Waltham Forest College pledge their ongoing commitment to the London Anchor Institutions’ Network (LAIN) and address the long-rooted inequalities and accelerating climate emergency, by working together.
Principal and CEO of Waltham Forest College, Janet Gardner, joined London’s senior officers at City Hall to discuss ways members of London Anchor Institutions’ Network can use their organisational scale to provide good jobs, buy more from small and diverse businesses and decarbonise their operations and estates.
Waltham Forest College is proud to be a London anchor organisation and member of LAIN (London Anchor Institutions’ Network). LAIN is a peer-driven and practical approach that fosters joint problem solving and a collective exploration of how anchor institutions can better support social and economic outcomes for all Londoners. Together anchor organisations learn, share, and pull each other forward with a shared vision of creating a fairer, greener, more prosperous London.
Howard Dawber, Deputy Mayor of Business and Growth, highlighted the importance of LAIN to the Mayor and London’s Growth Plan, calling upon London's senior leadership in the room to realise the potential of what London’s anchor organisations can achieve when everyone pulls in the same direction. “This is a new era for London, with Sadiq Khan’s historical win of a third term and a Labour government with a five-year mandate,” he said. “What LAIN achieved during the recovery from the pandemic is impressive. We’ve surpassed targets to enter into contracts with MSMES valued at £2.72bn, each year we support 4000 apprenticeships and we’ve trained up 7000 staff in carbon literacy and environmental sustainability. But I feel that we have only touched the surface of what we can do if we pool our considerable resources on issues from skills and training to climate change, and opportunities for local business. LAIN has a huge role to play in what happens next”.
Principal and CEO, Janet Gardner, said: “We are proud to be one of London’s anchor organisations and be part of this network. It was heartening to hear what LAIN has achieved to date. The anchor philosophy is simple – we’ll achieve more, faster by working together – that’s why I was happy to pledge Waltham Forest College’s ongoing support to LAIN today.”
In just three years since the Network formed, members have achieved:
- The pledge by members to spend up to 30% of their annual procurement budgets is an enormous boost for local jobs, firms and supply chains.
- Members have exceeded its initial targets awarding more than £2.7bn to small business since 2021.
- Together, member organisations offer over 4000 apprenticeship opportunities a year and are hiring more Londoners from underrepresented backgrounds to close gender, ethnicity and pay gaps.
- Members are helping young Londoners to flourish by opening up access to high quality mentoring and sharing expertise with the youth sector.
- And LAIN is committed to tackling the net-zero challenge together- putting strategies in place to decarbonise our operations and estates and delivering large-scale retrofit and infrastructure projects.
Find out more about London Anchor Institutions’ Network at www.anchors.london
