A series of special events across London will take place on the weekend of 6 - 8 May to mark the Coronation of His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen Consort. The Coronation weekend timetable is as follows:

Saturday 6 May the Coronation Ceremony takes place at Westminster Abbey, London.

6-8 May will see Coronation Big Lunches up and down the country and across the Commonwealth.

Sunday May 7 Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle .

Monday 8 May Special Bank Holiday in honour of the Coronation.

Please check your local borough website for details of events and celebrations locally as well as any road closures and/or any special arrangements.

You can find out more about the Coronation and how to get involved here.

London Councils has welcomed new data showing an increase in delivery of new council housing in the capital.

Figures released by the GLA reveal that London boroughs have already exceeded the target of 20,000 council-built homes by 2024. That target was set in 2018 by the Mayor of London and has been reached a year early, with more council-built homes started in the capital in 2022 than any year since the 1970s.

London Councils’ Executive Member for Regeneration, Housing & Planning, Cllr Darren Rodwell, said: “Boroughs are proud to be building the next generation of council homes across the capital. We want to give more Londoners the opportunity to live in affordable, high-quality homes – and increasing the supply of council housing is vital to achieving that.

“London’s housing pressures remain immense. Although we’re pleased with the progress being made, we remain absolutely determined to keep driving up delivery and building the homes our communities are crying out for.”

The Housing Development Academy announced at the end of March has begun to deliver its first courses, with over half of London boroughs now participating in the programme.

Set up by the London Housing Directors’ Group, with support from London Councils as part of our commitment to increasing council housebuilding, the Academy offers short courses on project management skills with learning based on real-life experience.

To find out how the Housing Development Academy can support your in-house development team, contact Visakha Sri Chandrasekera at Future of London.

The London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI)  has launched a survey to explore what good and appropriate practices in using generative AI (artifical initelligence) for local government might be.

Since its launch last year, ChatGPT, which is built on Open AI’s GPT algorithm, has attracted more than 100 million  users. Unlike other types of technology uptake, the users will be spread across councils and not necessarily from ‘digital’ or ‘IT’ teams. For example, generative AI might help individuals to write briefings, identify problems in coding, or create visual designs for communication campaigns.

However, these types of generative AI must also be used responsibly. The algorithms may be trained on or produce harmful or biased content, and have flaws hard-wired in like ‘hallucination’, where the algorithm ‘makes up’ information to respond to a prompt.

The LOTI survey will gain an initial understanding of the use of AI in local government and emerging issues. They are keen to hear thoughts, ideas, or feedback from anyone with a view on the use and accompanying responsibility for local government, in particular, those from:

• Local government (or other public sector) from the UK and beyond
• Developers of generative AI who are creating use cases
• Researchers or academics
• Civil society, community groups or campaigners.

You can complete the LOTI survey here (survey will remain open until 26 May)