2012 agreement signed
A landmark agreement between London’s five Olympic Boroughs and central Government will lock in the benefits of the £9billion investment in the 2012 Olympics for local people, Communities Secretary John Denham announced today.
John Denham said: "We promised that the Olympics would transform East London for years to come. Our joint aim is to close the gap between East London and the rest of London. This means more jobs, more skills training and a high quality environment. Narrowing the employment gap means at least 8,000 more jobs but we can aim as high as 40,000."
London’s Olympic Boroughs are already working hard to deliver a successful 2012 Games, but every level of Government wants the legacy to change things for local people and the local area too. Central Government is making sure councils have all the powers and support they need to do that.
Today Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest are signing an agreement with Government, known as a Multi-Area Agreement (MAA), which gives them new powers to unite and direct funding to boost local jobs and skills support and make sure public areas are ready to be showcased to the millions of visitors expected to come in 2012.
Many issues that affect people’s lives do not stop neatly at council boundaries. Councils will now be able to join forces through the MAA to mastermind solutions that could help thousands of people back into work, raise skills levels, and transform the public areas appearance.
This year the five boroughs received over £2bn in government grant and over £9bn is going into the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games including £350m to turn the Olympic Park from a Games venue into a new city district. Almost £500m has been committed to improving transport links.
John Denham travelled to the £1.4bn Westfield Stratford City shopping centre in East London to sign the historic agreement with the five councils. The development is at the heart of local regeneration plans. When complete it will include a skills academy so local people get the retail skills to work there. John Lewis has already committed to offer local apprenticeships and training.
The agreement sets out:
• A commitment to narrow the employment gap with rest of London by 1 – 5%, which could mean up to 40,000 more jobs based on 2008/09 figures.
• A commitment to narrow the unemployment gap with rest of London by 1 – 1.5 %, which could mean up to 7,000 fewer unemployed economically active people based on 2008/09 figures.
• The host boroughs will develop an integrated job and skills strategy to help local long-term unemployed find employment or training by making services more accessible and tailoring them to residents and local employers. For example work trials can be extended from three to six weeks without affecting benefits;
• The area will get a deep clean, with the support of Keep Britain Tidy, and the attractiveness of public spaces will be improved in the run up to 2102 so it is a destination of choice for Olympic visitors. £111m has already been promised to start the public realm improvements.
• Promote local people’s sense of civic pride in their area, and attract high quality investment and iconic buildings to the Lea Valley and Thames Gateway.
• Work to direct funding across the all five boroughs to more strategically reduce overcrowding, increase affordable housing and make sure private sector homes meet local needs and decent standards.
This latest MAA signing takes the number of council agreements to 15 – covering more than a hundred councils.
This year, councils will also gain responsibility for commissioning education and training for 16 to 19 year olds - funding worth a further £7billion a year.
The Government has already given councils greater stability, freedoms and flexibilities. Almost £6bn has been moved into budgets with no spending strings attached; the performance framework for councils has been radically slimmed down from 1,200 to less then 200 targets; and a smarter and cheaper inspection regime led by the Audit Commission has been established.
Today new draft guidance was also published on ‘MAAs with duties’ for a 12-week consultation following Royal Assent of the LDEDC Act 2009. It will provide a framework of duties to co-operate for local authorities to reach targets that have been jointly agreed.
The guidance sets out the process for establishing a new MAA with statutory duties, including what the duty to co-operate will mean for partners and how to convert existing agreement in to one with duties.
