A strategic and ambitious roadmap aimed at tackling poverty and inequality in Leeds has been launched today.
City and community leaders came together at the Leeds City College Printworks in Hunslet to outline their shared ‘Team Leeds’ vision for a healthier, more inclusive and sustainable city through the newly refreshed Leeds Ambitions.
The event brought together people within education, sports, health, business, and the community, with each speaker highlighting how important a collaborative approach is to tackling the city’s biggest challenges and unlocking its potential. By working together, Leeds can seize the opportunity to close the productivity gap and add an extra £3 billion to the UK economy each year, close the 11-year life expectancy gap within the city, and make progress toward becoming a greener, healthier city for all residents.
The ambitions document highlights the importance of how much more the city can achieve by working together and addressing challenges together. The four ambitions are:
- Healthy: Creating a city where everyone can live healthier lives, with the poorest residents seeing the greatest health improvements.
- Growing: Fostering an inclusive economy that reduces poverty and inequality by ensuring access to education and supporting business innovation.
- Thriving: Building strong, safe, and clean communities where residents have the power to create positive change.
- Reslient: Working towards becoming the UK’s first net-zero and nature-positive city by rapidly reducing carbon emissions and restoring natural habitats.
Leeds has already made significant strides in key areas, with statutory and community partners working together across housing, healthcare and sustainable infrastructure. The city has seen its fastest rate of new home construction since the 1980s, accounting for 1.5% of all new homes built in England over the last five years, with over 4,400 new and affordable homes built in the past year. In healthcare, health and care partners have been working closely to integrate services and improve outcomes for people. For example, Leeds’s HomeFirst program has significantly improved patient outcomes and reduced hospital admissions through helping people recover at home. The program has resulted in 1,200 fewer adult hospital admissions and, for those admitted, cut their average length of stay by nearly 40%. Additionally, over 400 people have returned home directly from the hospital instead of moving to a community care facility.
The city’s investment in infrastructure with projects such as Leeds PIPEs, the district heat network serving over 3,000 homes and businesses and a £200 million flood alleviation scheme proves the dedication to remaining ambitious and delivering key projects.
Furthermore, community support has been strengthened through collaboration, bringing together statutory services with the voluntary and community sector to better serve local people, which has reduced the number of Leeds neighbourhoods in the bottom 1% of the English Indices of Deprivation.
Councillor James Lewis, leader of Leeds City Council said;
“The Leeds Ambitions are more than just a plan; they are a collective commitment from Team Leeds.
“By bringing together the collaborative power of the council, partners, businesses, and communities, we can build on our successes and work toward a shared future where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
“We are so proud of Team Leeds and what has already been achieved, and it is this track record of success that we know will mean we can continue to deliver great things and achieve our ambitions for the future.”
For more information about the Leeds Ambitions, visit www.leedsambitions.co.uk
This post is based on a press release issued by Leeds City Council
Photo: Representatives from Team Leeds coming together to launch the Leeds Ambitions
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