By Dr Paul Toyne - Commissioner with the London Sustainable Development Commission
As London develops its plans to recover from the pandemic, political leaders, businesses and the public have rightly recognised the need to build a better society – the future we want – which is kinder, more tolerant, more just and equitable, and more environmentally sustainable. The question is how to do this: what tools can we use to better understand how to improve public health and wellbeing, job creation and sustained employment, alleviate poverty, enhance our environment and create resilience?
The role of the SDGs
The London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC) believes the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have a crucial role to play in this and decided to analyse London’s performance against them.
The SDGs are the closest thing we have to a global sustainable development strategy. Agreed by the UN in 2015, they are universally recognised, and have become a global language for sustainability among national and local government, businesses and community groups.
The SDGs cover a comprehensive range of issues, and take a holistic, and integrated approach, with a strong focus on reducing inequalities and supporting society’s most marginalised. They provide a cross-cutting framework of 17 goals supported by a set of indicators and targets. Goals include an end to poverty, taking urgent action to combat climate change and promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
The LSDC advocates use of the SDGs to help take an integrated approach to the complex, interconnected challenges London faces, as we believe this can help decision-makers unlock co-benefits across a wide range of policy areas, while making informed decisions on any trade-offs.
For the first time, we are using the SDGs as a lens to analyse evidence of London’s overall performance on 110 indicators tailored to the city, exploring the collective contribution of local and regional government, businesses, communities and others. It also explores the interconnections between themes and stakeholders to show how the co-benefits approach of the SDGs can help London make key decisions on its future.
A quick snapshot of some of the findings reveals that:
- 28 per cent of Londoners live in relative poverty, i.e. with incomes below 60 per cent of the national median. Housing costs are a major contributor to this and represent a larger proportion of income for those on lower incomes and in privately rented housing.
- COVID-19 has shone a light on pre-existing inequalities and exacerbated them, disproportionately affecting groups that were already the most disadvantaged. Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, women, and those with low incomes have been hit hardest financially, disproportionately having frontline jobs where they cannot work from home, and which are low-paid or precarious.
- A rise in food insecurity, housing insecurity and other challenges have disproportionately impacted low-income households, BAME Londoners, women, people with disabilities and young people.
- Following the surge in unemployment during the pandemic, Universal Credit claims in London doubled between March and November 2020; however the poorest boroughs saw five times more new claims than the wealthiest.
- Exposure to poor air quality – associated disproportionately with low-income and BAME neighbourhoods - has also been linked with increased vulnerability to COVID-19. This reflects wider long-standing health inequalities, where deprivation and poverty are closely linked with London’s leading causes of death.
- Reducing inequalities and ensuring all Londoners are paid a decent wage – which are key priorities for London’s Recovery Board – could therefore simultaneously improve public health and reduce homelessness.
Our report highlights that environmental improvements can also contribute to tackling inequalities: improving energy-efficiency in our housing can reduce fuel poverty (some boroughs are the worst in England); whilst improving air quality and equality of access to green space is key to improving health and wellbeing, whilst also boosting resilience to heatwaves and flooding caused by climate change.
The report also makes recommendations for how the SDGs could be embedded by London’s leading decision-makers, including local government, businesses, public sector bodies and others.
Find analysis and a synthesis of the findings in our report.
Access the data used for the report.
We would value your comments on this ground-breaking analysis.