Delegates at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham gathered yesterday lunchtime to hear more about the London view on cost-of-living pressures and levelling up ambitions.

The London Councils fringe event was led by a panel including London Councils Conservative Group Leader Cllr Teresa O’Neill OBE: Minister for London, Paul Scully; London Councils Executive Member for Business, Economy and Culture, Cllr Elizabeth Campbell; and LSE Professor Tony Travers.

Watch Cllr O'Neill explaining why now is the time for a discussion with government on devolution in London.

Opportunity London, a major new partnership between London Councils, the City of London and the Mayor of London to promote sustainable investment in real estate, regeneration and green infrastructure across the capital, has had a busy few weeks, both at the party conferences and at their own investment summit as part of the London Real Estate Forum (LREF), where the group hosted the Opportunity London Investment Summit.

Regional London partnerships were represented at the summit, as well as panel discussions focussed on activating Central London, London’s Towns, delivering housing in London, and innovation in London real estate. The group also hosted dinners at both the Labour and Conservative party conferences.

In an article published by New London Architecture (NLA) this week, Greg Clark, of UK3Ci, sets out the challenges facing London and the city’s next development cycle. You can read his article in full here.

The London Child Poverty Alliance, with support from London Councils, will host a webinar to help councillors and local authority officials explore ways that they can mitigate the cost-of-living crisis for those on lowest incomes in their communities. The session will look specifically at how Council Tax Reduction Schemes and Local Welfare Assistance programmes can be designed so that they reach those in most need.

The webinar will be chaired by London Councils Executive Member for Communities (Welfare, Empowerment and Inclusion) Cllr Claire Holland and speakers will include Child Poverty Action Group Head of Policy Hannah Aldridge and Director of Policy and Campaigns at Z2K Marc Francis.

The webinar will take place on Tuesday 18 October between 5.30 and 6.30pm. You can register for the online event here.

In the run up to World Homeless Day on 10 October, New Horizon has partnered with the King’s Cross Partnership and local businesses for a “10 Days to Take on Youth Homelessness” campaign.

New Horizon is one of the organisations funded under London Councils Grants Programme (2022-2026) to support and prevent people from becoming homeless.

New Horizon estimate that a busload of young Londoners are forced into homelessness every day. To highlight these numbers, they are running a #StopTheBus campaign from a double decker in Granary Square at King’s Cross, where they will be running a series of awareness raising events.

Earlier this week, London Councils Chair Cllr Georgia Gould, along with London Assembly Member Sian Berry, Lucy Bowyer from LGBT+ youth homelessness charity akt, and Adam Pemberton from Centrepoint, joined the bus for a What can London do to #StopTheBus?’ roundtable discussion.