As the mayor’s agency for sustainable economic development, the London Development Agency (LDA) has played a critical role in helping the capital retain its position as an immensely successful modern world city, and one which is more socially inclusive and aware of its responsibility to the environment. In fact, last year was a period of significant progress for the LDA.

On the Olympics, we were charged with securing the land needed for the Olympic Park – and to create this once in a lifetime opportunity to regenerate this part of London and create the basis for London’s growth, east of Canary Wharf. Our mission was to enable those living and working on the site to relocate, as much as possible keeping communities together and securing the future of businesses and their employees.

Whilst we secured the compulsory purchase order for the site last December, our priority was to reach satisfactory agreements with the landowners, rather than use these powers. By July of this year we successfully completed one of the largest and most complex land acquisitions ever in the UK.

We secured 98 per cent of the land by reaching agreements with landowners and similarly managed the relocation of businesses, residents and communities by agreement. We had:

• relocated over 198 businesses, employing just under 5,000 people;

• relocated over 400 residents and two traveller communities;

• built three state-of-the-art business parks, constructed in Beckton, Enfield and Leyton and one environmental business park, to accommodate businesses relocating to the Olympic site.

Many of these businesses have seized on the opportunity and expanded and extended their businesses. And having worked closely with the traveller communities, we have secured planning permission for four traveller sites in Newham and Hackney and built new allotment facilities in Waltham Forest.

But our work is not done – not only were we responsible for assembling the land, but have also focused on delivering the legacy. And the legacy is happening now – for example, 60-70 per cent of employees in building out the business parks were from London; Murphy’s, the contractor under-grounding the power lines has recently taken on its 100th Londoner, and over half of the remediation contractors are from the Greater London area.

The Olympics is not the sole focus of our attentions. As the population and economy continues to grow across London as a whole, it is critical that the capital’s transport, housing, business premises and public spaces meet the ever-increasing demands of its people. During 2006-2007, the LDA helped to deliver 1,789 housing units. We also played a key role in supporting the mayor in producing the first Draft Housing Strategy and creating the new governance structures necessary to implement the mayor’s forthcoming new powers.

We also played a significant role last year in raising the profile of the Thames Gateway project. Working with the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), we have developed the economic case for investment in the wider Thames Gateway, improving the co-ordination between partners and establishing firmer delivery plans to realise the project’s potential. And the potential is huge – 100,000 new homes, 180,000 new jobs, many in high value-added sectors, and a £12bn increase in Gross Value Added.

In support of the mayor’s Climate Change Action Plan, we have worked in close collaboration with our strategic partners across both the public and private sectors of London to inspire more sustainable ways of living and working in the capital.

We have selected the developers for London’s first major zero-carbon development at Gallions Park, which will provide over 200 residential units as an exemplar of commercially built housing. All of our housing developments in future will be low-carbon or zero-carbon and we are incorporating combined heat and power solutions into all of our big projects.

Great challenges remain for the communities we serve. Our people are the lifeblood of our city and their ambition, enterprise and values have created the success story that is modern London.

However, far too many Londoners do not have the opportunity to share in this success. Over 30 per cent of our adult population is not in work; there are major disparities between different ethnic groups and child poverty remains amongst the highest in Europe. And given that London’s working age population is growing rapidly and more diverse, it is essential that we provide fairer access to employment, removing barriers, tackling worklessness and challenging discrimination.

We at the LDA are developing new partnerships and resources to invest in people, knowledge and skills for all Londoners. There is still a great deal of work to do, but we achieved some good results over the last year. We exceeded our target and created or safeguarded over 20,000 jobs, and supported more than 27,000 individuals in accessing job opportunities. While the employment rate in London has consistently stood at five per cent below the rest of the UK as a whole, we have made inroads with our partners to at last see an increasing employment rate across London’s most deprived boroughs. Overall, during this year we helped over 43,000 Londoners develop new skills, greatly exceeding our minimum target of 28,000.

Engaging with London’s businesses and employees, promoting the benefits of a workforce that reflects the diversity of London’s population, continues to be a key area of focus for our ‘Diversity Works for London Programme’.

Diversity in employment can improve business access to new markets in the UK and globally. To help effectively support our business community we embarked upon an extensive five-month open tendering process this year to appoint a supplier for the London Business Link service. We awarded Serco a three-year contract, which will ensure that thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs get the highest quality support they need, both to start up new enterprises and expand existing ones.

Another key area of our work is promoting and marketing London – attracting business, students, visitors and investment. We face a rapidly changing economic landscape, with China expected to become the second-biggest economy in the world by 2020. As a highly diverse, global city with a strong specialisation in financial, creative and technology services, London is ideally placed to attract new business and investment from other growing economies, such as China, India and Russia. We have sought to build upon the foundations made by the mayor of London’s visit to China in April 2006. In January 2007, we completed registration for a Beijing office and opened an office in Shanghai.

London cannot afford to stand still. It must respond and adapt to change, not only supporting the growth industries of the future, but also staying attuned to the changing global economic landscape. We will be steering our way forward through a new investment strategy that will help us leverage resources in the challenging context of a reducing level of government grant over the next three years. We will re-examine our priorities and ensure we have a clearer evidence base as to why we intervene and when.

The hard work of our expert teams and the support of our stakeholders and partners mean that we are well positioned to tackle all the challenges we face. I continue to be impressed by the passion and commitment our staff have for London’s communities and businesses. It is this – coupled with our continuous drive for excellence – that will help us to ensure that, despite the challenges it faces, London will remain one of the most successful and sustainable cities in the world.

Manny Lewis is chief executive of the London Development Agency