Standard honoured for estates campaign

The Evening Standard has been honoured with the prestigious London First Award for Improvement to Londoners’ Quality of Life for “championing the underprivileged and disadvantaged in London”, in particular our work on the Angell Town estate in Brixton.

The awards were celebrated this week at a black-tie dinner at the Sky Garden in the City which was attended by hundreds of top business executives.

Host Jo Valentine, chief executive of London First, praised the Standard’s “exceptional contribution” to making London the best city in the world.

Baroness Valentine said: “Evening Standard’s work in Angell Town and elsewhere has opened the eyes of millions of Londoners to the challenges faced on estates.

Its groundbreaking programme to help those communities overcome adversity has already shown considerable success.”

Evening Standard’s campaigns editor David Cohen picked up the award, accompanied by Minister Lorraine Jones from Angell Town. The paper beat competition from Andrew Gilligan and his £150 million cycle superhighway, and Land Securities for their community employment programme.

Other winners were former British Museum director Neil MacGregor, for Contribution to London’s Cultural Excellence, and the Francis Crick Institute, for Investment in London’s Future. The introduction of contactless payment on the Tube won best innovation and Sir Peter Hendy, chairman of Network Rail and ex-TfL chief, received the Champion for London award.