MIL Pubishing Engine 2

Source: London Assembly

The Mayor has taken alarmingly little action to retrofit London’s buildings, a new report from Zack Polanski AM shows.

Despite campaigning on the issue for two elections, and declaring a ‘retrofit revolution’ in 2021, London is still upgrading its leaky housing stock at incredibly slow rate and doesn’t have enough skilled workers to even use the small amounts of funding that have been made available by Government – meanwhile, City Hall still doesn’t have a strategy to change path.

Key findings from the report include:

• London is retrofitting its homes over ten times slower than the rate we need to be moving to hit the Mayor’s 2030 net zero target, meanwhile the Mayor’s Warmer Homes Scheme is upgrading less than 1 per cent of the homes needing to be upgraded each year. [4]
• London councils and the GLA have failed to use even the limited sums of money already made available by Government. For instance, councils could only spend 5 per cent of funding from the Government’ flagship Social Housing Decarbonisation Scheme by the initial deadline, with two-thirds of boroughs failing to install a single measure in that time.
• Experts, campaigners, industry professionals and the GLA itself have identified skills shortages as a key issue behind the underspend – an area that the Mayor has huge control of, including via his £320 million per year Adult Education Budget.
• The Mayor has failed to develop and fund specialist retrofit training courses, nor ensure retrofit is incorporated into all construction training – leaving London’s supply chain underdeveloped, under-delivering, and completely ill-equipped for an uptick in investment
• In the Mayor’s Adult Education Budget, just over 1.2 per cent is being spent on ‘technical green skills’ education – and none of this seems to be directly funding learners to develop the technical skills required to retrofit homes
• The Mayor’s attempts to outsource strategic oversight of retrofit training via his flagship ‘Green skills hubs’ have failed to deliver, coming up with only three technical retrofit courses across 17 ‘green’ colleges
• The Mayor’s nebulous ‘green skills’ funding streams and training programmes are failing to address London’s specific skills needs, and amount to a greenwashing of City Hall’s skills offer

Upon publishing his new report, Green Party London Assembly Member Zack Polanski said:

“Londoners are already paying the price for the absence of the Mayor’s retrofit strategy – he needs to seize this issue, not revert to empty rhetoric and greenwashing his policies.

“The Mayor’s hands-off approach to retrofitting simply does not reflect the urgency of the task at hand. While the national Government must up its investment in retrofit, this doesn’t mean the Mayor can sit on his hands and wait.

“As Government rows-back on net zero commitments, the Mayor has a chance to show that green policies can and do work for everyone – protecting Londoners from sky-high energy costs while providing good, skilled jobs.”

The Report’s primary recommendations are as follows:

1. The Mayor and London Partnership Board should urgently assess the recent failure to deliver existing retrofit funding from the Government, through councils and the GLA, and share their findings.
2. The Mayor should work with the London Partnership Board retrofit sub-group to publish a GLA retrofit strategy, with actions the GLA specifically can make across training provision, procurement, and elsewhere.

The full report can be viewed and downloaded on the website.

Source: London Assembly

Sem Moema AM warns of threats to social mobility as 1,383 vulnerable London households pushed into more debt to pay off mortgage interest.  

Vulnerable Londoners are facing even more debt as a result of the crisis in interest rates and the cost of living crisis, London Labour Assembly Member Sem Moema has said.

65 more London households in mortgage stress have been pushed into taking into Support for Mortgage Interest Loans, taking the total to 1383 – an increase of 5% since February.

Support for Mortgage Interest Loans are payments from the Government for those on low incomes who cannot meet the interest payments on their mortgages, whereby more debt is taken on to avoid repossession. These loans must be repaid, with interest on them charged at 3.28%.

The debt owed to the Government is paid off when the property is sold, meaning those who have used the scheme, or their families, retain less of the value of the home. For many, this will be when the homeowner dies and the ownership of the property is transferred.

Ms Moema warns that this risks creating a “two-tier” system where poorer families lose even more of the value of their homes. Those who have taken out an SMI loan must forgo a larger value to the Government when the house is sold to repay the balance, including the interest.

These repayments threaten the future finances of the family, with poorer families losing the social mobility and financial security of homeownership because of the greater debt to be repaid to the Government.

Despite the disincentives to taking on more debt, London has seen the biggest jump in the number of those using the scheme – going from 1318 to 1383 households.

The jump in the number of Londoners taking up the loans marks the first rise in the figures since 2019. Previously, the scheme has not seen widespread take-up, with government research showing that those in financial distress are often adverse to being burdened with more debt.

Mortgage stress has increased over the past 12 months. 384,000 London households have been hit by rising mortgage rates since the mini-Budget last year, made up of those who are either on variable rate mortgages or have come off fixed rates since October 2022. The Resolution Foundation estimates that the average mortgagor in London will be paying £5,500 more a year by Q4 2024, compared to Q3 2022 when the mini budget was announced.

Assembly Member Moema has called for greater support for Londoners on low incomes facing mortgage cost rises previously, demanding Government action to relieve mortgage stress in the capital. She has been joined by the Mayor to call for the scheme to be returned to a grant rather than a loan.

Labour London Assembly Member and spokesperson for housing, Sem Moema AM said:

“These statistics show a worrying trend where some of the most economically vulnerable Londoners are being pushed into even more debt.

“Whether that is because they’ve lost their jobs, suffered an injury or had to stop work for another reason, it’s not right that the Government is taking more of the value of their home – creating a two-tier system where poorer Londoners lose more of the financial benefits of home ownership while richer ones do not.

“Huge mortgage rate rises and the cost of living crisis are putting huge pressure on household budgets. These problems are failures of governments, not individual families. It’s not right that they have to take on even more debt when the Government should be taking action instead.”

Source: London Assembly

Falling child vaccination rates present an emerging crisis for London, Dr Onkar Sahota, Labour London Assembly spokesperson for health, has warned.  

The number of children being vaccinated fell across London in 2022/23, with London performing significantly worse than any other region, new NHS data shows. Dr Sahota has called on the NHS to bring forward an immunisation strategy urgently to address the growing gaps in vaccine coverage.  

The capital is the worst performing region in England, with only 74% of children receiving the second dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) by age 5 and 87.4% for the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, hep B, Hib, polio, tetanus and whooping cough, by age 2, the ages where the NHS records whether children are up to date with their vaccines.  

The NHS has a target vaccination rate of 95%, in line with World Health Organisation guidance. London is failing to hit this target across any of the 14 different vaccine coverage measures reported in 2022/23. 

The 14 worst-performing council areas for take-up of MMR 1^st and 2^nd dose by age 5 are all in London, with Hackney and the City of London seeing just 56.3% of five-year-olds vaccinated. 

Dr Sahota has warned that, if these trends continue, herd immunity in the general population is under threat. As under-vaccinated cohorts of children begin to go to school, the risk of outbreaks increases substantially. To avoid the outbreaks of serious illnesses such as measles, polio and diphtheria, he has urged families to check that their children are fully up to date with their vaccines. 

Falling vaccination rates were cited as a driver of polio being found in the water supply in East London last year, causing the NHS to deliver a vaccination drive to address the crisis. The presence of polio was cited by the UK Health Security Agency’s immunisation lead, warning last year that the country’s polio eradication status is at risk. 

Between 1 January and 30 June 2023, there have been 128 cases of measles, more than double the 54 cases identified in 2022, with 66% of the cases detected in London.

Across England, vaccine rates have declined substantially over the past decade, with the British Society of Immunology saying that the Government’s reforms to the NHS in 2013 led to a more fragmented approach to vaccination. They also warn that those reforms have caused cuts to the number of immunisation coordinators in the health service. 

London Assembly Labour lead member for health, Dr Onkar Sahota, said:  

“Our city is falling behind when it comes to protecting the health of our children.  

“Illnesses such as measles, polio and diphtheria can cause serious problems. The NHS must bring forward their immunisation strategy urgently as London cannot afford this risk to the health of our children. 

“Vaccines are safe and reliable ways to keep children safe from disease. I urge parents to check that their children are fully up to date with the immunisations available on the NHS.” 

Source: London Assembly

Despite the urgent need for investment, the Mayor of London has admitted, in answer to questions from Siân Berry AM, that his transport policies lack the kind of targets required to meet his own climate goals.

In his written response, the Mayor acknowledged Transport for London (TfL) is already one year late in setting a target to reduce scope 3 emissions, which constitute the overwhelming majority of emissions TfL can influence.

Moreover, the Mayor relayed that he only expects to have a target for them by “the end of 2023,” leaving open the possibility that setting the critical emissions goal could be kicked further down the road. [1] This admission comes at a time when TfL’s own resources for climate action are still insufficient to reduce their emissions in line with the 2030 net zero goal. [2]

Green Party London Assembly Member Siân Berry said:

“Rhetoric is no substitute for action. While Londoners watch their Mayor give speeches abroad, the simple truth is he has failed to even articulate, much less achieve, a critical component of his own climate agenda.

“The Mayor must plan for a reduction in all emissions TfL can influence. That means not just the emissions from the buses that run in the city, but also the data centre that powers the services to tell you when that bus will arrive, as well as the way the bus driver gets to work in the morning. The Mayor and TfL can influence and support much greater reductions in carbon emissions by working on the widest scope.”

“We need a government and a Mayor that recognise climate as the greatest threat to all Londoners. Local government needs real investment in climate action and the capacity both to plan and act on reducing all emissions, including scope 3 emissions.”

Scope 3 emissions refer to all indirect emissions generated from everything except purchased energy. These might include everyday actions like staff travel or raw materials. [3] Originally, TfL had committed to set a scope 3 emissions target by the end of 2022 for carbon emissions from their infrastructure and supply chain. [4] This new information confirms that work reaching this crucial target will be unlikely to start this year.

Source: London Assembly

In her review of standards and culture in the Metropolitan Police Service, Baroness Louise Casey reported that it “lacks accountability and transparency to Londoners” ^[1].

The Mayor announced that he was establishing a London Policing Board to “oversee and scrutinise reform” ^[2] of the Service, after Baroness Casey called for such a structure to be set up in her review.

Members of the Board were announced on 22 September and it met for the first time on 26 September, with verbal updates from Baroness Casey and Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.

Under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, the core remit of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) is to “secure the maintenance of the Metropolitan Police Force”.

How does the establishment of the London Policing Board change MOPAC’s own oversight work?

The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee will hold a Q&A session with the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime to discuss the first meeting of the London Policing Board. Other topics in the session include the Met’s specialist firearms commands, and the Met’s engagement with Londoners.

The guests are:

• Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime
• Kenny Bowie, Director of Strategy and MPS Oversight, MOPAC
• Natasha Plummer, Head of Engagement, MOPAC

The meeting will take place on Thursday 5 October 2023 from 10am, in the Chamber at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, E16 1ZE.

Media and members of the public are invited to attend.

The meeting can also be viewed LIVE or later via webcast or YouTube.

Follow us @LondonAssembly.

Source: London Assembly

Thursday 5 October 2023
London Policing Board

Police and Crime Committee – The Chamber, City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, 10am

Following a recommendation made by Baroness Casey in her review into the standards of behaviour and internal culture at the Metropolitan Police Service, the Mayor announced he was establishing a London Policing Board to “oversee and scrutinise reform” of the service.

Members of the Board were announced on 22 September and it met for the first time on 26 September, with verbal updates from Baroness Casey and Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.

The Police and Crime Committee will hold a Q&A session with the Deputy Mayor of Policing and Crime to discuss the first meeting. Other topics in the session include firearms, and the Met’s engagement with Londoners.

The guests are:

• Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime

MEDIA CONTACT: Emma Bowden on 07849 303897

Source: London Assembly

In his 2021 manifesto, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, committed to setting up a new green financing facility ^[1]. The Mayor’s Green Finance Fund was launched at London Climate Action Week on 29 June 2023 and will lend up to £500m for projects focussed on energy efficiency, clean transport or renewable energy.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) intends to secure the finance for the Green Finance Fund through the issuance of green bonds. However, given the current unfavourable bond market rates, financing will initially come from GLA’s own cash resources.

At the Budget and Performance Committee on 21 September 2023 the GLA’s Interim Chief Finance Officer and Assistant Director Group Finance and Performance confirmed that the GLA’s current cash balances were in the region of £2.5 bn. The Green Finance Fund can lend to the GLA Group, and to Local Authorities, social housing providers, NHS bodies, universities and colleges within any of London’s 32 boroughs and the City of London. The fund offers loans with flexible terms at interest rates at, or below, Public Works Loan Board prevailing rates ^[2].

One of the world’s largest investment funds has raised concerns about the desirability of Green Bonds as an investment option. In 2019, the Japan Government Pension Investment Fund’s Chief Investment Officer stated that Green Bonds are more costly, complicated and cumbersome than other bonds.

Tomorrow, the London Assembly GLA Oversight Committee will meet to examine the Mayor’s Green Finance Fund, particularly the main elements of the Fund including its programme, governance and oversight arrangements. It will examine the types of projects likely to be funded by it and examine the successes and challenges of domestic and international examples of similar schemes.

Guests at the meeting will be:

• Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, GLA
• Catherine Barber, Assistant Director, Environment and Energy, GLA
• Enver Enver, Acting Chief Finance Officer & Director Group Finance & Performance, GLA

The meeting will take place on Thursday 28 September 2023 from 2pm, in The Chamber at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, London, E16 1ZE.

Media and members of the public are invited to attend.

The meeting can also be viewed LIVE or later via webcast or YouTube.

Follow us @LondonAssembly.

Source: London Assembly

More than six years after the Grenfell Tower fire, the remediation of all of London’s high-rise residential buildings remains in progress.

As of August 2023, 200 high-rise buildings in London (73% of all buildings identified) have remediation fully complete, while 58 buildings in London have started to be remediated (21%) ^[1].

What are the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Government doing to press building owners and managers to progress remediation?

Originally thought of as a lightweight, robust and cost-effective material, reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been exposed as having a potential risk of building collapse.

The Government is taking action to address the problem of RAAC in schools, with warnings from the Health and Safety Executive that RAAC is “is liable to collapse with little or no notice” ^[2].

How is its potential wider use in London’s residential settings being addressed, such as in former council housing and social housing?

The London Assembly Fire, Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee will meet tomorrow to discuss this. The guests are:

• Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development
• Jules Pipe CBE, Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills
• Dom Ellis, Deputy Commissioner, London Fire Brigade
• Charlie Pugsley, Assistant Commissioner, London Fire Brigade
• Nick Coombe MBE, Head of Protection, National Fire Chiefs Council
• Roxanne Ohene, Assistant Director, Building Safety, Housing and Land, Greater London Authority (GLA)
• Dr Helen Richman, Building Safety Act Secondary Legislation Programme Lead, Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• Tim Galloway, Deputy Director, Building Safety Programme, HSE

The meeting will take place on Thursday 28 September 2023 from 10am, in The Chamber at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, London, E16 1ZE.

Media and members of the public are invited to attend.

The meeting can also be viewed LIVE or later via webcast or YouTube.

Follow us @LondonAssembly.

Source: London Assembly

On 9 November 2016, a tram overturned whilst travelling at a speed of over three times the speed limit when approaching a sharp curve around Sandilands junction, a stop in a residential area east of Croydon. ^[1]

This crash resulted in seven deaths and 61 passengers injured, 19 of which were serious. ^[2]

In July 2023, Transport for London (TfL) was fined £10m and Tram Operations Limited (TOL) fined £4m for the Croydon tram crash failings after pleading guilty to offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The London Assembly Transport Committee will meet tomorrow as they investigate London’s tram network and how the Sandilands crash has impacted safety measures. The Committee will also look at tram funding, whether it is fulfilling its purpose, and to examine whether there are any opportunities to expand the network to improve transport links across London.

London’s tram network first opened in May 2000, but despite various plans to expand the network across the city, there have been no new routes added to date, due to funding issues and the impact of the pandemic.

Tram services are operated by Tram Operations Limited (TOL), a subsidiary of First Group, and run from Croydon to Wimbledon, Beckenham Junction, Elmers End and New Addington.

Guests at the meeting include:

• Mark Davis, General Manager, Trams, TfL
• Trish Ashton, Director of Rail and Sponsored Services, TfL
• Ben Groome, Managing Director, Tram Operations Ltd
• James Hammett, Managing Director, UK Tram
• Carl Williams, Chief Executive Officer, Light Rail Safety and Standards Board

The meeting will take place on Wednesday 27 September from 10am, in The Chamber, at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, E16 1ZE.

Media and members of the public are invited to attend.

The meeting can also be viewed LIVE or later via webcast or YouTube.

Follow us @LondonAssembly.

Source: London Assembly

• Mayor’s £3.5m emergency funding has helped deliver more than 5.5m meals to hundreds of thousands of children since Sadiq’s emergency funding in April
• More than 3.5m meals alone were given out during the summer school holidays alone to help low-income families
• Sadiq calls on Government to do more to support families as latest stats show 60 per cent of parents or carers of children under 18 are going without their basic needs and/or relying on debt (8 per cent), struggling to make ends meet (16 per cent) or ‘just about managing’ (36 per cent)

 

More than 3.5m free meals were provided to children from low-income families across the capital during the school summer holiday, thanks to funding from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Sadiq’s £3.5m emergency free holiday meals programme has benefitted hundreds of thousands of low-income families since it was launched in April, with more than 5.5m meals in total already given out over school holidays and weekends.

The Mayor is urging Ministers to do more to help families struggling with the cost of living as startling polling from YouGov, commissioned by City Hall, shows 24 per cent of parents or carers with children under 18 are ‘financially struggling’, with 60 per cent stating that they are having to go without their basic needs and/or relying on debt (8 per cent), struggling to make ends meet (16 per cent) or ‘just about managing’ (36 per cent).

In April, the Mayor stepped forward with a one-off emergency funding package that will provide around 10m nutritious meals to struggling families and children of all ages during school holidays and at weekends over the course of 12 months.

The Mayor’s support has expanded the work of the Mayor’s Fund for London and The Felix Project, and is enabling charities and grassroots organisations to reach hundreds of thousands of struggling families over the school holidays and at weekends. Children of all ages and their families are able to receive free food through a variety of programmes at community hubs and centres across London.

During term-time, up to 287,000 primary school children at London’s state schools are now benefitting from the Mayor’s unprecedented free school meals programme. Families in every borough in the capital could save upwards of £440 per child across the next year, after the Mayor introduced the historic one-off funding to help Londoners struggling with the cost of living.

The Mayor continues to call upon the Government to step up and match his commitment to tackling the burgeoning issue of child hunger by increasing funding to ensure that all children in food-insecure households in London can access food. Currently, the Government’s criteria for holiday support excludes approximately half of children in food-insecure households, while the funding that is provided is insufficient.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “It’s shocking that so many Londoners are struggling to feed their families due to the rising cost-of-living. That is why I have provided more than £3.5m in emergency funding to help hundreds of thousands of Londoners feed their families during the school holidays and at weekends, and have ensured all primary school children at London’s state schools are offered free school meals this year.

“I’m hugely proud that more than 5.5m free holiday meals have been given to Londoners so far since April, with more than 3.5m delivered during the summer holidays alone, but more has to be done to help.

“I will continue to do all I can to support Londoners in need, as we build a fairer city for everyone, but I urge Government to step up and use its powers fully to ensure children aren’t going hungry.”

Charlotte Hill OBE, CEO of The Felix Project, said: “We understand that so many parents felt really worried about how they would afford to feed their children during the long summer break. Holidays are always a busy time for support services like food banks, pantries and holiday programmes – who we know are already stretched – every single organisation we support wants more food and there over 650 more on our waiting list – all in desperate need.  

“We are delighted that over the summer holiday – thanks to support from the Mayor of London – we have been able to help deliver this incredible number of meals that will have helped so many during these challenging times.”

Jim Minton, Chief Executive, Mayor’s Fund for London, said: “The Mayor’s funding has allowed us to offer more wrap-around support to community organisations and local authorities this summer, including holiday meals and activities, recipe boxes with nutritional information and signposting to wider cost of living advice.

Working in partnership with community based organisations, the support we offer is always delivered on an inclusive basis, with no requirement of eligibility from any child or family. At a time when so many more families are struggling financially, providing food and access to wider resources are vital in reaching the most vulnerable children and families.”