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.