Questions to the Mayor of London – answered at on 30 May 2021.
In your first term, you created the Economic Fairness measures in the London Datastore to include measures to help reduce inequality, the first Mayor to do so. Why is it important to measure both economic growth and measures on economic fairness?
Economic growth is just one aspect of the city’s prosperity. The pandemic has highlighted many of the inequalities in our economy and society. For London’s economy to truly succeed, all Londoners must be able to benefit from growth, so that opportunity and prosperity are shared. This means tackling discrimination and disadvantage, challenging low pay and other unfair working practices, and reducing inequality.
That will require us to acknowledge structural and systemic unfairness and inequality – from employment gaps, pay gaps, and lack of access to opportunities that certain groups experience, through to London’s high cost of living.
To aid in our understanding of economic fairness and our ability to effect change, I will establish a new measure of wellbeing in London as a core measure of the city’s success. This will help the GLA and London's boroughs to develop policy more effectively and target support at the communities in our city that need it the most.