Insights

This is the second in a series of articles on London’s population, making use of the Office of National Statistics’ latest growth projections, published recently here. The focus is on variations across both inner and outer London boroughs. Context: London and the rest of the country London currently has a population of around 9.1 million, representing 15% of the total population of England and Wales. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has published its latest projections which show that London’s population is expected to have grown by 6.7% by 2032, to around 9.7 million. Three points are worth noting here.

• first, London’s likely growth is just above the national average of 6.4%
• second, London’s growth will be driven solely by migration: a combination of internal migration from other parts of the UK and international migration. London’s ‘natural’ increase – births exceeding deaths – ...
  
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London’s Freedom Pass was introduced in 1973, and it has had a profound impact on the lives of Londoners, particularly, of course, those with a disability and those over state-pensionable age. But its very success may cast its future into doubt as the numbers and proportions of older people among London’s residents continues to increase, and as fares rise ahead of inflation. Eligibility Eligibility has changed somewhat over the years. Until April 2010, the pass was available to any London resident over the age of 60. Since then, the age threshold has risen in line with the state-pension age for women; it is currently 66, though it could rise further in future. Residents between 60 and 65 can pay £20 for a 60+ Oyster card, with all the benefits of the Freedom Pass within, but not outside, London. Eligibility for disabled people covers a ...

This article was first published in Housing Today. Ben Derbyshire reflects on Sadiq Khan’s latest policies to boost housebuilding in the capital. You could be forgiven for thinking, following Sadiq Khan’s volte face on building in the green belt, that Londoners would be all over this issue like a rash. Far from it, if the mood among members of the London Society and the London Forum of Amenity and Civic Societies at a meeting convened on 13 May is anything to go by. The two leading London societies wanted to give members the opportunity to respond to the emerging strategy by the capital’s planners, set out in the recently published mayor of London’s consultation document, Towards a New London Plan. Our meeting was the first public presentation in the roll-out of consultation by the mayor’s planning team – quite a coup. I took the ...

In an earlier article, I mentioned that two-thirds of member societies are already represented on the new live member news page, which in turn provides selected articles for our weekly email to the whole membership, allowing members to share their news and knowledge across London. We select stories that we feel are particularly newsworthy, or of benefit by way of information sharing to a significant part of our membership, and we assume you think this is a good idea too. Our aggregated membership is over 50,000 Londoners, so this could be significant. How can your society join in? We just need to know the address of your RSS feed so that we can include it. A 'feed' automatically produces a computer-readable version of your website's latest articles or news, and most modern websites already have an automatic one. One-third of societies are not represented, ...