Both the Conservative and Labour co-chairs of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for London have expressed serious concern at Arts Council England (ACE) reducing its funding allocations in the capital by around £50 million, announced in November last year.

Sir Bob Neill MP, Co-Chair of the APPG for London, said: “Hundreds of highly skilled jobs are at risk, all for the sake of rigidly redistributing funding away from London at any cost. I fear these decisions will damage London’s world-leading culture sector, which in turn will harm the wider economy and the UK’s invaluable soft power. As a cross-party group of London MPs, we urge ministers to intervene.”

Florence Eshalomi MP, Co-Chair of the APPG for London, said: “As much as we support the aspiration to level up the country, this cannot be achieved by levelling down London. Cutting arts funding for the capital and ending support for these irreplaceable cultural assets is a short-sighted policy that will leave us all poorer.”

Sir Bob Neill tabled a Westminster Hall debate on the topic on Wednesday, 18  January 2023, which you can watch on Parliament TV here.

The APPG for London is a forum for MPs and peers to work together on a cross-party basis to strengthen the capital's voice in Parliament. The group's secretariat is provided by London Councils.

The government has announced funding for more than 100 projects around the country who will receive a share of £2.1 billion from round 2 of the government's Levelling Up Fund.

You can find details of all the successful bids, including from the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Lewisham, Sutton and Waltham Forest, on the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) website here.

Get Online London is London’s first Digital Inclusion service offering Londoners access to refurbished devices, free mobile connectivity and digital skills they may need to get online.

Supported by the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) and the Mayor of London, the service is delivered by Good Things Foundation.

A core element of the service is a new ‘Device Bank’ for London with the aim of providing appropriate devices to Londoners who need them. Creating this pool of devices and equipment will heavily rely on donations from private and public sector partner organisations. There are no costs involved for the organisations wishing to donate devices. This will also support the circular economy, reducing e-waste as well as having a positive social impact.

If you’re a business looking to support by donating your disused devices and/or equipment, please fill in this form or email the Good Things Foundation.

This Friday (27 January) is Holocaust Memorial Day .

Holocaust Memorial Day is an international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution of other groups and during more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated on 27 January 1945.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust exists to make sure that everyone, regardless of age or background, remembers and honours those who suffered during the Holocaust and the genocides that followed.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust will be streaming the UK's online commemoration this evening (Wednesday 26 January between 7-7.45pm). You can register to watch the Online Commemoration here.