Dear colleagues and friends,

I know a lot of organisations have been writing about how they are approaching coronavirus.

If this letter is not the first, it’s in part because I have been off sick with the virus myself for the last 10 days, along with my wife, three children and other members of my family. Thankfully, we all seem well on the road to recovery.

Changing the way we work, but not what we do

Like other organisations, Centre for London is rethinking the way we work. We have suspended our face-to-face events and are adapting quickly to hosting digital ones. We are exploring new ways of engaging experts and our audiences. (You might have seen the video and live Twitter Q&A which we organised instead of an event on parking and sustainable transport). And we are hosting our first digital roundtable next week.

But despite changes to the way we work, our focus remains resolute. We must continue to discuss, debate and promote analysis and ideas that will help Londoners in the immediate, medium and long term.

London’s response to coronavirus

Centre for London will do everything it can to help policymakers navigate through this unprecedented crisis. We are applying ourselves to understand how coronavirus is affecting the city and how we can best rise to the challenges that it represents. As other major cities battle with the crisis – and some start to emerge from it – we have much to learn. We’re keen to hear what research insights and digital events would be helpful to you and your organisation over the coming weeks and months. Send us an email with your thoughts.

Alongside this new stream of work, we are also committed to continuing our research programme on housing, transport, the environment and London’s role as a capital city.

Navigating the next few months

London is an old and resilient city. The 2007-8 banking crisis showed how interdependent our financial system had become – but it left many people feeling the response worked for the financial system but not for them. If this crisis has an upside, it’s going to remind us all very clearly how much we depend on each other. Let’s hope we bounce back, more united and more resourceful than we have been.

Supporting our work

Centre for London is a small charity and unfortunately lacks a stable source of funding in these turbulent times. If you value what we do, please consider supporting our work. Your organisation can do this by joining our Partner Forum and sponsoring research or our (temporarily digital) events programme. You can share our newsletter and follow our blog, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts for updates on our work.

Look after yourselves and each other,

Ben