Age Friendly London: GLA Policy Boosterism or selling older Londoners short

Age Friendly London zealots waited with bated breath as GLA published its, “Towards an Age Friendly Progress Report 2025“. This was the long-awaited evaluation of the GLA’s Age Friendly Action Plan launched back in November 2023. Uppermost on everyone’s minds was whether the metropolis is becoming more age friendly.

Now a spoiler alert warning here. By the end of reading the report you don’t actually get to know if older Londoners lives have been improved. Before you reach for the telephone number of the GLA customer complaint line, just pause so we can examine what lies underneath the veneer.

The report is written with good intentions and does signal some successes. We are informed it’s work in progress. However, most of it covers outputs from various GLA programmes, yet conspicuously silent on how many older people were supported and the impact. So, on housing we get told figures for supported and specialist housing (though not exclusively for older people) but not the effect on older people. The fact that London has the highest proportion of older people living in homes with condensation, damp or mould is not mentioned. Though we do know 151 lucky older Londoners were helped to move out of London through the Seaside and Country Homes scheme. On Employment we get to know about adult training and 26 employers signing up to the Age Friendly Employer Pledge. Yet nothing about measures to help the large share of older Londoners working in low‑paid or precarious jobs or the high numbers of economically inactive older workers not by choice. The report fesses up on the drop in numbers of 50–59-year-olds employed by the GLA, plus only 5 per cent are over 60.

So, very much a potpourri of outputs from various GLA programmes and initiatives thrown together, made worse that the original action plan had no clear evaluation targets. The retort is the GLA only has limited powers and delivery programmes, but this underplays the strategic strength of the GLA and deploying Mayoral soft powers to help older people.

Whilst London is in the title the report doesn’t provide a holistic account of what’s happening across London including London Boroughs and other public bodies. Eleven out of thirty-two boroughs have age friendly status and across London nuggets of good practice in policies and delivery could have been showcased.

For many older Londoners, this report won’t square with their own experience of living in the city. The age friendly liturgy doesn’t get into the hardnosed structural challenges and ageism facing older people, resources nor adequacy of services. Yes, better information about buses is helpful, but we need good services first. So, what does this report convey how the GLA treats age and prospects for future policies.?

Critics argue that London’s age friendly journey has been slow and tortuous. In 2015 Age UK London published a landmark report, “An Age Friendly city: How far has London Come?”, demonstrating progress but judging this uneven and fragile. Covid obviously intervened to affect policy priorities, though it was notable lobbying for an older people’s mission in London’s Recovery Plan conspicuously failed.

The burning question is does age get the right priority in the GLA’s policy playbook as it doesn’t seem to claw its way up the policy pecking order. Age is treated as one of the protected characteristics with responsibility for driving that agenda within the GLA’s Equalities team. Other issues than age tend to get higher visibility and attract attention. Take the GLA’s new Inclusive Talent Strategy, yes, older workers are identified as a priority group facing employment barriers, but they don’t get that detailed attention in terms of policy measures.

The value of the age friendly agenda is that it is appealing and engaging. The risk is that it may give the appearance of comprehensive action in place for older people’s problems, whilst masking the need for more fundamental change. The Mayor in his foreword to this progress report says he’s keen to hear what more can be done.

A big worry is that London may be myopic in the way it treats age. London is an ageing city and by 2035 one in four Londoners (including the Mayor) will be over sixty as the fastest growing age group. London needs to be a leader in how it is managing demographic change to encourage economic growth. Rather than seeing ageing in deficit terms as a burden and cost, we need to reframe ageing for the assets it gives us.

The GLA lacks a long-term strategy to cope with long term demographic change. Its GLA’s Age Friendly action plan is not strategic enough to realise the growth benefits of ageing and misses opportunities for economic and social vitality in the capital.

What’s required is a new narrative about ageing in policy thinking to ensure the economic dividend helps growth. Over fifties are becoming more diverse and can’t be lumped together as a passive group. London continually underestimates the contribution they make to London’s economy and society not just as taxpayers, but also as workers, volunteers, entrepreneurs, and consumers.

A new agenda is required to get us away from the enervation that dogs GLA policy thinking about age. A new cross sector partnership is needed between policy makers, health services, education, employers and businesses, community, and older peoples’ groups to co-design policies to harness demographic change for growth. And ageing objectives that support growth need to embed across all policies not just aspirational words without policy detail.

Tim Whitaker is an older age employment consultant, a Trustee of Wise Age and member of the London Age Friendly Forum