Steve Howlett

"An estimated 900,000 people across London lack literacy skills and 2.3 million lack numeracy skills. Without addressing this, breaking the cycle of social exclusion is not possible."

The Peabody Trust owns or manages more than 18,000 properties, housing about 50,000 people, and under Steve's leadership it has stepped up to the sustainability challenge - focussing on community regeneration, anti-poverty activities and capacity building. Now, as a London Leader Steve is launching 'Eat to Live', working with residents to adopt healthier diets and lifestyles and bringing 'Smoothie Sundays' and 'Digital Kitchens' to a community near you.

Since Steve joined the Peabody Trust in 2004 he has championed and pushed the sustainability boundaries of the organisation. Driven by a personal commitment to strive for cohesive and stable communities, Steve recognises that the Peabody Trust has a great opportunity to reach people who have missed out on learning skills the first time around.

"Attractive learning is key and long-term employment is vital to the overall sustainability of the city," says Steve. " For example, we offer young people IT and football coaching lessons together. Football is the draw but this combination of skills makes young people employable and many go on to become local football coaches in their borough."

To be sustainable Steve recognises that the Trust also has to have its own house in order and has therefore championed internal sustainable practices by establishing the Peabody Green Task Force.

"Without changes to our lifestyle and with the impact of climate change, by 2050 we could have a very different landscape and climate in London and working towards more cohesive communities is crucial if we are to avoid large-scale social and religious divisions. We need a strong but subtle approach to tackling inequalities and that includes engaging young people more and those currently disengaged in civic life."

My commitment
My commitment is to develop a new initiative, 'Eat to Live' to be run in conjunction with social housing residents across London. The projects will encourage residents to adopt healthier diets and lifestyles through community based activities. This personalised approach will include projects such as:

• Digital Kitchen: based at neighbourhood learning centres in Tower Hamlets it will host surgeries on nutrition, food storage and preparation, and healthy diets
• Pukka Tukka: the project will target young people and young men in particular, who spend limited financial resources on takeaway meals and processed food.
• Smoothie Saturdays: the project will run sessions in youth clubs where children will have supervised sessions on making and eating healthy snacks and drinks.
• Intercultural Food Day: the project will be run on estates in Sutton and Islington with residents from greatly diverse cultures and backgrounds.