Royal Borough of Greenwich

🏡 Stronger protections for family homes. 🌱 Ambitious environmental policies. 🏘️ A planning framework to deliver new homes, create jobs, and support thriving town centres and neighbourhoods. These are just some of the proposals in the final draft of Royal Greenwich's Local Plan, which has now moved to statutory Regulation 19 consultation. 📍 Shaped by nearly 3,000 comments from residents, businesses and stakeholders, the Plan sets out the borough's vision for sustainable growth to 2040 and will guide future planning decisions across Royal Greenwich. We encourage residents, developers, businesses, community organisations and planning professionals to review the final draft and submit representations or attend one of four exhibitions across the borough before the consultation closes on 6 September. https://lnkd.in/e_A23u2J

Our new town centre managers are Getting Things Done! Say hello to Wendy and Kaia. Wendy Bell is the town centre manager for Eltham and Greenwich. Previously the CEO of Crawley Town Centre Business Improvement District, Wendy has a strong track record in town centre management and business engagement. She works closely with Peter Marsden, World Heritage Co-ordinator at Maritime Greenwich, to complement the ongoing work to preserve and celebrate the cultural significance of the historic UNESCO site visited by million each year. Kaia Charles is the town centre manager for Woolwich. Local to Greenwich for over 20 years, Kaia has a strong connection to the area combined with an extensive career in creative programming. In her previous roles, Kaia led cultural placemaking initiatives for Knight Dragon and played a key role in shaping the programme and profile of NOW Gallery in Greenwich Peninsula. Wendy and Kaia have hit the ground running. Wendy has been busy expanding the Eltham Town Centre Partnership and Kaia secured £70,000 from the Mayor of London's Summer Streets fund to bring her creative flair to the Woolwich Summer Lates programme.

We’re consulting on our proposal to expand our selective licensing scheme on private rented properties in Royal Greenwich. Selective licensing requires landlords renting a property to one household to obtain a licence to make sure their property is safe, secure and well-maintained. At the moment our selective licensing scheme covers five wards across the borough, and we’re proposing a new scheme which will cover up to 18 wards. Since selective licensing was introduced in 2022, it has improved safety standards, reduced hazards, and helped reduce property related anti-social behaviour in the areas where it operates, so we’re proposing to expand the scheme to cover 70% of the borough. Councillor Joshua Ayodele, Cabinet Member for Community Safety & Integrated Enforcement, said: “We believe residents who rent privately should live in safe, well-managed and high-quality homes. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. A recent review has identified 12 additional wards we believe should be covered by the selective licensing scheme. While most landlords provide good quality homes, evidence shows a proportion of properties in the proposed areas are poorly maintained or badly managed. “Your views and experiences will help refine our proposal to ensure responsible landlords are supported, every renter can feel proud of their home, and rogue or criminal landlords and agents are identified and removed from the sector. This consultation is on top of other work we are doing around HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) as part of our wider goal to ensure all private properties are safe to live in and neighbourhoods are supported.” Give your feedback on the proposal to expand the scheme by completing our online survey by Monday 12 October. You can find the link in the comments ⬇️

💡 Last Thursday, we cerebrated the incredible achievements of residents and the council’s delivery partners at the annual Adult Community Learning Awards, now in its fourth year. 🏆 Each of the council’s nine adult learning delivery partners nominated their Learner of the Year to celebrate achievement and improvement, as well as Staff Member of the Year which recognises the excellent support provided by their teams. ✨ This year, the new category of Mayor's Young Learner was introduced to recognise the accomplishments of those aged 19 to 24. 💬 Councillor Asli Mohammed, Cabinet Member for Economy, Town Centres and Co-operatives, said: “Hearing about the achievements of our learners and the dedicated staff who support them was very touching. Adult learning has opened doors for so many residents leading to new qualifications, better job prospects and increased wellbeing. It was a wonderful evening and I'm immensely proud of the high-quality services offered by our team and delivery partners." 💬 Councillor David Gardner, the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, added: "I am delighted by the introduction of Mayor's Young Learner. All the young people nominated were exceptional and it was not easy to select the winners. Listening to the inspirational stories at the ceremony, it is clear adult learning has a profoundly positive impact on the lives of so many and long may it continue. Congratulations to everyone involved." 🍰 Everyone at the ceremony enjoyed sandwiches and cakes provided by Bob's Your Uncle, who have just opened a new branch at the market pavilion in Woolwich. Thank you to our partners Community Systems, Flower Skills, GCDA- Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency, Global Solution Services, London South East Colleges, The Training Place of Excellence, The International Education Group (TiEGr), UCRA and Unity Works Social Enterprises.

Our first Student Voice Conference was an incredible celebration of the ideas, experiences and ambitions of school children from across the borough ❤️ Hosted by our Greenwich Young People’s Council (GYPC) in partnership with the Greenwich Learning Partnership, the event welcomed 48 Year 5 to Year 8 student representatives for a morning of inspiring talks, interactive workshops and collaborative discussions, giving children a stronger voice in shaping their schools and communities.  Cllr Sandra Bauer, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Post-16 Futures, said:  "The Greenwich Student Voice Conference showed exactly what can happen when we give our youngest residents the opportunity to share their ideas and, most importantly, when we listen. Our children and young people are experts in their own experiences, and their ideas will help shape the future of services, schools and communities across Greenwich.” GYPC member Inaya said "'The youth voice conference was a fun experience for everyone involved. It was a great opportunity for us as GYPC to get our faces and priorities into the community, and every child in attendance was really engaged and enthusiastic!'"  Students took part in a keynote session and interactive activities from youth speaker Tia Shah, from the Migration Museum , which encouraged attendees to embrace their identity, find confidence in their voice and recognise the value of their experiences.  We’re delighted the Greenwich Student Voice Conference is here to stay and will be returning as an annual opportunity for children to come together and help shape the future of the borough.

Our hard-hitting short film ‘Red’ has picked up a Gold Social Welfare award at the EVCOM (Event & Visual Communication Association) Clarion Awards 2026. This award is given to films which highlight social challenges and actively contribute to awareness, advocacy or positive social change. 🎬🏆 The council, in partnership with the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and Inner Eye Productions, released the film last December, which explores the impact of serious violence on young women and girls. Councillor Joshua Ayodele, Cabinet Member for Community Safety & Integrated Enforcement, said: “We’re delighted to be recognised for contributing to positive social change around the topic of serious violence on young girls. Red was created to serve as a powerful learning resource for teachers, youth and social workers, police and parents as well as the wider community, to help us all spot the signs of exploitation and know the steps to take to help. “Since its release, Red has sparked conversations across schools, safeguarding partnerships and community organisations, and is now available to watch on YouTube. The film will continue to support awareness-raising and professional learning, helping frontline practitioners, parents and communities better recognise the signs of exploitation and take action to protect those at risk.” The 25-minute film is a reimagining of the fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, which follows a young girl who is groomed, coerced and pulled into serious violence by her own ‘Wolf’. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch the whole film by clicking the link in the comments ⬇️ #EVCOM #CLA2026

Greenwich gave the world the time. Can we have a few minutes of yours? We're doing something a little different - for the first time, we are asking residents, partners, and staff what they want Greenwich to be like by 2050. That's a big ask, but there's a big reason. We want Greenwich to be the place to be, and we can only do that if we hear from the people who live, study, work and travel to our beautiful borough. So from today, you can tell us what Royal Greenwich should be like in 2050. What do you love about this borough? What would you change? What would make the biggest difference to your day? There are no wrong answers and what you tell us will shape a vision for the borough, for the first time, to 2050. Greenwich 2050: It starts with you.

Housing, the environment....and ice cream🍦 Anthony Okereke recently took on tough questions from the next generation at Foxfield Primary School's careers fair. We want Greenwich to be the place to grow up and these young people put Anthony to the test.

Every successful town centre needs great independent businesses. But they also need great places for those businesses to call home. That's exactly what the opening of BOB'S YOUR UNCLE COFFEE LIMITED in the Market Pavilion at Beresford Square in the heart of Woolwich town centre represents. Councillors Asli Mohammed, Cabinet Member for Economy, Town Centres and Co-operatives, Tom C., Cabinet Member for Planning and Development, and the Mayor of Greenwich, Councillor David Gardner, joined the Bob's Your Uncle team to celebrate the opening. The award-winning café is helping realise the vision for the Market Pavilion as a welcoming gateway to the historic market and another food and beverage destination in Woolwich. Designed by Studio Weave, built by Elite Landscapes Ltd, with the café fit-out delivered by WOODNUT CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENTS LTD and interiors by Office S&M Architects, the Market Pavilion, which has already receiv