This month we celebrate 35 years of service to Age UK organisations by our Finance and Corporate services officer, Margot Luke. Margot joined what is now Age UK Waltham Forest in September 1987 where she worked for 22 years and joined Age UK London in 2009 where she is an important and much appreciated member of our small team. During her time Margot has seen many changes within the charity, team members coming and going and a merger between Help the Aged and Age Concern creating what is our network of Age UK today. Margot has also seen many world […]
Category: Age UK London Blog
Community Toilets – the poor relation or a real asset to public toilet provision?
Two minute read… While on holiday in the Canary Islands some years ago I enjoyed the fact that it is common practice for the public to go into any café or restaurant and use their toilet without challenge. Sadly, not so here. Reasonably smartly dressed people with a degree of self-confidence can get away with walking into some places to use their toilets. McDonald’s is fairly relaxed about non-customers using their facilities but this is not the case with most businesses and some even display notices pointing out that toilets are for customers only. Share this post: Recommend on Facebook […]
Older workers need to be more centre stage in London’s economic recovery
It’s semi-official – London may have its first “Older Workers Champion.” Sadiq Kahn boldly claimed recently he’ll still be working as Mayor in 22 years’ time at least – at the good age of 74. But before we get the age friendly bunting out, sadly many older London workers in London who also harbour this wish are experiencing difficulties in the labour market and need more support. Media reports show that London’s job market is returning to normal with job vacancies difficult to fill. Certainly, younger workers who bore the brunt of unemployment during the pandemic have bounced back. It […]
What can London learn from Leeds?
Many see the prospects of London becoming an age friendly city as stalling. It’s not down to a lack of good well-meaning effort from age activists, rather the arguments aren’t getting traction with London policy makers, particularly the Mayor of London.
High streets need to maximise the grey pound
The Mayor of London is on record as saying, “we need to be bold and innovative” to ensure the survival of London’s high streets which he calls “the heartbeat of our economy” and which need to be inclusive.
Can an age-friendly Greater London Authority help deliver toilets in Kilburn?
In July this year Raymond Martin, managing director of the British Toilet Association (BTA), described the shortage of public toilets in Britain as a crisis.
Tackling digital poverty among older Londoners
The media promotes the use of the internet as if it’s as cheap as the air you breathe. Everything promoted by TV programs pressurises viewers to think that using the internet is normal. Many take the internet for granted without realising the difficulties for 17 million people who do not use the internet – 45% of whom are older people.
How older Londoners have been affected by the pandemic
The jury is still out on whether we’re over the pandemic. Recovery continues, summer holidays taken by some, but there are still rising cases and as the threat remains measures will need to be
taken in the Autumn with a bumpy ride ahead, even another lockdown could be on the cards.
Why we continue to press for a more accessible transport network in London
Being able to travel independently is so important when it comes to living life to the fullest. Unfortunately, according to new research by specialist lawyers Bolt Burdon Kemp, disabled people are far more likely to have issues travelling via public transport than able-bodied people. Around a quarter of Londoners aged 50 and over are disabled compared with 12.7 per cent of Londoners aged 16 to 49 . The proportion of London’s population that are disabled increases with age and 52% of all Londoners aged 65 and over are disabled. The new research found that, despite being the best city in […]
Unlocking the Locked Down
For many of the UK’s 2.2 million ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ people who were advised to shield at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving home for the first time in many months was a daunting thought.