Today (8 March) is International Women's Day and London Councils is proud to have supported the first London-wide Women’s Rough Sleeping Census.

Led by the Single Homeless Project, the Women’s Development Unit, and St Mungo’s, the census is the first of its kind on a pan-London scale and is designed to improve understanding of the extent and nature of women’s rough sleeping in the capital.

With a new report on the census due out this week, boroughs are committed to working with partners across London’s homelessness sector to increase safety and improve outcomes for women sleeping rough.

Michelle Binfield, London Councils’ Rough Sleeping Programme Director, said: “Rough sleeping is particularly dangerous for women. The census is a vital tool for helping us understand the scale of the challenge and for targeting resources for successful prevention and front-line support work.

“Boroughs are proud to be part of the pan-London partnership tackling this issue and doing everything we can to help women off the streets and into safe accommodation.”

More details on the Women’s Pan-London Rough Sleeping Census available here.

Last Wednesday (1 March) was National Secondary School Offer Day 2023, when children due to start secondary school in September found out which school they'd be attending. There were 92, 641 applications for secondary school places in London. Of these, 94 per cent were offered a place at one of their prefered schools, figures published by the Pan London Admissions Board show.

London Councils Executive Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Ian Edwards, said:  “It is positive that once again the overwhelming majority of children have an offer from one of their preferred schools. Boroughs have worked diligently with schools to ensure there are sufficient places to meet the high demand for school places across the capital.

“London is an incredibly high-performing region at GCSE level with 90% of schools rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted, which means local families can be confident that their child will receive an excellent education.

“We remain keen to work with Government to respond to pressures surrounding secondary school places and to support the growing demand for development of specialist SEND provision at a local level, ensuring that that all London pupils have the best start in life.”

It is now a decade since the London Finance Commission (LFC) highlighted that London enjoys considerably less financial autonomy than other world cities - pointing out, for example, that just 7 per cent of the tax generated in the capital was retained in the capital, compared with over 50 per cent in New York.

While London and the UK have changed considerably since 2013, both the logic that underpinned the original LFC and the recommendations it put forward are just as valid today, argues Paul Honeyben in a new collection of essays from Localis exploring where local government finance might be in 2030. You can read all the essays in Moving Through the Gears here.

London Councils Leaders' Committee met yesterday (7 March). Items on the agenda included: The Pan London Infrastructure Framework (finance and partnership options); Local Government Finance; Local Authority Housing Standards and a presentation on initial analysis of Census 2021 data. You can read the agenda and related reports in full on our website here.