18
merged this goal with concerns for social equity and environmental sustainability.
It established a target of 23,000 new homes per year for the next 15 years, with
half of them directed toward low-income families and essential workers including
nurses, police officers and school teachers.
43
Women received frequent and explicit mention in the 2002 draft plan, as
one category within a larger group of disadvantaged “communities of interest and
identity.”
44
They were described as disproportionately low-wage, less skilled
workers, often holding public sector jobs, who confronted specific impediments to
economic participation including limited child care provision and concerns about
safety on public transit.
45
Teachers and nurses received particular attention as
essential workers who faced an affordability crisis in London’s high-cost housing
market, and who relied heavily on public transportation to access job
opportunities.
Women’s organizations criticized sections of the plan that echoed an
ongoing central government campaign to coerce single mothers of young
children into paid employment. As well, the draft plan was faulted for failing to
specify how local community groups would be engaged over the longer term in
consultations about urban growth.
46
Notwithstanding these limitations, the 2002
draft London plan stood out as a document that recognized the needs of
disadvantaged urban residents, including low-wage women workers as well as
minority immigrants, and that set out a vigorous agenda for improvements in
such areas as affordable housing, childcare and public transportation.
Convention