Len Maloney is highly valued and praised by his community, sadly TfL has refused to recognise JC Motors' significance ever since they first displaced him in 2006 to make way for the Olympics and Haggerston Station.

We hope that Seb Dance can work with Len and his team at the Guild to keep Len where the community needs him to be. In the meantime, we need to be ready to follow through with action. If negotiations with Seb Dance and TfL don't work out then we need to escalate the situation to Sadiq Khan and continue to build the momentum through a giant collective serenade to the Mayor of London.

Imagine if hundreds of us sang the Ben E King classic Stand by Me with the words Stand By Len. Together we can make this happen if we need to but we need your commitment so we know how many people will come!

Sign up now so the team from the Guild can plan effectively. We will email everyone who signs up in the coming days. Together we are stronger! Use this link to add your voice so we can call on you if we need to serenade Sadiq: https://bit.ly/singwithlen

Since Len took over JC Motors from his mentor Joe Chee in the early 90s he has supported a minimum of 300 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. He has achieved this either by close relationships with local colleges providing accredited apprenticeships, through work experience with schools or informally for those young people sent to him by neighbours in need of a trusted mentor. Len moved to the UK as a child and has lived in London ever since. He loves his community and puts his heart and soul into everything he does, and he is universally adored and trusted for it.

In a letter to Sadiq Khan Len has appealed to the Mayor of London to intervene after TfL will not work on a figure of rent JC Motors can afford. This public letter has so far amassed over 2,000 signatures and Len and his customers have appeared on ITV News.

In 2017/18 rental income from TfL arches was so small in the grand scheme of things that they would only pay to keep the underground running for 2 days per year (based on the 2018/19 cost of the Underground). And in 2021/22, rents receivable made up just 1.8% of TfL group’s total gross income. Let’s assume that the amount of rent TfL received from arches in 2017/18 (£8.6m) has at most risen by 50% between then and 2021/22. That would mean the current rent collected from the arches is at most £12.9m. This would cover just 2.1 days per year of the cost of running the Underground or 1.6 days per year of the cost of running Buses, streets and other operations. Rent from the arches is so small as to be practically immaterial to their wider financial performance. They simply don't need to put up the rent beyond what local businesses that provide social value can afford.

Since the ITV news item and with support from Green Party London Assembly Member Caroline Russell Len has met with Deputy Mayor for TfL Seb Dance. Len and the team from the Guild have proposed that TfL incorporate Social Value Leases to lead by example as a public landlord and demonstrate their responsibility to Londoners.

Photograph of Len with his apprentices Samari Bramble, Dave Shaheen Lee, Azan Hanson by Jeremy Freedman.

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