AI-Generated Summary
The London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) is London local government's collaborative innovation team, bringing together borough councils and the Greater London Authority (GLA) to use data, digital technology and innovation to improve public services and tackle city-wide challenges. Founded in July 2019 with 15 boroughs, LOTI has grown to include 27 of London's 33 borough councils, plus the GLA and London Councils.
LOTI operates as a neutral convener hosted at London Councils, with a core team of approximately 10 people. It is funded through annual subscriptions from member boroughs (£30,000 per year each), with the GLA and London Councils each contributing £100,000. The GLA recently agreed to fund LOTI for a further three years, confirming its strategic value.
LOTI's work spans several priority areas. Its data sharing frameworks help boroughs collaborate on service delivery while respecting privacy. Its digital inclusion programmes target the estimated 1.5 million digitally excluded Londoners. Cyber security projects create collaborative defence and intelligence sharing across boroughs. Emerging technology pilots cover AI, IoT and digital twins. The organisation also runs innovation days connecting scale-ups with senior local government leaders, and facilitates peer learning through an online community of over 1,000 local government colleagues.
An independent evaluation found LOTI's projects to be cost-effective, with some pilots needing only a single successful intervention to deliver net public benefit. LOTI partners with organisations including Faculty AI, Social Finance, Multiverse, Founder & Coders and TechUK. For smart city practitioners, LOTI represents a mature model of how city governments can collaborate on technology adoption at metropolitan scale.