Future Lewisham: Our borough's recovery

Speaking from the Council Chamber on 26 May, Mayor Egan led tributes to the local residents who lost their lives to the pandemic, and praised the community’s response to the pandemic – from NHS staff to teachers, council staff and voluntary groups.

He stressed the importance of learning lessons from the last year to make sure the borough’s next steps focus on Lewisham’s priorities for the tough months ahead.

Future Lewisham: our borough’s recovery sets out the four themes at the heart of the Council’s response to the impact of the pandemic:

• A greener future
• A healthy and well future
• An economically sound future
• A future we all have a part in.

Mayor Egan said: “Our community rallied together in response to the pandemic, and I’ve never been prouder to be a Lewisham resident and to be Mayor. With the vaccination and testing programmes rolling out at pace, we’re now taking cautious steps on the road to recovery, but we know that for many people the true impact of the pandemic is only just beginning to be felt.

“Locally, unemployment rates are up, the pandemic laid bare the inequalities in health and wealth that still exist in our borough, our public services are under increasing demand and the survival of the small, independent businesses that play such a key role in our local economy, is on a knife edge.

“As well as responding to the immediate challenges, it’s important that we seize this opportunity to do things differently and drive forward the changes we want to see in our borough – to shape the future of Lewisham.

“With limited resources and ever-increasing pressure on our budgets, our decisions will be driven by four key ambitions for the Future of Lewisham.

“In the wake of Government cuts, that have seen our budget halved in real terms,

Future Lewisham is about how we rethink and refocus what we do to make sure we’re using the money and resources that we do have to make the biggest impact for those who need us most.

“These values are what make Lewisham such a special place and will be at the heart of our recovery.”

Watch a video about the Council’s Future Lewisham priorities on YouTube.

Read about the Council’s Future Lewisham priorities.