Targets for 2012 legacy revealed

Allister Hayman and Richard Garlick, Regeneration & Renewal, 9 November 2009

Olympic goals: A new framework sets out targets for post-Games improvement in host boroughs. London 2012 photo

As revealed by Regeneration & Renewal last week, members of the Olympic Park Regeneration Steering Group, including all three tiers of government, have approved the goals for inclusion in the Strategic Regeneration Framework for the Olympic Park and the Lower Lea Valley (SRF).

The SRF is due to be published this month. A draft version, seen by Regeneration & Renewal, states as its "organising principle" that "over a 20-year period, conditions for the people who live in the host boroughs will improve to the point where they can enjoy the same social and economic conditions as Londoners as a whole".

This so-called "principle of convergence" will be included in all the planning and policy developments relevant to the Olympic legacy development at all three tiers of government, it says.

To achieve convergence, the SRF sets out challenging targets leading up to 2015, agreed by ministers, which include halving the nearly eight percentage point gap in GCSE results between the host boroughs and the London average and reducing the employment rate gap - which currently stands at 6.2 points - by one to five points.

The SRF is intended to be implemented through the emerging multi-area agreement for the sub-region, a deal enabling councils to pool funding locally to focus on sub-regional priorities, overseen by a new East London Legacy Board, the document states. It will be followed by a full action plan in March 2010, it says.

- Regeneration & Renewal's Fair Games campaign seeks to hold the organisers of London's Olympic Games to their commitment to ensure the Games bring genuine regeneration.

Goals to be achieved in the host boroughs by 2015

- Build 50,000 homes, 12,000 of which will be affordable

- Cut the employment rate gap between host boroughs and the London average, currently 6.2 percentage points, by one to five points

- Narrow GCSE attainment level gap from eight percentage points to four points

- Cut proportion of adults without any qualifications from 17.6 per cent to the London average of 11.6 per cent

- 213,000 more adults with NVQ Level 3 qualifications and 185,000 more with degree-level qualifications

- 25,000 more adults doing some physical activity each week, with 4,000 doing at least 30 minutes three times a week