The health of London's Civil Society

London's Population
1. Gender composition
  1. London's population is 58% female and 42% male (Citizens Advice, 2019)
  2. There are more women living in the capital than elsewhere in the uk (2% pp increase) (Citizens Advice, 2019)
2. Racial/Ethnic composition
  1. London is a diversity city and is one of the most diverse places to live in the UK. (Citizens advice, 2019)
  2. London has a white majority at 48%, whilst the rest of the UK has a white majority at 81% (33% pp difference) (Citizens Advice, 2019)
  3. Over 300 languages are currently spoken across London's schools (BBC 2014)
3. LGBTQ composition
  1. London is home to England's largest Gay Community, with people in London more likely to identify as LGB (2.6%). (ONS, 2017)
  2. London has an abundance of LGBTQ cultural infrastructure, with 73 LGBTQ night venues based across the capital. (GLA, 2019 Cultural Infrastructure Map)
4. Demographic Trends
  1. London remains the youngest region in the UK. The average age of a Londoner is 35.5 years old. (Centre for London, 2019)
  2. London's elderly population is one of the most diverse population's in the UK.
    1. London’s nearly 1 million population aged 65+, 22% are from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities while 37% were born outside of the UK. (Age UK, 2018)
    2. Opening Doors London (2018) estimate there are 100,000 older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in London.
  3. Growth
    1. The GLA estimates that London's Population currently accounts for 8.9 million people (GLA Datastore, 2020)
    2. In 2018, London's population increased by 83,000 people (Centre for London, 2019)
    3. London's population is estimated to increase further yet. The population is projected to grow to 9.7 million by 2025 (GLA, 2020) and reach 11 million by the year 2050 (Statistica, 2018).
5. The "Supply and Demand" relationship. As the population grows, the demand on current civil society infrastructure will increase.
  1. Increased opportunities for growth/development as more "buyers" enter the market.... a classic argument.
  2. "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest" (Smith, 1759)
Funding and Assets
1. Government Funding
  1. Government funding accounts for almost a third of the sector's annual income (31%) at £15.8bn per annum (NCVO, 2019)
  2. The government spends only 2% of it's annual budget on funding for voluntary organisations. (NCVO, 2019)
  3. Income from the government includes income from central government departments, local authorities, devolved and regional government, the EU and international governments, town and parish councils, NHS trusts and a range of non-departmental bodies (NCVO, 2019)
  4. Smaller organisations receive a lower proportion of their income from government.
    1. 32% proportion of income received from government by medium to super-large organisations (NCVO, 2019)
    2. 15% proportion of income was received by micro and small organisations (NCVO, 2019)
2. Grant making foundations
  1. Over half (57%) of grants made stay within the voluntary sector, but notable amounts also go to individuals and other types of organisations like public sector bodies and universities (NCVO, 2019).
  2. More than half of the grant making from voluntary organisations goes back to other voluntary organisations (NCVO, 2019)
  3. Major and super-major organisations gave grants worth £4.2bn (NCVO, 2019).
3. Distribution of Assets
  1. Amounts distributed in the latest year
    1. <£500k (1%)
    2. £500k-£1m (1%)
    3. £1m-£3m (9%)
    4. £3m-£5m (6%)
    5. £5m-£7m (4%)
    6. £7m-£9m (6%)
    7. £9m-£11m (8%)
    8. £15m-£20m (13%)
    9. £20m+ (51%)
  2. Monopolisation of Assets
    1. The vast majority of the sectors assets are held by a small number of the sector's biggest organisations (NCVO, 2019).
  3. Which themes are funded the most? (n= number of respondents, 360 Giving: 2019)
    1. Health & Social Care (n=56)
    2. Crisis & poverty (n=54)
    3. Capacity building & civil society support (n=46)
    4. Education & training (n=46)
    5. Community, resilience, integration & cohesion (n=45)
    6. Crime & justice (n=43)
    7. Arts, culture & heritage (n=39)
    8. Sport & recreation (n=37)
    9. Environment (n=32)
    10. General charitable purposes (n=27)
    11. Research (n=15)
Social Problems
1. Wealth inequality
  1. London's Elite
    1. Ultra-High Net-Worth Individuals
      1. There are more billionaires living in London than any other city in the world, with 80 billionaires currently residing in the capital (Tarver, 2019).
  2. Empty Homes
    1. 45,980 properties recorded as second homes for tax purposes in 2018, 62% of which are concentrated across five of London's boroughs (GLA, 2019).
  3. Housing Bubble
    1. Housing in London is more expensive than anywhere else in the UK.
      1. In December 2019, the average london house price was £476,000. In comparison, the average house price nationally was £251,000 (GLA, 2019).
      2. Rents in Inner London in 2015/16 were 72% of earnings compared to 29% in the rest of England. (Trust for London, 2019)
      3. The average house price for London is projected to rise to £508,000 by 2022. (PWC, 2019)
    2. In the last two decades, the number of jobs in London has grown by 45% and the number of people by 27%, but the number of homes by only 18% (GLA, 2019).
    3. 7 in 10 of England's households in temporary accommodation arranged by the local council are Londoners. (Trust for London, 2019)
    4. 39% of homeless families that the council has a duty to house became homeless as a result of the end of a private tenancy (Trust for London, 2019)
  4. Homelessness
    1. 8,100 people were recorded as sleeping rough at least once on London's streets in 2016/2017. This is the same level as last year - but three times higher than a decade ago (Trust for London, 2019)
    2. 75% of rough sleepers were in Inner London, with nearly a third of them in Westminster (32%) (Trust for London, 2019).
  5. Precarious Employment
    1. 1 in 5 employees were paid below the London Living Wage in 2018 (21% of Londoners) (Trust for London, 2019).
2. Health
  1. Londoner's mental health
    1. Adults in London suffer from higher prevalence of mental health issues than the English average. In 2014, a higher proportion of London adults (19 per cent) had common mental health disorders than the England average (17 per cent). (Centre for London, 2019)
    2. Eight per cent of Londoners feel lonely always or often (GLA, 2019).
  2. The "health lottery". London is healthier than the rest of England, with the mortality rate (from preventable causes) being 13 percentage points lower in London than nationally (GLA, 2020).
Volunteering
1. Demographic characteristics of Volunteers (London Plus, 2019)
  1. Gender Composition
    1. Women are more likely to volunteer regularly than their male counterparts.
    2. The capital's female population of volunteers is only marginally larger than it's male volunteering population
  2. Racial/Ethnic Composition
    1. People who were Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi were less likely to say they had volunteered in the last 12 months than people from other ethnic backgrounds.
    2. White British individuals constitute the majority of London's volunteering population
  3. Socio-economic Stratification
    1. Individuals within the highest income quintile, and individuals with a degree, were most likely to say they volunteered
    2. ECONOMIC CAPITAL
      1. Individuals within the highest income quintile were more likley to volunteer than those in other income quintile groups
    3. EDUCATIONAL CAPITAL
      1. Individuals who had a degree/HE level qualifications were most likely to volunteer
  4. Age
    1. Young people are more likely to volunteer in London than any other age group
2. SECTOR BREAKDOWN (NCVO, 2019)
  1. 67% of volunteers give their time to civil society organisations
  2. 17% give their time to public sector organisations
    1. Public sector volunteers are twice as likely to agree that their volunteering was ‘too structured or formalised’ than civil society volunteers.
  3. 10% of volunteers give time via employer-supported volunteering.
3. Lived Experience of Volunteers (NCVO, 2019)
  1. POSITIVE
    1. 77% of 18 to 24 year-olds and 76% of 25 to 34 year-olds agreeing that their volunteering helps them feel less isolated
    2. 96% volunteers say they are very or fairly satisfied with their volunteering.
    3. 7 in 10 volunteers had already or would recommend their volunteering to a friend or family member.
    4. 90% of volunteers feel they make a difference through their volunteering
  2. NEGATIVE
    1. Over one third of volunteers agree things could be much better organised
    2. One quarter of volunteers feel that there is too much bureaucracy within the sector
    3. Around 1 in 5 volunteers (19%) feel like their volunteering is becoming too much like paid work
    4. Of volunteers who report negative experiences, the most common of these is too much time being taken up
4. Where are London's Volunteers based? (GLA, 2016)
  1. Based on aggregate of survey response data from 2008-2016
    1. Barnet (most likely to volunteer)
    2. Kingtson upon Thames (second most likely to volunteer)
    3. Harrow (third most likely to volunteer)
  2. Around 8 in 10 volunteers give their time locally, within their own neighborhood's (NCVO, 2019).
  3. Volunteers are more likely to carry out their activities through a mix of online and offline (57%) (NCVO, 2019)
5. Londoners are more likely to volunteer than the national population (London Plus, 2019)
  1. 21 percent of Londoners said they had volunteered in the last 12 months, compared to 19 percent of people in the rest of the UK.
The majority of the country's charities (2,998) are based in Westminister (CharityData, 2018).
An increased population size may see the rise of further social problems and the exacerbation of existing issues unless preventative actions are taken in the present.