LVSC & TRUST FOR LONDON CALL FOR GOVERNMENT TO CLOSE INEQUALITY GAP

The London Voluntary Service Council (LVSC) and Trust for London are calling on Government and their partners to do more work to close London's inequality gap. At their Closing the Gap: Inequality in London conference on 23rd November, a number of prominent academics and practitioners showed how Lon

Campaign managed by: Sandra

Categories: poverty

Campaign location: London

Key data shows the dramatic disparities in wealth and income in London:

· 1 in 5 Londoners earn less than a living wage, which is £7.85;
· in inner London 20% of the population have 60% of the total income;
· the worst-off of the richest 10% of people in London have wealth which is 273 times
· greater than that held by the best-off of the poorest 10% of Londoners.

Bharat Mehta, Chief Executive of Trust for London says “The more we can do to highlight the widening gap between wealth and poverty and the issues this gap raises for society, the better, so that action can be taken to start addressing them.”
Peter Lewis, CEO of LVSC, says “Every policy-maker, decision-maker and practitioner in
London should take note of the data, and incorporate tackling it in their work. It is regrettable that the government has decided to drop the socio-economic duty on public authorities when our data shows how inequal London is. We are asking government at all levels to ensure London is a less inequal place in 5 years time”.

As a direct result of yesterday’s event a new independent London Cultural Equalities Group has been set up.