London Councils Chair Cllr Peter John and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan have written to the Prime Minister expressing their ‘great surprise’ at press reports that the government held a critical planning exercise in which a major resurgence of Covid-19 in London was a central scenario.

“Our surprise is that such far reaching contingency plans have been discussed and tested without the involvement or awareness of London’s government. This is clearly totally unacceptable and an affront to London and Londoners”

The letter follows reports that plans included using the M25 as a quarantine ring.

“We are accountable to nine million Londoners and have a duty to represent their views and best interests", Cllr John and Mayor Khan go on to say. "We also know our communities and their needs far better than national government. As category 1 responders we have a legal duty towards our city and cannot do what is right for Londoners if we are excluded from key planning sessions in this way.”

London borough leaders, the Mayor of London and community leaders across the capital joined in the launch of the 'Keep London Safe' campaign last week, to address low awareness of Covid-10 testing and contract tracing in the capital.

The campaign follows polling that found 46 per cent of Londoners don't know how to get a test and 35 per cent know 'little or nothing' about NHS Test and Trace.

A collaboration between London Councils, the 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation, supported by Public Health England (PHE), the NHS, and Greater London Authority (GLA), the partnership will span borough boundaries and address the challenges of London’s diversity, deprivation and density.

Professor Kevin Fenton, London Regional Director for PHE, said: "Alongside our local partners, our health protection experts at PHE London have been working tirelessly to keep Londoners safe and healthy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, Londoners have played a central role by following the government advice on social distancing, self-isolation, wearing face coverings and practising good hand hygiene. Thanks to this hard work, new cases of coronavirus in the city are low, but we must remain vigilant to keep London safe.

“We call on all Londoners to keep playing their part - if you have a new continuous cough, a high temperature, or a loss of or change to your sense of smell or taste, stay at home and arrange a test immediately and if needed, support the work of NHS Test and Trace. All of this will help keep your local community, your borough and London as a city, a safe and healthy place to live.”

The shortlist for the 2020 London Boroughs Apprenticeship Awards has been announced and you can see the shortlisted candidates here.

The winners will be announced in September

Cllr Georgia Gould, Deputy Chair of London Councils and Executive Member for Skills and Employment said: “This year marks 10 years since the first London Borough Apprenticeship Awards was held to celebrate the outstanding achievements of apprentices working for London boroughs and their supply chains.

“Over the past decade boroughs have led the way in creating meaningful apprenticeship opportunities, tripling the number of apprenticeships to 1,700 directly employed in the last financial year. This number increases to 3,693 when factoring in apprenticeships created in maintained schools, borough supply chains and through councils’ brokerage schemes.

“The shortlist for this year’s awards acknowledges that this year in particular has been a real challenge for apprentices and those that support them working in all sectors. It is a huge privilege to recognise their hard work and impressive achievements. I look forward to announcing the winners in September.”

Four out of ten (44 per cent) of young Londoners say that losing free travel would change the college or school they are considering attending - a figure that rises to more than 56 per cent for young people who have been in care.

Those are among the findings of a report published this week by the Partnership for Young London that polled more than 2,000 young Londoners on what the free travel concessions means to them.

Ending the current free travel scheme for under 18 year-olds in London was one of the conditions for agreeing emergency pandemic funding for Transport for London.

London Councils Chair Cllr Peter John said: "I have personally written to government ministers seeking clarification about the proposal and sight of the promised equalities impact assessment. I hope this research will help inform the Mayor and Ministers’ future decisions on this matter.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has announced an additional £20 million funding to help small businesses across England to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The additional support will be fully funded from the England European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and distributed through the regional Growth Hubs.The funding has been allocated to Growth Hubs within each Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area in line with the current ERDF programme. London's initial allocation is around £1.2 million.

To find out more and apply, London small businesses should contact the London Growth Hub.