Why Groundwork London?

We design & deliver creative community based solutions, designed to tackle some of the biggest challenges & threats we are facing today, in London & globally.

 These are some of the big issues facing London, the UK and the planet, that have informed our 2025 Strategy:

Inequality

  • In London, a city with a population of 8.9m, 28% of Londoners were living in poverty in early 2020 – that’s 2.5m people. Worse still, four in every ten children (37%) are living in poverty. (Trust for London: London’s Poverty Profile 2020)
  • In London almost 12% of households in London experience fuel poverty. That’s 400,000 households, and that was before the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. Low income Londoners, single parents, social renters and disabled Londoners were also more likely to have struggled to keep their homes warm. (UK Gov Fuel Poverty Data 2020)
  • In the UK, 14 million households would struggle to replace basic furniture and household appliances if they became unusable & around 4.8 million people, are living without basic appliances, such as fridges, freezers, cookers and washing machines. (Turn2Us)

Young People

  • 12.5%* of young people in London aged 16- 24 are not in education, employment or training (NEET) *5 year average 2015-2020.
  • Two-thirds of young people believe that the pandemic would have a long-term negative impact on their mental health. (Young Minds)
  • 40% of young people say they feel ‘overwhelmed’ by the climate crisis. How is the environmental emergency making us feel?, Triodos Bank

Health & Wellbeing

  • There are wide variations in life expectancy across London. For women, the difference between the highest and lowest life expectancy is 3.8 years, for men the difference is 5.1 years. (Public Health England)
  • Although air pollution had reduced in London in recent years, 99% of London had particle pollution levels above the World Health Organisation’s recommended limits. (Mayor of London)
  • Over a quarter of Londoners in 2019 were socially isolated (27 %), defined as not having someone they can rely on a lot in an emergency. (data.london.gov.uk)

Climate Crisis

  • 76% of adults say they are concerned about climate change. Public Attitudes Tracker (March 2020, Wave 33, UK), BEIS
  • 90% of SMEs said being sustainable was important for their business but more than half said they were finding it difficult to take action. (CitySprint via Real Business)
  • London is exposed to far greater potential damage from flooding than any other urban area in the UK. (UKCIP)
  • London is in ‘severe water stress’. The city is pushing close to capacity and is likely to have supply problems by 2025 and “serious shortages” by 2040. (GLA) London’s water crisis is being exacerbated by the climate crisis & population growth.
  • The waste that London sends to landfill generates approximately 460,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year. (GLA)