youthbuild-togetherhotspots: Lewisham · Croydon · Haringey
Young people dropping off the radar at 16 and 17
Up to 6.5% of 16 and 17 year olds in the worst boroughs are NEET or of unknown activity.
The evidence (3)
Lewisham (6.5%) and Croydon (5.8%) had London's highest rates of 16-17 year olds NEET or of unknown activity at the start of 2025, with Haringey third at 4.9% (DfE participation statistics, 2024/25).
England's 18-24 NEET rate stood at 16.0% at the end of 2025, about 783,000 young people (DfE annual brief).
London's 15% NEET rate for 16-24s is among the worst of any UK region (PwC Youth Employment Index 2025).
sources: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk · explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk · pwc.co.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
A referral-and-matching platform through which trusted community adults can flag a disengaged young person, with consent, and match them to nearby re-engagement provision, apprenticeships and mentors, closing the loop the council caseload system cannot.
who is already here: London Youth · GLA HeadStart Action · Youth Futures Foundation · local authority NCCIS teams
youthbuild-now
After eighteen, nobody is counting
Statutory tracking of who is NEET ends at 18, and London's young-adult employment has weakened faster than most of the country.
The evidence (3)
Payrolled employment among 16-24 year olds in London fell four percentage points in the three years to December 2025 (IFS analysis of administrative data).
The statutory duty to identify and track young people not in education or training covers 16 and 17 year olds only; after 18 there is no equivalent tracking (Education and Skills Act 2008).
Non-statutory Youth Guarantee trailblazers now cover twelve London boroughs for 18-21s, so provision exists in parts of the capital; discovery is the gap.
sources: ifs.org.uk · gov.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
An aggregator of entry-level roles, apprenticeships, work experience and volunteering, organised by travel distance rather than sector, that community organisations can refer through; check overlap with the GLA New Deal for Young People and the trailblazer navigation first.
who is already here: GLA · Youth Futures Foundation · Jobcentre Plus youth hubs · community employment charities
youthbuild-togetherhotspots: Camden · Islington · Westminster
More than one in five pupils persistently absent in the worst boroughs
Camden, Islington, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea all recorded persistent absence above 20% in 2024/25.
The evidence (2)
Persistent absence in 2024/25: Camden 23.2%, Islington 22.4%, Westminster 22.1%, against a London average of 17.5% and an England average of 18.1% (DfE full-year release).
Linked justice and education data shows 81% of children cautioned or sentenced had at some point been persistently absent, almost all before their first offence; a descriptive association, not a causal claim (MoJ and DfE).
sources: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk · gov.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
Map the support that removes attendance barriers (breakfast clubs, uniform banks, travel funds) borough by borough as open data, and offer schools a referral route from attendance concern to that support with the right safeguarding agreements.
who is already here: schools and trusts · School-Home Support · borough attendance teams · local mutual aid groups
youthbuild-togetherhotspots: Barnet · Sutton · Westminster
Youth service spending: sharp divergence, not uniform decline
Since 2015/16 Barnet and Sutton cut cash spending on services for young people by more than 80% and Westminster by 70%, while other boroughs increased theirs.
The evidence (3)
Nominal change in net spending on services for young people, 2015/16 to 2024/25: Barnet down 84%, Sutton down 84%, Westminster down 70%; over the same period Newham rose 655% and Barking and Dagenham 355% (DfE section 251 outturn).
London-wide spending moved from £87.9m to £84.1m, about 4% lower in cash terms and roughly 28% lower in real terms.
Wandsworth's 2024/25 return is suppressed in the published data and is excluded from these figures.
sources: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
A borough youth-work commons: pooled venue booking, a shared DBS-checked volunteer bank, and kit libraries, coordinated through umbrella bodies so small organisations can run more sessions without new money.
who is already here: London Youth · UK Youth · faith and sports venues · borough youth partnerships
youthbuild-togetherhotspots: Waltham Forest · Hackney · Lambeth
First-time entrants to youth justice, borough by borough
First-time entrant rates in the worst boroughs run at three to four times those in the lowest.
The evidence (2)
First-time entrants to the youth justice system per 100,000 10-17 year olds, year ending December 2024: Waltham Forest 272, Hackney 255, Lambeth 241, Camden 241, against a London average of 157 and 138 for England and Wales (Youth Justice Board).
The lowest London rates are Richmond at 71 and Harrow at 83, so the spread across the capital is roughly fourfold.
sources: gov.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
Young-people-led mapping of safe routes and verified safe spaces, with reporting that routes concerns to local provision and, where appropriate, to police; needs safeguarding governance and buy-in from established youth organisations.
who is already here: London VRU · MyEnds partnerships · established youth organisations · MOPAC
housingbuild-nowhotspots: Brent · Newham · Enfield
New renter rights, with no easy way to use them
From 1 May 2026 rent rises can be challenged at tribunal and section 21 notices are no longer valid; the rights only work when tenants can gather evidence and navigate the process.
The evidence (3)
Section 21 notices ceased to be valid from 1 May 2026, with a transition period for notices served earlier, and rent rises can be challenged at the First-tier Tribunal, which can hold them to open-market level (MHCLG, Renters' Rights Act implementation).
A joint tenants' union tool for challenging rent rises, resistrentrises.org, launched in June 2026.
Enforcement rests on tenants collecting evidence and navigating tribunal process; no public service does this with them.
sources: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk · assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
A renter companion: guided evidence capture for disrepair and rent challenges (photos, timelines, letters), tribunal-ready packs, and shared casework for tenants of the same landlord.
who is already here: Citizens Advice · Shelter · tenants' unions · First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber)
environmentbuild-nowhotspots: Camden · Croydon · Hackney
Fly-tipping and the repeat-dumping cycle
Camden records 167 fly-tips per 1,000 residents, eight times the England average, and prosecutions run at about one per thousand incidents.
The evidence (3)
London is England's most fly-tipped region at 53 incidents per 1,000 people, against an England average of 21 (Defra, 2024/25).
Camden (167), Croydon (130), Hackney (116) and Lewisham (111) incidents per 1,000 residents top the borough table.
England recorded 1.26 million incidents and 1,377 prosecutions in 2024/25, roughly one prosecution per thousand incidents.
sources: gov.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
Beyond report-and-wait: hotspot mapping and evidence capture that packages timestamped photos into enforcement-grade packs, coordinates volunteer clean-ups where councils are slow, and publishes ward-level data.
who is already here: FixMyStreet (mySociety) · Keep Britain Tidy · council environmental crime teams · local Friends of Parks groups
environmentbuild-togetherhotspots: Tower Hamlets · Kensington and Chelsea · Westminster
The recycling floor: flats and estates left behind
Tower Hamlets recycles 17% of household waste, the lowest rate of any English authority against a 43.8% national average, and dense estates lack food-waste and doorstep provision.
The evidence (2)
London's lowest 2024/25 household recycling rates: Tower Hamlets 17%, Kensington and Chelsea 23%, Westminster 24%, Hackney 25% (GLA London Datastore; Defra annual results).
Around 88% of Tower Hamlets housing stock is flats or maisonettes, and the borough records the lowest organic-waste capture share in England at 8.4%.
sources: data.london.gov.uk · gov.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
An estate-level waste toolkit: block-by-block recycling comparisons, communal-bin contamination reporting, and coordination for repair cafés and library-of-things schemes that cut waste upstream.
who is already here: council waste teams · Restart Project · Hubbub · estate residents' associations · community composting networks
livingbuild-togetherhotspots: Barking and Dagenham · Newham · Waltham Forest
Cold homes, rising bills
Barking and Dagenham has London's highest fuel poverty rate at 12.8% of households, and London was the only region not to improve between 2023 and 2024.
The evidence (2)
Barking and Dagenham 12.8%, Newham 11.9%, Waltham Forest 11.5%, Haringey and Brent 11.4% of households in fuel poverty (DESNZ 2024 modelled estimates, published May 2026).
London's rate moved from 9.3% to 9.6% between 2023 and 2024, a marginal single-year change, while every other English region improved.
sources: gov.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
A warm-homes navigator: a triage tool for frontline workers to flag cold-home risk, route households to grant schemes, and track completion. The grant schemes exist; uptake is the gap.
who is already here: National Energy Action · Groundwork Green Doctors · borough energy advice teams · Citizens Advice
livingbuild-togetherhotspots: Barking and Dagenham · Brent · Enfield
The cost of being offline
Fewer than one in ten eligible households take up broadband social tariffs that typically save around £200 a year.
The evidence (4)
8.6% of eligible households took a broadband social tariff at June 2025 (Ofcom, published February 2026).
An estimated 2.2 million UK adults are offline and around 8 million lack basic digital skills (Good Things Foundation, Digital Nation 2026).
Offline households pay up to 25% more for essential goods and services (Centre for Social Justice, 2023).
Outer east and north London boroughs show the highest exclusion-risk indicators; the dataset's composite score is directional, built on an archived 2022 index, and is labelled as such.
sources: ofcom.org.uk · goodthingsfoundation.org · centreforsocialjustice.org.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
A one-minute social-tariff eligibility checker plus a live map of device-bank and support drop-in points; the national support network has no unified local discovery layer.
who is already here: Good Things Foundation · public libraries · Age UK · National Databank
healthbuild-togetherhotspots: Lewisham · Haringey
Eleven years of healthy life between boroughs
Male healthy life expectancy is 58.3 years in Lewisham and Haringey and 69.3 in Richmond upon Thames, a gap of about eleven years.
The evidence (3)
Male healthy life expectancy 2022-24: Lewisham and Haringey both 58.3 years; Richmond upon Thames 69.3, Sutton 68.3, Bromley 67.5 (ONS health state life expectancies, published February 2026).
Haringey recorded the largest fall in male healthy life expectancy in the UK over the decade: 7.3 years.
Adult smoking prevalence: Haringey 19.0%, Barking and Dagenham 15.4%, Hackney 15.0%, against 13.0% for England (APS 2024 via OHID Fingertips).
sources: ons.gov.uk · fingertips.phe.org.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
A social prescribing layer that works: one directory of verified local prevention activities with live capacity, referral tracking from GP link workers, and outcome feedback, replacing the PDF directories that go stale in months.
who is already here: NHS social prescribing link workers · local Healthwatch · parkrun and GoodGym · Men's Sheds · community health champions
healthbuild-together
Unpaid carers under sustained strain
372,113 adults in England were waiting for care assessments, care or reviews at March 2025, and directors of adult social services rate carer burnout the leading factor in carer breakdown.
The evidence (3)
372,113 adults were waiting for assessments, care or reviews at March 2025; 56,249 had waited over six months for assessment, down 28.5% in a year, though the 2026 survey shows the overall total rising again past 400,000 (ADASS spring surveys).
London has the highest care-worker vacancy rate of any English region, about one post in eight in 2023/24 (Skills for Care, via Institute for Government).
Around 32% of people drawing on council-funded care did not find information and advice easy to find (Adult Social Care Survey 2024-25), and around 2 million older people in England have some unmet care need (Age UK, 2024).
sources: adass.org.uk · instituteforgovernment.org.uk · gov.uk
THE PLAY · WHAT A TEAM COULD BUILD
A carer early-warning tool: self-assessment for unpaid carers routed to respite and peer support before breakdown, plus a borough navigation layer for the advice-discovery failure the survey documents.
who is already here: Age UK local branches · Carers UK · Re-engage · borough adult social care teams