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 square 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

Figures updated annually. Last update August 2007. Source: Office for National Statistics.

Regional Minister for London: The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP

Children and Learners

• 18 Local Authorities in London are already involved with the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) national programme. There are 24 BSF projects in Waves 1 – 6 of the programme (in 18 authorities) and 8 One School Pathfinder schools being built in authorities in the latter waves of the programme.  Currently Lambeth, Lewisham and Westminster have signed contracts to start work. In Waves 1-4 £1.691 billion pounds has been spent by Local Authorities in planning.
• 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.  In October 2007, a further £112m of TCF capital support was announced for Greater London boroughs to support 14-19 diplomas and special educational needs projects. 
• ure 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 474 children's centres have been designated so far.
• To date 2,299 (94%) of the 2,443 schools in London targeted by the Healthy Schools programme have joined the National Healthy Schools programme. 1463 (60%) have now achieved Healthy School Status.

Health and Well Being

• Newham University Hospitals NHS Trust opened the £34m Private Finance Initiative (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 £85m PFI funded Central Middlesex Hospital in March 2006. The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (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 £155m PFI funded state of the art Princess Royal University Hospital on 1st 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 £422 million PFI building project, one of the largest NHS developments. £26 million spent on new equipment, 1/3 of beds in single rooms, designed for infection control, a young people’s floor designed to be home from home for teenagers. Phase 2 providing maternity services is on schedule to open in 2008
• Lewisham Hospital's new solar-powered Riverside Health Centre was formally opened by Archbishop Desmond Tutu on 21 May 2007. This £69m 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 £261m
• There are also the following Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) schemes:
1. Camden and Islington (£7.1m to date) – Hanley Road (June 2006); Bingfield Street (August 2005)
2. 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)
3. Redbridge and Waltham Forest (£15.06m to date) – Comely Bank, Waltham Forest; Manford Way; Wood Street, Waltham Forest
4. Barnet, Enfield and Haringey (£21.6m to date) – Vale Drive; Forest Road
5. Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon (£17.5m to date) – Alexandra Avenue; Monks Park
6. Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich (£54.8m to date)
7. Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow (£28.6m to date) – Cloister Road
8. Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham (£31m to date)
9. South West London (£18.48m to date) – Green Wrythe Lane Health Centre (October 2006)


Crime And Drugs

• London was on trajectory to achieve a reduction in recorded crime of 19.7% at the end of March 2008, exceeding the challenging target set under the Home Office Public Service Agreement 1 and making an important contribution towards achieving the national target
• Implementation of the Prolific and other Priority Offenders (PPO) Scheme across London continues to go well. There are 1,098 registered PPO’s across London, of whom, 12% on Licence from HMP and 10% on community sentences, 44%  are remanded in custody or serving a custodial sentence, 34% on bail and/or being monitored by the police and PPO teams
• 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% of London residents perceived ASB to be a very or fairly big problem in their local area but this figure dropped to 29% in the 2006/07 survey
• Since 2005/06 there has been a 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
• 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 is developing a Safer Schools Award, looking at alternative provision and Pupil Referral Units and examining ways in which the Youth Justice System can be made more efficient and more accessible to young people and their families
For 2008–09 London receives £28.3m from a national budget of £149m to engage offending Problematic Drug Users in Drug Treatment as a means of reducing offending.

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 the Department of Communities and Local Government’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. Students also get 30% off the adult rate of transport. As of April 2007, under 11s accompanied by an adult have been able to use the Tube and the DLR for free
• 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. Just over 1 million freedom passes have been issued
• 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 the opening of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the launch of London Overground. 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 (NRF) 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 2008/09, NRF and SSCF resources have been pooled into a new area based grant which will support the priorities of the local area set out in their Local Area Agreement (LAA)
• 2007/08 was the last year of the Community Champions Fund. During this last year the Government Office for London, working in partnership with The Scarman Trust, awarded small grants of up to £2,000 to over 250 individuals.  80% of the Champions are from Black and Minority Ethnic communities, this is an increase over previous years.
• Preventing Violent Extremism: The Government has provided £45m over the next 3 years for Local Authorities as part of Area Based Grants in the LAA to support work on building communities resilience to violent extremism. 31 London Boroughs will benefit from this funding, with almost 40% of overall national funding going to London authorities. National Indicator 35 will measure this area of work.

European Funding

2007-13 ERDF & ESF programmes:
• London will receive approximately £120m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
• London will receive approximately £324m 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:
• £660m has been available in the 2000-2006 Programmes to support the Objective 2 (ERDF and ESF) and Objective 3 (ESF) projects.  Many projects spent funds in 2007, with some continuing to spend in early 2008
• The 2000-2006 Objective 2 Programme targets wards in 13 of the most disadvantaged boroughs and aims to tackle barriers to economic opportunity in areas suffering industrial decline, urban deprivation, low economic activity and social exclusion.  Objective 2 funds in the current programme have now been committed