This year has gone by at unbelievable speed, and it feels like only moments ago that I sat down to write my reflections on 2023.
I wish I was looking back at an easier year this time around. But it’s fair to say 2024 hasn’t brought much relief to the challenges we’re experiencing, as a sector or wider society.
Last month the Social Metrics Commission report showed that the UK poverty levels are at their highest this century. Across London that looks like 1.4 million people, each one an individual struggling to afford even the very basics like food, heating and childcare.
We’ve also seen the housing crisis, one of London’s biggest problems, worsen. Levels of homelessness have reached a record high, with one Londoner in every 50 homeless and living in temporary accommodation.
With this reality, it’s easy to feel hopeless. But as always, the commitment, resilience and creativity of our sector has continued to show us that things can get better. And we know that change doesn’t happen overnight.
New government and new opportunities
This year we started funding organisations under our refreshed strategy. The strategy is ambitious, with a deliberate focus on influencing the underlying drivers of poverty in the city.
With a new government, we’re placing more emphasis on campaigning, policy and research, in the hope that the environment is more conducive to change. Early signals indicate that change will be incremental and hard fought, but the decade ahead looks more promising than the decade past.
Celebrating wins in 2024
There have been a number of significant wins for the groups we fund this year, making tangible differences to people’s lives.
The campaign to make London a Living Wage city entered its fourth year. Over that time, thousands of employers in London have become Living Wage accredited, pledging to do business the right way. Across our capital there are more than 4,000 organisations headquartered in London accredited by the Living Wage Foundation. The campaign has led to pay rises for more than 50,000 Londoners, putting hundreds of millions into the pockets of people in poverty.
And across London, the hundreds of organisations we fund have worked tirelessly for a fairer city. We were proud to fund our second round of grants under the racial justice fund and disability justice fund, providing vital support to Black-led and Disabled people-led organisations in their fight for justice. In the last few weeks one of those projects, led by Disabled-led arts organisation filmpro, culminated in a public showcase of 10 Disabled campaigners and artists. Read more about this and see some great pictures from the event here.
I carry with me an inherent optimism that civil society can affect change. There are opportunities for influencing and to make a real and lasting difference.
Our goal to end the poverty premium – the extra costs paid for essential goods and services by people living in poverty – is also growing momentum. We recently gave out our first grant under this priority, funding the Finance Innovation Lab’s campaign for a Fair Banking Act. This campaign is a coalition of a number of organisations, which has been running for several years. We’re excited to see it continue to progress.
In our social investment work there was plenty of success, too. We completed a pilot of participatory social investment where we put investment decisions in the hands of young Londoners. Through this rewarding process we were able to provide investments to three organisations, all working to tackle the rooted issues of youth unemployment.
There are too many highlights to name them all here. We know that all of the organisations we fund have been working flat out to serve their communities. Thank you for all you do.
Looking to the future
We know that the difficulties won’t end with 2024. Far too many Londoners are still in poverty, and there’s so much work to be done to make London a fairer city. And we know that the difficult context for the sector will remain, too, with service providers overstretched and facing an increasingly difficult funding environment.
But I carry with me an inherent optimism that civil society can affect change. There are opportunities for influencing and to make a real and lasting difference. And at Trust for London we’re committed to funding work that makes London a fairer city.
