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Prosperity in London – The London Prosperity Board

In this video, Professor Moore introduces learners to the London Prosperity Board
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In 2016, the IGP launched the London Prosperity Board to investigate how we can get communities in East London on the pathway to prosperity. London, as we’ve said, is a very wealthy city, but it’s not necessarily a prosperous one. 27% of Londoners live in poverty when housing costs are taken into account. That’s 2.25 million people and it includes 700,000 children. The project involves local people, local business, and local government. It also includes other stakeholders like the Greater London Authority and Public Health England. And it’s about getting communities involved in designing solutions towards sustainable prosperity. In the work in East London, we use citizen scientists. That’s community researchers who are part of the IGP’s research team.
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And their perspective on the problems that communities are facing are absolutely crucial in designing the methodologies and the solutions that the research team proposes. Underlying all of our research is a fundamental rethinking of what we mean by “prosperity.” Prosperity is not just about wealth or just about income, important though those things are. But it’s also about flourishing, about well-being, about social capital and trust, about good quality communities and good quality places. But it’s also about hope and aspiration and opportunities for the future. All of these things are important in understanding what prosperity means for local communities.

In this video, Professor Henrietta Moore introduces the London Prosperity Board. The London Prosperity Board was launched by the IGP in 2016. It’s a collaboration between universities, charities, businesses, local government, and community organisations. The IGP intends for it to be a test-case for post-GDP measures in London.

Current economic practices have left many people and places behind. London is one of the wealthiest cities in the world and home to some of the largest and most powerful institutions. It’s also the most unequal part of the UK with a higher rate of poverty than the UK average. 27% of Londoners live in poverty once housing costs are taken into account, compared with 20% in the rest of the England.

Like many other large cities, the benefits of London’s dynamic growth and urban expansion are very unevenly distributed. Access to secure and properly rewarded work, genuinely affordable and secure housing, and good quality education remain out of reach for many people. Add to this the local challenges of austerity politics and Brexit, and the global challenges of climate change, mass population movement and rapidly ageing populations, and it’s clear that London needs to think differently about what sustainable prosperity means and how to achieve it. London needs innovative new partnerships, approaches and policies to tackle these problems.

This is the starting point for the work of the London Prosperity Board. The London Prosperity Board is a dynamic partnership between the university, government, businesses and communities. All parties are committed to rethinking what prosperity means for London and testing innovative new ways of working to make sustainable and inclusive prosperity a reality for the capital. By bringing together government, businesses, communities and academic institutions, the Board ensures that a broad range of voices will contribute to the project. Each partner also has a long track record of producing good work in East London. The combined experience and innovation of all of these players is crucial in the realisation of such an ambitious project. bringing together organisations with long-term interests in East London.

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Global Prosperity Beyond GDP

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