Future funding. 
• The Sure Start initiative aims to improve the life chances of children under four in areas of need. Within London Children’s centres are being developed in every neighbourhood to bring together early education, childcare, health and family support, 215 Centres have been designated to date.
• To date 2,184 (89%) of the 2,454 schools in London targeted by the Healthy Schools programme have joined the National Healthy Schools programme. 1373 (56%) have now achieved ‘healthy school’ status.

Health and Well Being

• Approximately £4.6bn is being invested in major capital projects with more than £20m to redevelop and build brand new hospitals across London.
• There are 24 NHS walk-in centres in London. Three are Commuter Walk-in Centres in Canary Wharf, Liverpool Street and Victoria
• There are now 11 Foundation Trusts in London (7 Acute Trusts and 4 Mental Health Trusts).
• The new Heart of Hounslow Centre for Health was officially handed over to Hounslow PCT on 9 February 2007. The new centre will dramatically improve the healthcare experience for local residents and is one of the largest centres of its kind in Europe. As well as three GP practices, the new centre will host a range of community care services including improved outpatient facilities, social care outreach, services for children and care for people with learning disabilities. There will also be a health information centre and new therapy gym to aid rehabilitation.
• The new Queen’s Hospital in Romford (a PFI £261m building) opened in December 2006.
• Rebuilding of Alexandria Avenue in South Harrow - 5 Agencies across the borough are providing 18 services in the new centre which opened to the public in August 2006.
• A new £72m building, the Riverside Building opened at University Hospital Lewisham in Dec 06. This is one of the first NHS projects to include extensive use of photovoltaics to generate energy.
• A new 24-hour emergency Heart Attack Centre opened at The London Chest Hospital in April 2006. The centre is the biggest of its kind in the UK, serving 2m people from the City to the M25.
• Work was also completed in 2006 on the £40m programme to provide acute mental health services for adults and older people in Central and North West London Mental Health Trust.
• A new birth centre opened at the Mayday hospital in Croydon in August 2006 and is already proving very popular as an alternative to a home birth or traditional labour ward birth.
• Newham University Hospitals NHS Trust opened the £34m PFI buildings Health Central and St Andrew's Wing in July 2006. Health Central is the new outpatient’s 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.

Crime

• Implementation of the Prolific and other Priority Offenders (PPO) Scheme across London continues to go well. There are 1,096 registered PPO’s across London, of whom, 150 (14%) are on bail, 43% are remanded in custody or serving a custodial sentence (468), and 11 are wanted (1%).
• Over 640 young people were targeted for the ‘prevent and deter’ strand of the PPO scheme.
• In 2005/06 the perceived growth in gangs and group offending resulted in the development of the London Gangs, Guns and Weapons Reduction Board. The programmes intersect with education, housing, worklessness, health and are aimed at prevention through early intervention, supported by reduction tactics and community mobilisation against gang related criminality. The Five Boroughs Gangs Project exists to reduce the harm caused by gangs across Croydon, Lewisham, Lambeth, Greenwich and Southwark.
• For 2007–08 London receives nearly £28m from a national budget of £149m to engage offending Problematic Drug Users in Drug Treatment as a means of reducing offending.
• Since September 2005, when partnerships were first required to undertake RAGing assessments using a range of indicators, there has been significant progress in developing young people’s substance misuse provision across London.  Successes to date include: increased numbers of young people receiving drug treatment, 27 Boroughs were providing Drugs Education in line with the Government’s NHSS target, significant improvements have been achieved in delivering Drug interventions to Vulnerable Young People and plans to produce guidance for working with truants and Excludees are on schedule for completion this year.

Transport

• Over £1bn a year was allocated to Transport for London from the Government for Public Private Partnership (PPP) to improve day-to-day network maintenance, long-term capacity and reliability of the underground.
• Successful bids for DfT’s and DCLG’s Community Infrastructure Fund, which supports the construction of transport links in new communities, were announced in March 2006. This resulted in £25m being secured for six transport related projects in the capital.
• Free travel on the buses and trams for all under-16s, introduced in September 2005 and as of September 2006 is also now available to under-18s in full time education. Under 18’s with a valid Oyster photocard are allowed to travel at half the adult fare. As of April 2007, under-11s accompanied by an adult have been able to use the Tube and the DLR for free.
• Responsibility of rail services in London remains with central government working in partnership with Network Rail, the train operating companies and TfL. Key achievements include, Phase two of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is due to open in 2007. New rolling stock introduced on all commuter lines and over £1bn invested in the modernisation of the Southern power supply, allowing the three passenger train operating companies south of the river to introduce over 2,000 new rail vehicles, and the Integrated Kent Franchise process, which will see new high speed commuter services into London on the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link line from 2009.

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.
• Over £227m of Neighbourhood Renewal Fund was allocated to support 19 Local Strategic Partnerships.
• £9.3m is being allocated as part of the Safer and Stronger Communities Fund (SSCF), Neighbourhood Element funding and £14.7m Cleaner, Safer Greener funding allocated to Local Strategic Partnerships.
• From 2007/08, NRF and SSCF resources will be fully pooled into LAAs.
• In 2006/07 the Government Office for London, working in partnership with The Scarman Trust, awarded small grants of up to £2,000 from DfES's Community Champions Fund to over 220 individuals.  74% of the Champions are from Black and Minority Ethnic communities. GOL's budget for 2007/08 will allow grants to be awarded to up to 230 more people this year.
• Through London’s ChangeUp programme the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) received £6.2m from 2004-06 to build their capacity to deliver public services and support communities. A further £2m of ChangeUp funding has now been secured from CapacityBuilders.
• Tackling Extremism Delivery Fund: The Government has provided £2.3m as an additional element within SSCF/LAAs to support work on tackling extremism. These funds will form part of the resources received through the LAA. 23 London Boroughs will benefit, although the funding criteria are likely to be focused on multi-borough actions.

European Funding

• The Construction Employment and Skills Partnership’ project, led by Barnet College, has been awarded £2,075,000 of European Social Fund. The project uses constructions’ key role in the regeneration of London to engage and train unemployed people in disadvantaged areas as part of the social regeneration process. It aims to provide real construction skills and sustainable jobs to achieve social justice and economic success for those currently local to, but excluded from large scale regeneration initiatives.

Source: Office for National Statistics