Today sees the launch of the new and improved Talk London, City Hall’s online community and citizen engagement platform.

The site is currently in BETA as we gather more feedback and input from our users and Londoners to help inform the next rounds of development for Talk 3.0. Take a look and join the discussion here.

Talk London was set up to involve Londoners in sustained conversations about how to improve the capital, last year almost 11,000 new members joined, more than double the previous 12 months (4,500).

During such a challenging year, hearing directly from Londoners about COVID-19 was…

Today the Mayor’s London Plan comes into force. Under new requirements, for the first time, London will have specific planning policy to drive full fibre connectivity and improve mobile network coverage as well as encouraging smart city technology to improve data on the environment.

Full fibre as minimum in new developments

Policy SI6 of the London Plan sets a minimum standard for every new home and business in London to be able to receive full fibre broadband connections. …

To inform the development of an Emerging Technology Charter for London, in December 2020 the Smart London Team held a public consultation on Talk London — our online discussion and consultation platform with nearly 60,000 users from across London.

The consultation asked for Londoners’ views on technological progress as a whole and then posed a series of questions about emerging technology and the role the GLA and other public and private bodies play in its development and deployment in the city. …

A collaborative project between London’s boroughs and City Hall will launch in November, writes Peter Kemp.

London Planning Datahub — Go Live

Beginning in 2018, we launched a project to build a network of systems to unlock information about development proposals in London, and make it open, accessible and live. By automating how information on planning applications for development are collected and reported to City Hall, we aimed to reduce the burden on London’s Local Planning Authorities and improve the quantity and quality of data available to the public. You can read more about the project and its history here.

…

From bringing to life the problems and issues of everyday Londoners and crowd-sourcing ideas, to raising awareness of initiatives and gaining buy in for new projects, City Hall’s Talk London team talks through improvements to citizen engagement and how it plays an important role in the creation of City Hall’s policies and programmes.

Talk London is City Hall’s online community and citizen engagement platform, currently numbering nearly 60 thousand members. The platform is set up to run surveys and host discussions and has recently been used to talk to Londoners about the impact COVID-19 and the lockdown on their lives.

…

A plan to guide emerging tech innovations deployed the capital has been unveiled today by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Sadiq is tasking the Smart London Board, Chaired by London’s Chief Digital Officer, to talk to citizens and innovators and develop a set of criteria that innovations should meet if they are deployed in the capital, delivered through an Emerging Technologies Charter for London.

New technologies being developed by London’s world-leading tech sector have the potential to make a positive impact for all who live, work and study in the capital — and I want London to be a…

London has a long history of events which have caused a whole or partial lockdown of the city. The Great Fire, the plague, the Blitz — these all have a place in the fabric of London’s culture and identity. The current lockdown and economic downturn will undoubtedly be remembered as a significant event in the history of the capital and as a shared experience with other cities across the world.

Moments like this tend to see an acceleration in changes to science, technology and culture. …

Pay it Forward London so far has helped businesses raise around £200,000, and is an example of partnership and iteration with the tech sector to make a real difference to businesses.

When the Covid-19 virus hit, the GLA’s Economic Development function became for the first time a frontline service. As well as offering advice, guidance and listening to the needs of businesses, there was a clear call for direct financial intervention to support businesses.

The lockdown was in essence a whole-market-failure — businesses reliant on physical trading were immediately put into a cash flow crisis.

The response from the central…