The social cost of unemployment to councils is huge, impacting local crime rates and affecting community cohesion. With budgets stretched, there is no better time for councils to work more collaboratively with local people to embrace their creativity, help them build their own businesses and look at community-led solutions, rather than relying on the ‘trickle down' of high-level investment to help those most in need.

We first need to look at the causes for unemployment across the capital. A recent ONS survey showed that caring responsibilities was top of the list.