IGP welcomes new members to the London Prosperity Board

Members of the Board include local government, third-sector bodies and businesses, who work together to develop new ways of thinking, generate new forms of evidence, and test new ways of working that make sustainable and inclusive prosperity a reality for people living and working in London.

Our ongoing engagement with a number of local authorities, councils, and organisations is aimed at expanding the cross-sector collaboration and promoting effective knowledge exchange. At the last Board meeting held earlier in October we were pleased to welcome new members with a shared interest in London’s future prosperity:

• Majeed Neky (Assistant Director Economy, West London Alliance);
• Cassie Robinson (Associate Director - Emerging Futures, Joseph Rowntree Foundation);
• Danny Edwards (Head of Economy, Southwark council);
• Caroline Wilson (Director of Community Wealth Building, Islington Council) and Dionne Gay (Director of Inclusive Economy and Jobs, Islington Council);
• Joe Dromey (Director, Central London Forward) and Saffron Jackson (Research Officer, Central London Forward);
• Iona McArdle (Senior Social Value Manager, Willmott Dixon);
• Rohan (Principal Policy and Projects Officer, Local Councils);
• Francesca Colloca (Head of Innovation, Shift);
• Laetitia Lucy (Senior consultant, Arup);

• Emma Frost (UK Innovation Districts Group).

Together with the new Board members we reviewed our priorities and ways of working, and established new working groups that will focus on three essential themes:

Prosperity in east London 2021-2031 – maximising the impact of the longitudinal study & planning Wave 2
As we plan the next wave of data collection in 2025, we are doing collective thinking about how to communicate the longitudinal study findings to different audiences. 

Secure livelihoods and inclusive economies – from research to interventions and policy pathways 
In our research, citizens consistently identify livelihood as essential to their prosperity. We are translating these findings into practical tools to measure livelihood security, design place-based interventions, and develop policy pathways that include livelihood security in strategies for inclusive economies.

Citizen Science – building a sustainable infrastructure for citizen-led research and evidence in London  
As we continue learning from our citizen-led research projects, we aim to develop strategies to achieve sustainability in terms of funding, reliability, and standards of evidence for citizen science. The objective is to embed this type of work in mainstream ways of working across organisations. 

For the past seven years our work has focused on citizen science, universal basic services and inclusive innovation in east London, achieving significant milestones such as the UK’s first citizen-led Prosperity Index and successfully conducting the first wave of the Prosperity in east London 2021-2031 longitudinal study.

A key finding from this work is around the concept of secure livelihoods for communities in east London. Citizens describe how work itself does not determine whether a person is leading a fulfilling life; on the contrary, they rely on an infrastructure of interconnected ‘assets’ and services to support and achieve a good life. This critical understanding is now part of the inclusive economy strategy of The Growth Boroughs in east London, and we are excited to be working with new partners to move from the research onto concrete policy pathways.

For more information about the London Prosperity Board visit https://londonprosperityboard.org