Written evidence
from the Mayor of London (OLL 26)
Summary
1. This
submission from the Mayor of London:
· Describes
the Mayor's overall role in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and
his specific role in securing the legacy of the Games for London;
· Explores
the nature and scale of the opportunity to capture a legacy from the Games, and
some of the issues and challenges in realising that legacy;
· Briefly
describes, and comments on, the arrangements in place to secure lasting
regeneration in the five east London host boroughs as a result of London 2012;
and
· Describes
the priorities of the Mayor to maximise the legacy of the Games for all
Londoners. This covers work in the fields of sport; employment, skills and
business; volunteering; and education, and relates both to work directly
managed and funded by the Mayor and to work being done by other agencies which
the Mayor supports.
The Mayor's role
2. The
Mayor of London is co-chair of the Olympic Board, which supervises the overall
programme of work to prepare for and stage the 2012 Games and capture its
legacy for London and the UK. The Mayor also has a number of other specific
formal roles with respect to the Games, including:
· Founder
member and shareholder of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games
and Paralympic Games (LOCOG);
· Funder
of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA); and
· Signatory
to the Host City Contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
3. The
Olympic Board has agreed that the Mayor will co-ordinate the range of work
being done to capture the legacy of the Games for London and Londoners. This
does not mean that all projects and initiatives under that heading are directly
managed from City Hall: instead, as with much of the work of the Greater London
Authority, the Mayor sets an overall strategic direction, and performs an
important co-ordination function, but the majority of delivery is done either
by bodies under the control of the Mayor (such as the London Development
Agency) or by a range of other partners. Specific examples are given later in
this submission.
4. The
Mayor is also a founder member and shareholder of the Olympic Park Legacy
Company and Chair of the Olympic Park Regeneration Steering Group; these roles
are discussed further in the East London and the Olympic Park section of
this submission.
Opportunities and
challenges
Defining
an approach to legacy
5. The
Mayor and his fellow Olympic Board members are convinced that the London 2012
Games present a massive opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for London and
the UK, and are determined to capture that legacy. They are also clear that,
despite some interpretations of the word 'legacy', there are benefits of the
Games that can and should be felt before 2012.
6. A
limited number of these benefits, such as a boost in London's reputation as a
place to live, work, study, visit or invest, will to a certain extent come
about as a result of staging an outstanding Games in 2012. This is of course
one of the Mayor's main motivations in pursuing his various roles and interests
across the 2012 programme, including the work he is doing to provide an
outstanding Games-time experience across London and co-ordinate the running of
London's Games-time services, under the umbrella of the 'City Operations'
programme.
7. However,
the Mayor strongly believes that the full range of hoped-for benefits will not
arise simply as a side-effect of staging the Games. Experience from previous
host cities - helpfully synthesised in the 2004 Demos/ippr report After the
Gold Rush: A sustainable Olympics for London - clearly shows that, without
specific dedicated interventions, often by bodies other than those responsible
for staging the Games, most of the opportunities for capturing the real
benefits of a major sporting event like the Olympic and Paralympic Games will
be lost.
Legacy priorities
8. The
Olympic Board has identified a broad range of areas in which it believes the
Games offers opportunities for a legacy, and in which interventions are
therefore felt to be desirable. The Mayor has identified, from within that list
of aspirations, the particular priorities for him and his administration,
informed to a great extent by the Mayor's overall policy priorities for London.
These are:
· a
regeneration legacy for the Olympic Park and east London;
· major
long-term improvements to London's public transport network and public open
spaces;
· an
increase in sport participation among Londoners, particularly among those
previously doing little or no sport or physical activity;
· targeting
employment, skills and business opportunities at Londoners most in need of
them;
· increasing
levels of volunteering in London and strengthening London's volunteer
infrastructure; and
· maximising
educational opportunities for children and young people.
9. The
Mayor and Olympic Board are also determined that all work associated with the
Games - whether in staging the Games themselves or in capturing their benefits
- should be sustainable and inclusive. The Mayor is very clear that a failure
to meet these aspirations risks compromising the legacy of the Games for
London. The importance attached to these two cross-cutting themes, and the
significant progress in both areas, is reflected in the annual publications Towards
a One Planet 2012 (first published in 2007) and Working Towards an
Inclusive Games (first published in 2009).
Delivering legacy
10. Subsequent
sections of this submission describe the range of work being done in a number
of areas relating to legacy. These illustrate the diversity and complexity of
legacy programmes, and the range of delivery arrangements that underpin them. For
example, to secure the best possible legacy for the Olympic Park, the Mayor and
Government have created a special purpose company. Meanwhile, wider
socio-economic programmes rely on a complex partnership of existing agencies
banding together to maximise the impact of their work in this field, sometimes
with direct intervention and investment from Mayoral agencies (for instance by
the London Development Agency in the employment and skills programme) and
sometimes largely driven by wider public and voluntary sector partners (such as
in the field of education).
11. Many
legacy programmes depend on direct support from the London Organising Committee
for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and/or the Olympic Delivery
Authority (ODA). Both bodies are either directly delivering elements of the
legacy programme themselves (for instance through legacy-focused elements of
the ODA's investment in Olympic Park infrastructure) or enabling their partners
to make the most of opportunities arising from their work (for instance through
employment forecasting in LOCOG and the ODA which facilitates targeted skills
training, or through LOCOG's 'Inspire' programme). The Mayor warmly welcomes
the contribution these bodies are making to securing the legacy of the Games,
and expects both bodies to continue working in this way for the duration of
their respective lifetimes.
12. It
would be a mistake to assume that the Mayor could or should have a role in, or
even be aware of, all the work going on in London to derive benefits from the
Games. While the Mayor is driving or co-ordinating a great deal of work in this
area, other organisations across the public and voluntary sectors have taken
the initiative to develop schemes linked to the Games in some way. While the
Mayor can and does support such schemes in various ways where he is aware of
them, and where they fit with his own priorities, it is obviously appropriate
that some schemes should proceed and succeed without any Mayoral involvement. LOCOG's
pioneering Inspire programme provides an excellent opportunity in relation to
these independent schemes, both for the individual projects to get the
recognition they deserve, and for London 2012, its partners (including the
Mayor) and the wider public to develop the fullest possible picture of all the
work underway to capture the benefits of the Games.
East
London and the Olympic Park
13. The
Mayor's draft replacement London Plan states (under policy 2.4) that 'successful,
viable and sustainable regeneration of the Olympic Park and surrounding areas
is the Mayor's highest regeneration priority'. As stated in the draft Plan,
the Mayor will publish Olympic Legacy Strategic Planning Guidance to clarify in
greater detail his proposals for a planned approach to regeneration, including
particular reference to new housing, exemplary design and environmental quality
and the further managed release of existing industrial land in the area.
14. The
Mayor chairs the Olympic Park Regeneration Steering Group (OPRSG), the other
members of which are the Minister for the Olympics, the Secretary of State for
Communities and Local Government, the Leaders and the Mayors of the five east
London host boroughs and the Chair of the Olympic Park Legacy Company. The
OPRSG's remit is to supervise and co-ordinate the range of work described below
to secure a regeneration legacy of the Games for east London, focusing both on
the Olympic Park itself and on the wider benefits for the whole area.
Olympic Park Legacy Company
15. The
Mayor is a founder member and fifty per cent shareholder of the Olympic Park
Legacy Company (OPLC), with the Departments of Culture, Media & Sport and
Communities & Local Government the other two shareholders at twenty five
per cent each. The Mayor is strongly committed to the OPLC as the vehicle for
securing the best possible legacy for the Olympic Park: creating a stable,
financially secure future for the new permanent venues and parkland and driving
development in the Park that supports London's growth and makes a
transformational contribution to the regeneration of the area. Responsibility
for the Legacy Masterplan Framework (LMF), which forms the spatial basis for
proposed development in the Park after 2012, has recently passed from the LDA
to the OPLC.
16. The
details of the OPLC's work will be described in a separate submission to the
Committee by the OPLC itself; the Mayor fully supports the Company and its
leadership team, and does not propose to include a separate account or analysis
of the Company's work in this submission.
Convergence: a framework
for regeneration in the five host boroughs
17. All
members of the Olympic Park Regeneration Steering Group have a shared
commitment to the principle of 'convergence' as the unifying theme for Games-related
regeneration in east London: that people in the five host boroughs should enjoy
the same social and economic opportunities as people across the rest of London.
The Mayor's commitment to the principle of convergence is enshrined in policy
2.4 of his draft replacement London Plan.
18. The
five east London host boroughs have published a first iteration of the
Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF), which sets the context for this wider
regeneration legacy and sets high-level targets that give more definition to
the overall aim of convergence. The Mayor supports the principles set out in
the Strategic Regeneration Framework, and looks forward to working more closely
with the boroughs and other partners to develop and deliver detailed action
plans arising from these principles.
The 'Olympic Fringe'
19. Successful
regeneration in inner east London will rely on physical regeneration in the
areas immediately abutting the Olympic Park just as much as in the Park. The
so-called Olympic Fringe is important in itself - emerging numbers suggest that
there will ultimately be as many new homes in the Fringe areas as in the Park -
but is also essential in ensuring that development in the Park is properly
connected to its surroundings. With this in mind, fringe masterplans have been
commissioned to run alongside the LMF in five key areas: Stratford High Street,
Sugarhouse Lane & Three Mills, Hackney Wick & Fish Island, Hackney
Marshes & Mabley Green and the Northern Olympic Fringe.
20. The
precise client arrangements differ for each masterplan, but the core clients
are consistently the LDA, Design for London, the London Thames Gateway
Development Corporation (LTGDC) and the local borough(s) for the area
concerned. They are funded by LTGDC with, in most cases, additional contributions
from boroughs and the LDA. While each masterplan is working to a slightly
different programme, each is deliberately being developed in parallel with the
LMF, with the teams working in close collaboration.
Transport
21. The
Games have directly stimulated billions of pounds of investment in public
transport infrastructure that will have a lasting transformational effect on
the capital. While these improvements are predominantly focused on improving
capacity and reliability for east London, which is essential given the
long-term growth in jobs and housing envisaged for the area, they will also
deliver improvements for the travelling public across the whole network.
22. Key
transport enhancements include:
· An upgrade to the Jubilee Line, increasing
capacity by 48%. Improvements include longer trains and a comprehensive
signalling upgrade allowing more frequent services, leading to less crowding
and shorter wait times.
· A new Docklands Light Railway line directly
serving the Olympic Park at Stratford International is opening in the summer of
2010. The whole network is being upgraded to allow the operation of 50% longer
trains, with 55 new railcars in operation by Games-time and upgrades to every
station.
· The London Overground network, including
upgrades to existing lines as well as a significant extension to the East
London Line which provides new orbital connections which pass around the
central area and provide opportunities to access Stratford without travelling
through Central London. The line upgrade will also provide longer and more
frequent trains with new rolling stock.
· Major
improvements at Stratford Regional station, at which daily traffic is
expected to double from its current level by 2016. Enhancements include new
lifts, wider, longer platforms and a new entrance; many of these improvements
are already complete and benefiting passengers long before the Games have
begun.
Public
realm
23. In
2009, the Mayor launched his manifesto for public space, entitled London's
Great Outdoors, setting out his ambition for revitalising London's streets,
green spaces and water spaces. The Great Outdoors programme includes a
number of public realm improvement projects which have been stimulated or
accelerated by the prospect of the London 2012 Games, with the initial aim of
enhancing the experience for Londoners and visitors in Games-time, but with a
clear long-term legacy of enhanced spaces and resulting improvements in quality
of life.
24. Key
projects with a relationship to the Games, and scheduled for completion before
summer 2012, include:
· High
Street 2012, aiming to improve and celebrate the
A11/A118 corridor that links the City with Stratford, reconnecting the places
along and making it a world-class destination in itself, both during the Games
and beyond;
· Meridian
Square,
removing barriers, creating a genuinely accessible environment and encouraging
the use of public transport in a key space at the heart of Stratford town
centre;
· Exhibition
Road,
transforming one of London's flagship cultural arteries into an accessible,
pedestrian-friendly environment through changes in street design, traffic flow
and parking arrangements;
· Leicester
Square,
seeking to re-establish Leicester Square as a national hub for cinema and
cultural gateway to the West End, with improvements to paving, lighting,
seating, public toilets and public gardens.
Sport
25. Central
to London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games was a
commitment to use the Games to transform the sporting landscape of the UK. The
Mayor of London's document, 'A Sporting Future for London', published in
April 2009 sets out the Mayor's contribution to fulfilling this commitment in
London. Central to 'A Sporting Future for London' is a £30 million
legacy investment programme.
26. The
key aim of the document is to help deliver a grass-roots sporting legacy for
Londoners by securing a sustained increase in participation in sport and
physical activity amongst Londoners and to use sport to assist in tackling
social problems including ill health, crime, academic under-achievement and to
promote improved community cohesion.
27. 'A
Sporting Future for London' sets out the Mayor's intention to work with key
partners in London, including Sport England; the national governing bodies of
sport to help implement their whole sport plans; the Youth Sport Trust to help
support its work and address the 'drop off' in sport participation among young
people; and NHS London to help deliver a health legacy from the 2012 Games.
28. Participation
rates in sport in London have been static in recent years, though the latest
figures from Sport England[1]
showed that regular participation[2] by
adults (aged 16 and over) has increased from 16.5% to 17.2%. The figures reveal
that only London and the West Midlands had shown an increase in the last 12
months and London now has the highest participation rate in the country. However,
participation rates among some groups, for example disabled people, remain
relatively low. 'A Sporting Future for London' aims to address this.
29. Among
the many costs of 'inactivity', the NHS in London has identified that it spends
£105 million per annum on ill health related to physical inactivity. In order
to address this, the GLA is working closely with NHS London to adopt a 'joined
up' approach to the work on the health agenda and NHS London's 2012 Health
Legacy Plan.
30. In
a practical approach to dealing with this issue, projects attracting GLA
funding will need to demonstrate how they will get a minimum of 5% of inactive
people of those they target into activity.
'A
Sporting Future for London':
Legacy goals and work programme
31. 'A
Sporting Future for London' contains four goals:
Goal 1: To get more
people active by tackling inactivity and increasing participation in sport.
Goal
2: To transform the sporting infrastructure in the Olympic Park and local
community facilities.
Goal
3: To build capacity and skills of volunteers and people working in sport
Goal 4: To maximise the
benefits of sport to London's
diverse society
32. From
this, the Mayor has developed three funding streams:
· Facilities
investment programme: primarily to support
community or estate-based facilities. The GLA is finalising an agreement to
work in partnership with the Tennis Foundation to secure 33 'Beacon' tennis
sites in local parks (one in each London borough). The wider facilities
programme, which is due to be launched in spring 2010, will provide further
investment opportunities in sport into the capital.
· Investment
in training and skills: to provide training for
employees, volunteers and potential recruits to the sports sector. The GLA will
work with a delivery partner to secure this. Investment is due to begin in
spring 2010.
· Sport
based interventions: to support innovative
sports participation programmes that help to increase participation and encourage
social development in London. Investment in this area is due to commence in
summer 2010.
33. While
the Mayor has been developing this work, he has funded some initial projects,
including street athletics, a boxing academy, Panathlon Challenge (a programme
delivering competitive sport to severely disabled children and young people),
and the provision of mobile swimming pools in London.
34. The
programme of work set out in 'A Sporting Future for London' builds upon
the achievements of the London Development Agency in recent years, including:
· Play Sport London: a small grants programme providing coaching and
playing opportunities across a wide range of sports. Circa 43,000
participants to date have tried a sport through this scheme, with 68,000
participants expected by end of year 2009/10. 11% of this year's
participants were previously 'inactive'.
· Official Sports London: a bursary fund and support
programme, to train 600 sports officials in preparation for the anticipated
increase in sports participation following the London 2012 Games. 134 trained
to date, with 325 scheduled by March 2010.
· London Leisure
Academy: supporting the start-up of
the London hub of the National Skills
Academy for Sport and
Active Leisure. This 'virtual academy' will provide a one-stop-shop for
Londoners and employers to access skills training in the sector.
· Inclusive Fitness Initiative: an accreditation
programme aiming to achieve 150 fully inclusive and accessible gyms and fitness
suites across London,
providing a significant legacy from the London 2012 Paralympic Games. The first
six facilities will be accredited by the end of 2009/10.
The London Community Sports
Board
35. A
new Board has been established to oversee delivery of 'A Sporting Future for
London' and to help support and strengthen
the delivery of sport in London.
The Board is chaired by Kate Hoey MP, the Mayor's Sports Commissioner, and
includes representatives from the key stakeholders in sport in London, including the
British Olympic Association, the PROACTIVE partnership, a sports governing body
and a Ministerial nominee. An executive arm of the Board (the Delivery and
Implementation Group) has been established to support and strengthen delivery
on issues relating to sport and physical activity.
Economic development,
volunteering and education
Employment, skills and
business
36. The programme of work to
maximise the employment, skills and business benefits for London
from the Games is led on behalf of the Mayor by the London Development Agency
(LDA), the Mayor's agency responsible for driving London's sustainable economic growth. The LDA
co-ordinates the contributions of a number of agencies, including LOCOG and the
ODA, the five east London
host boroughs and the Learning and Skills Council. Highlights of the programme
include:
· Relay
London Jobs (www.relaylondonjobs.co.uk), a London-wide network of job
brokerage and employment support organisations which plays a vital part in
recruitment for job vacancies and construction courses around the construction
of the Olympic Park. Over
750 previously unemployed people have been placed into work via job brokerage
services since April 08, of which 81% have been residents of the five host
boroughs;
· Personal
Best (www.personalbestprogramme.co.uk), a groundbreaking training and volunteer
programme that uses the excitement of the London 2012 Games as a way of
encouraging workless and socially-excluded people to learn new skills, engage
in their communities, raise their aspirations and increase their chances of
getting a job. So far, 2,000 Londoners have completed training in preparation
for event volunteering;
· The
CompeteFor scheme (www.competefor.com), a free service that enables businesses
to compete for contract opportunities linked to the London 2012 Games and other
major public and private sector buying organisations and provides access to
business support through the national Business Link network. To date, over 700 contracts have been awarded to
businesses registered on the CompeteFor system, of which 240 are London-based. In London,
approximately 4,000 potential suppliers have been referred to business
support services to improve their competitiveness.
37. Every
six months, the LDA submits public reports on the progress of the employment
and skills and business programmes to the Economic Development, Culture, Sport
and Tourism Committee of London Assembly. Rather than reproduce here the
content of the most recent report (dated September 2009), the Mayor draws the
Committee's attention to the September report, which reviews the performance of
the programme to date, and looks ahead to the future challenges facing the
programme.
38. The
Committee is further invited to note the following information, which updates
figures contained in the September 2009 report:
· As
of December 2009, we estimate
that over 15,000 workless Londoners have been supported into jobs through
training and job brokerage programmes for the 2012 Games and associated
activities;
· The Games job brokerage service both advertises
vacancies and supports local people and those across London into Olympic-related employment and
other jobs. Over 750 previously unemployed people have been placed into work
via this service since April 08. 81% of these have been from the five host
boroughs.
· The lifetime target of 2250 training interventions
(excluding apprenticeships) through the National Skills Academy for
Construction has already been exceeded, with 2442 trainees having received
construction training, or pre-employment training, through the Academy since
April 2008;
· The ODA and its
contractors have made a pioneering commitment to deliver 350 construction
apprenticeships. To date, 150 apprentices have worked or are working on
the Olympic Park and Olympic Village sites.
Volunteering
39. It
is a high priority for the Mayor to increase the number of Londoners
volunteering, and to strengthen London's
volunteering infrastructure. He strongly believes in the value of volunteering,
not only for the organisation or community that benefits from the time and work
given, but also for the individual - not least in terms of the skills that can
be developed and maintained by people whose paid work has been interrupted by
the current economic downturn. He has established a Volunteer London portal (at
www.london.gov.uk/volunteer) to make it easier for Londoners to find out about
their local volunteer centre and volunteering opportunities which may interest
them. Since the London Olympic Games of 1948 introduced the idea of a volunteer
Games workforce, volunteering has become a fundamental plank of the Olympic and
Paralympic movements. The Mayor is determined to take the opportunity presented
by the 2012 Games to make a contribution to his overall volunteering
aspirations.
40. LOCOG
will require up to 70,000 volunteers as part of its Games-time workforce in
2012. While the formal recruitment process will not start until later in 2010,
over a quarter of a million people - including more than 50,000 Londoners -
have already registered their interest in participating in the LOCOG
volunteering programme. The Mayor is working with LOCOG to target publicity
about the Volunteer London portal at those Londoners who have shown an interest
in Games-time volunteering, to encourage them to volunteer in their community
now. The Mayor will continue to work with LOCOG before 2012, and using LOCOG's
databases after 2012, to promote volunteering to those people who have shown
interest in - and, in due course, gained skills and experience through - the
LOCOG volunteering programme.
41. Alongside
the LOCOG volunteering programme, the Mayor has also announced plans to recruit a team of Host City
Volunteers, who will be on hand during the London
2012 Games at airports, stations, major visitor attractions and other key
locations to welcome visitors and help them get the most out of their time in London. As with the LOCOG
programme, the Mayor has made it clear that a tangible volunteering legacy will
be at the heart of the plans for the Host City Volunteer scheme as they are
developed by the LDA during 2010.
42. Besides
these two formal Games-time volunteering programme, the Mayor is also working
with the volunteering sector in London
to identify other opportunities to capture a volunteering legacy from the
Games. Initiatives emerging from this collaboration include:
· Research
commissioned by the LDA to investigate the nature of volunteering in London,
the state of London's volunteering infrastructure and the training
opportunities currently available for those who wish to manage or lead
volunteers;
· Greater
London Volunteering's 2012 Volunteering Legacy website
(2012volunteeringlegacy.org.uk), which aims to connect and equip volunteers,
clubs, organisations, events organisers and London Volunteer Centres;
· LDA's
Official Sports London programme, described above, the beneficiaries of which will
often use their skills in volunteering capacity.
Education
43. Education
is one of the three pillars of the Olympic movement, alongside sport and
culture, and the members of the Olympic Board - including the Mayor - are fully
committed to realising the educational potential of London 2012. LOCOG's
flagship scheme aimed at capturing the domestic education benefits of the Games
is the 'Get Set' programme, which provides resources for schools and colleges
to engage and educate children and young people between the ages of three and
nineteen. At the time of writing, 1378 London
schools and colleges have registered to be part of the 'Get Set' programme.
44. The
Mayor's involvement in securing an education legacy seeks to complement LOCOG's
work, and therefore focuses on initiatives that sit outside the mainstream
curriculum. The Mayor has brought together a coalition of educational
organisations from across London
that have developed initiatives aimed at a wide cross-section of Londoners,
from young entrepreneurs to 1948 Olympians. By joining the coalition, projects
benefit from Mayoral endorsement and marketing support (including assistance in
becoming part of the Inspire programme) as well the opportunity to link up with
one another.
45. In
2009/10, the programme includes:
· The Get Into Opportunity programme (delivered by the
Prince's Trust) provides 16-25 year olds with taster courses and work
placements with a Games-related theme in the sports, leisure and digital media
industries. The taster days are designed to give young people an opportunity to
learn more about a career in their chosen industry, with follow-up support
offered to help participants access employment.
· The Tsu'Chu Biz: Developing Young Entrepreneurs of the
Future project (delivered by The Challenge of Excellence) works with 14-18
year olds across the five east London Host Boroughs, using football to teach
skills including leadership, stress management and teamwork and to provides
participants with at least one hour of physical activity a day.
· Through its VIP Project, Lifeline has developed the
innovative Vision, Identity and Purpose approach to personal development for
young people. The project works through a range of initiatives involving games,
the creative arts, and accredited and vocational training.
· The
Mayor's Young London website, which aims to inform and engage young
Londoners about a number of issues in the capital and has been developed in
close collaboration with over 100 children and young people, includes a section
devoted to the London 2012 Games: http://www.london.gov.uk/young-london/teens/olympics/index.jsp.
46. In
April 2010, the Mayor will invite submissions from organisations or initiatives
that would like to become part of the programme for 2010/11.
February
2010
[1] Active People Survey 3, published December 2009.
[2] A least three x 30 minute sessions of moderate intensity sport a week.
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