Soon markets will be stocked with veg from local gardens

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today launched a £150,000 fund to help Londoners grow their own food in under-used areas of the capital.

He also welcomed Transport for London to the Capital Growth scheme, which is run by London Food Link and has a target to create 2,012 growing spaces by 2012 in discarded patches of London, tended by enthusiastic community gardeners.

The Mayor has provided £150,000 so green fingered community groups can apply for small grants. This is in addition to the practical support being offered to communities to help them to identify plots and join Capital Growth. More than 150 plots have already been signed up across the city including canal banks, schools, roofs, private gardens open to the community and parks.

TfL is the latest sign up to Capital Growth, having provided a brownfield site above Southwark Tube station which will be leased to local people living nearby to grow a range of fruit and vegetables in this busy part of London. As part of their commitment to greening the capital, London Underground also announced today that a new ‘fruit and vegetables’ category will be created in their annual staff gardening competition – Underground in Bloom.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: ‘Lush patches of fruit and veg are springing up around the city thanks to Capital Growth. This helps to make our urban environment far more pleasant and provides a cheap, fun way to grow food. Transport for London is setting a fine example by joining and I hope other landowners jump on board, freeing up more underused plots of land.’

Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food said: ‘ It is welcome news that Londoners can now apply for small pots of funding as well as receive practical advice to get their veg plot up and running, helping us to meet our target of 2012 spaces by 2012. More and more people are recognising the pleasure of growing your own, and we are providing a package of support to help them do so.’

The land at Southwark, while remaining in TfL’s ownership, will be tended by green-fingered residents from a nearby block of flats. The fruit and vegetables grown will not be sold for profit but will be used to create delicious food for the local community.

London Underground Chief Operating Officer, Howard Collins, said “Capital Growth, like Underground in Bloom, is another example of Transport for London’s commitment to help make London a greener and more pleasant place to live in. We support the scheme as we believe that it is a perfect way to improve Londoners access to nutritious food while maintaining and enhancing London’s green spaces. With more and more people keen to get their hands dirty we hope that plenty of other organisations in London will join us and get growing.”

Ben Reynolds, London Food Link, said: ‘We have been amazed at the great response so far to Capital Growth, and delighted that we have 150 new food growing spaces. We have had great feedback from these spaces on what they have been growing over the last season, and it’s clear these spaces are making a real difference to people’s lives.’

The Capital Growth small grants fund offers between £200-£1,500 to anyone who wants to create a new community food growing space. The grants will be on offer London-wide until March 2010 to any group that has been growing food on a plot started from January 1 this year. The grants are also on offer to anyone wanting to expand an existing food growing space. For more information visit: www.capitalgrowth.org

Capital Growth is funded by the Mayor of London and by Local Food, part of the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food Scheme. This grant round follows £50,000 offered during the pilot phase of Capital Growth funded by the London Development Agency earlier this year.

Camden, City of London, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston-upon-Thames, Lewisham, Richmond-upon-Thames, Tower Hamlets, and Wandsworth have all been judged as performing excellently under the new annual ratings of the services and support provided to children.

The ratings look at the performance of England’s 152 local authorities and provide a wide-ranging assessment of all the children’s services a council is responsible for, either alone or in partnership with other agencies, and the differences they are making to children’s lives.

London Councils’ lead member for Children and Young People, Cllr Nick Stanton, said: “Despite some of the negative headlines children’s services have received over the last year these figures are testament to the great strides being made across the capital.

“Local authorities look after some of the capital’s most vulnerable children who need careful and often specialised help and support at a very delicate time of their lives.

“The figures released by Ofsted today show that London has some of the best performing children’s services anywhere in the country – and that is something we should be proud of.

“However, Londoners should be assured that councils will not be resting on their laurels and will continue to provide the best possible services to the capital’s children.”

Published today, Investing for Recovery – a new deal for London, is a joint report by the GLA Group and London Councils, working in the interests of all 33 London authorities. The report makes clear London’s dominant economic role; heralding the capital as the engine room, driving the UK into recovery, and makes the claim for fairer funding.

The report bids for a fairer funding model that takes into consideration London’s high turnover of population, resulting strains on public services, and the capital’s intractable social problems, including poverty levels and insufficient housing.

As part of a joint lobbying campaign, conducted at official and ministerial level, the Mayor wrote to Liam Byrne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, on 30th October requesting a meeting to discuss the capital’s financial future, but has yet to receive a reply.

Already punching above its weight, with just 12 per cent of the country’s population, London contributes more to the Treasury than any other region; its economy is greater than that of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the East Midlands combined. To maintain its position, the capital needs continued investment, but with greater freedom for the boroughs to decide how money is spent.

Boris Johnson said: “I am disappointed that Liam Byrne has not taken up my offer of a meeting. There is no denying that London is the economic engine room of the nation and we need a strong economic alliance between City Hall and Westminster.

“Londoners already do more than their fair share. We pay much more in tax than we get back in public expenditure. We are driving the economy into recovery. Londoners are, on average, 30% more productive than the rest of the UK, plus those who leave take their skills and experiences with them, honed in the world’s business capital.

“London has consistently replenished the Treasury coffers over the last twenty years. What we want is a fair deal, only a fair deal, and will give a great deal back to the nation.”

Chairman of London Councils, Councillor Merrick Cockell said: “London is unique. Not just because of its importance as the country’s capital but because of the mix of challenges our public services face on a daily basis – including an overstretched transport system, overcrowded homes, the dire lack of affordable houses, and large pockets of deprivation.

“This is not a case of us simply calling on the government to give more money to London. It is about investing in the leadership and innovative thinking from boroughs and their partners, including the Mayor, in tackling the problems this city faces head on.

“It is supporting this work with a fair share of funding that will help us support our communities on the long road to recovering from the recession and build for the future. This in turn will have major benefits for the rest of the country.”

Ahead of the Pre-Budget Report (9th December) and in anticipation of future spending reviews and public finance constraints, this report outlines why strong economic growth in the capital benefits the whole country and argues the case for:

- Funding to be maintained by central government for key investments that will help the country as well as the capital, especially Crossrail, the rebuilding of the Underground and skilling our population to compete in a globalised economy.

- Fairer revenue funding to enable London’s leaders to tackle persistent social problems – where London’s needs remain high relative to the country as a whole. London’s population is growing, and will hit 8.1 million by 2016; and the costs of its public services remain higher than the rest of the country by around 20-30 per cent.

- And, in certain areas, changes to the distribution of national funding where London’s social and other needs remain more challenging than in the rest of the country.

A copy of the report can be found here

Investing for Recovery – a new deal for London is a deliverable of the City Charter – a voluntary agreement between the Mayor of London and London Councils. An agreed area for joint action in the City Charter is to campaign for a fairer share of funding and investment in London from central government.

The 2010-2011 Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement was announced on Thursday 26 November, which again saw London boroughs receiving the lowest government grant increase of any region.

The government provides local authorities with an annual grant through the Local Government Finance Settlement. This allocation has a significant impact on the services local authorities provide, council budgets, and council tax levels.

London Councils, one of the biggest funders of the capital’s voluntary sector, is launching an extensive consultation to ensure that its funding meets the needs of London’s diverse population needs, wherever they live in the capital.

Currently around 360 voluntary groups receive funding from London Councils across 59 priority areas including schemes giving disabled people the opportunity to play sport, helping women affected by domestic violence work towards independent lives and working with young people to prevent them becoming involved with gun crime

Voluntary services have seen an increase in demand as a consequence of the recession with rises in unemployment, an increase in debt and other related side-effects – like more people suffering from depression.

London Councils is now looking at what areas should be a priority for its funding from April 2011.

The consultation will run until the end of January next year and London Councils is urging anyone with an interest or working in the voluntary sector to take part.

People will be able to respond online, in writing or at one of a series of consultation meetings which have been arranged. These will be held in:

• Central London – Monday 16 November
• Barking – Tuesday 17 November
• Central London – Thursday 19 November
• Greenwich – Friday 20 November
• Wimbledon – Monday 23 November
• Ealing – Wednesday 25 November
• Central London – Thursday 26 November
• Wood Green – Wednesday 2 December

Chairman of London Councils’ Grants Committee, Councillor Lynne Hillan (pictured), said:

“Voluntary groups in the capital provide a crutch to many of our most vulnerable citizens and their services are in particular demand at this time of economic uncertainty.

“This is a very important consultation as it will help shape who and what we provide funding for in the future.

“There are no preconceived ideas about the services we want to fund. It is important that as many people as possible tell us how they think this money should be spent to ensure that the services that we fund benefit those people in the capital who need it.”