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London Plus Conference: Manifesto Asks

At the London Plus conference we heard from 15 incredible speakers who had their manifesto asks for the London Mayoral Elections 2020

Recently we held our conference ‘Civil Society: What next for London? Our Message to the Next Mayor of London’. We had an outstanding group of 15 speakers each with three civil society manifesto asks against specific themes for which they had specialist interest and knowledge. The conference attendees voted for one manifesto ask out of the three they felt would be most important. London Plus will be using the votes to create our civil society manifesto asks for the 2020 London mayoral election.

We want to extend our poll beyond those who attended our conference. You can read the manifesto asks and download the full powerpoint below.  Scroll to the bottom to access the poll so we can include your votes in our civil society manifesto asks for the 2020 London mayoral election.

Round up of the Boroughs Research

Ben Rogers, Centre for London

  1. Establish a review of London’s current position as a global centre of giving and identify how this could be strengthened.
  2. Identify ways of growing social investing as means to tackling London’s big challenges.
  3. Use Awards to celebrate and encourage giving.

Spending Review and Settlement for London

Richard Sagar, Charity Finance group

  1. Increase funding for local authorities.
  2. Establish a Resilient Communities Fund.
  3. Confirm what arrangements will be made to replace EU funds.

Economic Inclusion

Alex Bax, My Fair London

  1. Focus on young people: status, equity, and fair distribution of resources.
  2. 10:1 maximum pay ratio from top to bottom at City Hall and for all public bodies.
  3. Make action to narrow income and wealth gaps the next Mayor of London’s number one priority. Additionally, use every lever and policy available to make change happen.

Domestic Violence and Safeguarding

Nicole Jacobs, Independent office of Domestic Abuse Commissioner

  1. End to the postcode lottery of specialist support services for those subject to domestic abuse.
  2. Provision of service for all members of the family including children and adult victim. As well as support for the perpetrator of abuse to change.
  3. Clear support for community and statutory services to ensure all frontline workers have training, policies and expectations set. This will help them identify and support those subjected to domestic abuse.

Volunteering

Helen Price, Enfield Voluntary Action

  1. Establish a Volunteering Specialist Task Force supported by the Greater London Authority and possibly hosted within London Plus. This would be resourced to enable Volunteering Specialist personnel from within London Infrastructure Organisations e.g. Volunteer Centres to provide knowledge & insight to support strategic planning around Social Prescribing and Volunteer Engagement in ALL policy development across the whole of Civil Society e.g. Health and Education.
  2. Initiate a Campaign to Highlight the importance of the role of Volunteer Management in the success of civil society service delivery. Particularly small to medium specialist organisations what are connected with the hardest to reach communities.
  3. Set up a Bursary Fund so that personnel within small to medium sized civil society organisations can apply for funds to attend relevant Volunteer Management training that is recognized across the system as being fit for purpose and enables trained persons to be part of local Volunteering Specialist Task Forces. This training should be connected/aligned to Social Prescribing Project Management training and both should have ‘leadership development’ embedded within them.

Older People

Patrick Vernon, Ageing Better

  1. Ensure everyone approaching later life can live in safe, accessible homes that support them to be independent for as long as possible.
  2. Enable more people to reach later life in good health and free of preventable disability by putting prevention first and promoting physical activity.
  3. Create workplaces that support people to remain in fulfilling work into later life, and empower communities to create places where those approaching later life can build social connections.

Health

Venu Dhupa, Community Links

  1. Reduce health inequalities in a targeted way by population type.
  2. Address the social determinants of health such as poor housing and low paid, insecure work.

Youth and Crime

Jake Ferguson, Hackney CVS

  1. City Hall should monitor disproportionality of BAME people in the criminal justice system and use its power and influence to hold relevant agencies to account. Helping them to understand what they can do to make London more equal in this regard and rebuild trust between the state and communities affected by violence.
  2. Changing the narrative from a deficit model to one which builds on the assets within communities is key. City Hall should always co-produce strategies around serious violence with the people and communities affected so that these communities are empowered to take the lead.
  3. A culture of long-term investment and early prevention measures in communities is needed to address youth violence.

Housing & Homelessness

Ashley Horsey, Commonweal Housing

  1. Build more social homes than the 116,000 currently planned for 2022. These must be genuinely affordable (less than 35% of household income after tax and benefits), and physically accessible for those with disabilities. These must include a diverse range of housing options to meet the needs of a range of people at different stages in their journey e.g. shared housing options, ‘supportive’ and supported housing and interim housing.
  2. Invest in appropriate housing for marginalised groups of society. That means investing in the higher revenue and support costs involved in housing marginalised groups, e.g. those with higher support needs. Furthermore, invest in providing sustainable and long-term funding for the specialist charitable organisations that are best equipped to support these groups.
  3. Invest in the immediate term in tackling visible homelessness and rough sleeping for example provide hostels, night shelters, and other innovative ‘meanwhile’ forms of temporary accommodation. This accommodation must be both safe and appropriate, including the option of women-only provision.

Skills and Employment

Chris Price, PECAN

  1. All successful contractors for any London contract to be paying at least the London Living Wage and accredited by the Living Wage Foundation.
  2. To campaign to the government to create a basic minimum income floor for all adults.
  3. The introduction of a Jobs Guarantee, involving thousands of one-year long job placements anchored around a 32-hour week for London’s most marginalised groups.

Children in Poverty

Laura Payne, 4in10: London’s Child Poverty Network

At 4in10: London’s Child Poverty Network we believe the next Mayor of London must explicitly recognise the structural inequalities in London and commit to tackle them, in particular the effects of racism and poverty in young Londoners lives. Three ways the next Mayor of London could do this is to:

  1. Show young Londoners their views matter. Campaign for votes at 16 in all elections, starting with the London Assembly.
  2. Help young Londoners feel safe in their homes. Work with Local Authorities to ensure that they don’t use Bailiffs on their poorest residents.
  3. Uphold young Londoners’ rights in schools. Work with schools to poverty proof the school day and tackle racial and socioeconomic discrimination within school exclusions and off-rolling.

Deaf and Disabled People

Tracey Lazard, Inclusion London  

  1. Nothing about us without us. The next Mayor of London needs to commit to meaningful and resourced strategic engagement and policy co-production with excluded communities.
  2. Strategic investment in community organisations to tackle inequality, poverty and discrimination including funding to expand advice, advocacy provision and Hate crime support services.
  3. Re-think skills and employment support for Disabled people.

Green Space and Environment

Gail Freeman, LSx

  1. Tackle air pollution by committing to the 2021 expansion of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone and invest in “healthy streets”.
  2. Address the climate emergency, with a 1.5 degree compatible plan, using purchasing power of TfL to decarbonise transport and opposing road and airport expansion.
  3. Increase London’s green & blue space to over 50% in terms of quality and accessibility through tough planning guidance and new finance models.

Migrants and Refugees

Anne Stoltenberg, Migrant Voice

  1. Support the rights of London’s migrants during Brexit. Ensure that EU nationals have the right support to apply to the Settlement Scheme and do not face losing their rights or becoming undocumented.
  2. Advocate for London’s undocumented migrants: for a national policy of regularisation and the development of policies that address the causes behind people becoming undocumented.
  3. Use your powers to ensure refugees in London can build their lives here with the right support. Ensure better access to ESOL and better support during the 28-day move-on period for newly recognised refugees so they are able to access housing, open bank accounts, etc.

Transport

Chris Barker, London Campaign for Better Transport

  1. Establish a system of car user charging in London and extend the ultra-low emission zone to the M25.
  2. Rapid expansion of the strategic cycle network including protected cycle lanes on main roads.
  3. Increase in the number of low traffic neighbourhoods where cars are filtered out of residential areas.

2020 London mayoral elections – I want my say… 

Go to our form to vote for the civil society manifesto asks you deem most important for the 2020 London mayoral elections. (We will be closing the votes Wednesday 18th December)  

Download the powerpoint from our presenters on the day containing the civil society manifesto asks: Our Message to the Next Mayor of London.