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London Churches Group for Social Action is an ecumenical Christian body established in 1983 to work on behalf of the Church leadership in London on civic and social policy issues. Membership comprises senior social responsibility and justice and peace officers from the churches and related organisations. The LCGSA is the standing social concerns group for the London Church Leaders, representing the Baptist Union, Black-majority, Church of England, Catholic, Evangelical Alliance, Methodist, Orthodox, Salvation Army and United Reformed Churches.

The London Churches Group reports to the London Church Leaders meeting and it co-ordinates the Ecumenical Borough Deans which meet in each of the 33 London Local Authorities.

It also supports as Affiliated Members other ecumenical organisations working on a London-wide basis in an area related to the social responsibility agenda, which are willing to offer information and expertise to the Group. At present these include Housing Justice UNLEASH, JustShare, London Churches Refugee Network, London Churches Environmental Network, London Ecumenical AIDS Trust (LEAT) and Mission in London's Economy (MILE). For more details see Affiliates.

Faith to Engage

London Churches Group has been appointed the London Regional Partner for Faith to Engage.

Faith to Engage is a project that aims to strengthen the voice of churches and faith groups in policy-making across the nine English regions. Funded by the Big Lottery Fund, it is delivered nationally by a leading Christian social action movement Faithworks in collaboration with nine regional partners. London Churches Group for Social Action is the London regional partner.

· More effective and inclusive consultation and representation mechanism for the faith sector in each region.

· More faith-based organisations accessing support from non faith-based infrastructure agencies.

· Increased understanding by regional voluntary sector consortia and government of the distinctive contribution of faith based service delivery.

Commissioning Research: Serving Londoners Survey

The London Region has decided to concentrate its early efforts on a unique survey project, which will underpin our ‘Faith to Engage’ activity. We have commissioned research into the proportion of voluntary sector service provision which is faith based. It is a pioneering piece of research to identify what proportion of voluntary sector community welfare work, including work with children and the elderly, is undertaken by the churches and other faiths and associated bodies. The survey will also update the groundbreaking survey we undertook in 2002 of faith-based social action in London (‘Regenerating London’). The survey is intended to highlight the role of welfare providers in the voluntary sector and test the perception that the contribution of the faith sector to the welfare element of voluntary sector activity is underestimated.

Report on the Churches' Response to the Public Disturbances in London during August 2011

The London Churches Group for Social Action has published a Report following an enquiry commissioned by the Church Leaders. It is intended to contribute information about the role churches in London play in their communities, and specifically how they responded to the public disturbances in August 2011. It describes the experience and perceptions of the riots and what underlay them from people directly involved on the ground, and considers the implications for future action.

The findings show that clergy and laity from across the Churches in London took an active role in offering support to those caught up in the disturbances and their aftermath. ‘You were here when no one else was there’ was one comment.

More Than Gold

The London Church Leaders Group is a founder member of this charity which was established on behalf of the Christian community to enable the UK churches to engage with the 2012 Games by

Past experience has shown that a vast event like the 2012 Games will create some significant social issues. After consultation, the More Than Gold Social Justice Programme Team, of which the LCGSA Executive Officer is a member, has highlighted the following issues on which More than Gold are focussing –

Major Incident Plan

Since 1990 the London Church Leaders have worked with the Metropolitan Police and other agencies to produce a Plan to enable the churches to provide an effective response to any major incident in London. A copy of the current Plan, dated April 2011, can be read here. It excludes the Appendices containing contact details.

Action on Housing Benefit Changes

On Monday 11^th July, 2011, the London Churches Group for Social Action and Housing Justice launched a short guide, a Blueprint for Action, to enable clergy (vicars, pastors and priests) and other church pastoral workers to offer practical help to people who find that their benefit payments no longer cover their rent, leaving them unable to make ends meet. The launch included: background briefing about Housing Benefit (from Alison Gelder, Director of Housing Justice); other changes linked with the Welfare Reform Bill currently before Parliament (from Rev Paul Nicolson of Zacchaeus 2000); theological support for this kind of church response (from Rev Angus Ritchie of the Contextual Theology Centre) as well as opportunities to hear from people affected and agencies who are helping them.

With Housing Justice and other partners we are now following up the meeting held on 11 July. The housing benefit caps announced last year began to come into effect in April 2011 but are likely to be felt increasingly from January 2012.

We would be most grateful if London churches could feed back any experience they have of the impact of these caps. In particular,

· Have you had any pastoral contact with people affected by the Housing Benefit caps? Please let us know numbers, a brief description of individual circumstances and any action you have been able to take to support those affected.

We look forward to hearing from you so that we can assess what further response might be needed. Please reply to info@housingjustice.org.uk with Housing Benefit Caps in the subject field.

Also Zacchaeus 2000 (Z2K) has received a grant to assist tenants in difficulty to negotiate lower rents with their current landlords, see tenants through the courts if it comes to eviction and provide grants for deposits for a new tenancy for those who cannot afford them.

Z2K has employed two full time case workers for this project. They are preparing a full brief and contact details which can be sent to you so that you can refer cases suffering hardship to them. The project will run for a year in Westminster and then London wide for two years.

See www.z2k.org.