The talented apprentices from across London local governnment shortlisted for this year's London Borough Apprenticeship Awards have been announced by London Councils’ Executive Member for Skills and Employment, Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE.

You can read the full list of shorlisted candidates in each category on London Councils website here.

Announcing this year's shortlist, Mayor Fiaz said: “Each year, we come together to celebrate the outstanding achievements of apprentices working for London boroughs and their supply chains.

“Across London we see apprenticeships open up amazing opportunities to Londoners from our diverse communities. Boroughs are a driving force in championing apprenticeships as a fantastic way for people to gain new skills as well as boosting industries with recruitment challenges – including London boroughs themselves. I encourage all London employers to redouble their efforts in offering more apprenticeship opportunities.

“The Awards demonstrate the scale of ambition London boroughs have for their communities, as apprenticeships symbolise one of the many ways local government in London offers empowering opportunities through skills development. I look forward to celebrating all the nominees and winners in September."

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for London held its last event before Parliament goes into Summer Recess this week. The event focused on London’s Housing Affordability Crisis, with almost half of Londoners struggling to keep up or falling behind on their rent or mortgage payments, while homelessness in the capital has skyrocketed and is at unsustainable levels.

Attendees at the event heard new research by Savills and the London School of Economics into the reduced supply of private rented sector accommodation in London, the drivers behind this, and the likely future implications and trends, including for affordability. They also heard a presentation of the latest homelessness and temporary accommodation data from London boroughs.

Speakers included: Abigail Davies, Director of Housing Consultancy, Savills; Cllr Darren Rodwell, Executive Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning, London Councils; Candida Thompson, Assistant Director of Housing Needs, London Borough of Newham and Chair, Pan-London Housing Needs and Homelessness Group: Ben Twomey, Director, Generation Rent

You can read more about the APPG for London here.

London Councils is publishing a series of blogs highlighting borough initiatives to share best practice, join up activity, and grasp economies of scale in transitioning to Net Zero and combatting Climate Change.

In the latest blogpost, London Councils’ policy officer, Zak Bond, explores Decarbonising London’s Energy System and the lessons learnt from a recent visit to the Greater Copenhagen area, together with the Danish Embassy.

During the visit, borough officers had the opportunity to explore different aspects of Denmark's heat network infrastructure and successful solutions, which provided valuable insights that could be applied to our decarbonisation efforts in London and across the UK.

The Centre for Ageing Better will host a webinar on age-friendly Communities, what they are and what can be achived by becoming one.

The one hour webinar: An introduction to Age-friendly Communities, will take place on Wednesday 16 August 2023 (between 10:00 - 11:00) and London Councils is encouraging all interested boroughs to attend.

You can find out more and register for the webinar here.

There were two by-elections in the London Borough of Newham last week, in the Wall End and Boleyn wards.

The Wall End by-election was won by Stephanie Garfield (Lab): full result here.

The Boleyn by-election was won by Mehmood Mirza (Ind): full result here.