The London Employer Alliance: Turbo-charging recruitment of untapped talent

London has the highest unemployment rate of any region in the UK. It is also home to the greatest concentration of major employers anywhere in the country. That combination, a real problem sitting alongside real capacity to solve it, is exactly why we have brought our Employer Alliance model to the capital.

In June 2026, ReGenerate was delighted to launch the London Employer Alliance (LEA): a coalition of ten of London's most ambitious employers, co-chaired with Serco, working together to turbo-charge the recruitment of untapped talent. It is the next step in a growing, place-based movement to make inclusive hiring standard practice, not the exception.

This piece was written by Amie Kendall, Business Director at ReGenerate.

Why London, and why now

The case for acting in London is hard to ignore. In the three months to April 2026, London's unemployment rate stood at 6.6%, the highest of any UK region. For young Londoners aged 18 to 24 the picture is starker still, with unemployment at 18.2%, up from 14.2% in 2022. Across the UK, more than one million young people are now NEET (not in education, employment or training), the first time that figure has passed a million since 2013.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has pledged to make the capital "a byword for opportunity," with free skills training for unemployed Londoners and thousands of new good jobs. The London Employer Alliance is part of the role of business stepping up to help make that ambition real.

Built on a model that already works

An Employer Alliance is a coalition of HR and talent leaders from major companies. Members share what works through peer support and expert tools, speak to the government with one voice to unblock systemic barriers, and act together so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is built for action, not just conversation, as a number of the members said in the launch event “this should never become a talking shop!”.

Since 2024, our Midlands Employer Alliance has brought together 15 major employers who between them recruit more than 50,000 people a year. Together they have driven a tenfold increase in care leavers securing work-experience placements, and co-chair Severn Trent has pledged 400 placements with regional employers over four years.

That work also formed the employer foundation of the Government-Business Economic Inactivity Partnership, officially launched in May 2026, which brings senior business and government leaders together across five departments to remove the barriers that keep people out of work. Our approach is simple: test and learn through the Partnership, then scale what works through Employer Alliances.

Ten founding members, one shared goal

The London Employer Alliance launches with ten founding members: Serco, Lloyds Banking Group, Balfour Beatty, Lidl, Iceland, CityFibre, John Lewis Partnership, Odeon, ISS World and Bunzl. Between them they employ many thousands of people across the capital and beyond, and each has chosen to help lead this work from the front.

Serco joins as founding co-chair. In the words of Stewart Gruffydd-Jones, Head of Social Impact at Serco:

"We're proud to be founding co-chair of the London Employer Alliance. Employing untapped talent is both a social imperative and a commercial opportunity, but it takes collaboration at scale to unlock it. This is about delivery, not intent." 

For ReGenerate, the opportunity is about speed and scale. As Amie Kendall, Business Director at ReGenerate, puts it:

"We are proud to be working with some of the capital's biggest employers, not to start from scratch, but to amplify the great work they are already doing. Together we can go further, delivering initiatives that help more Londoners find meaningful work, faster. Now, more than ever, feels like the moment to act."

Ten founding members, one shared goal

Over the coming year, LEA members will work together on shared initiatives that widen inclusive recruitment across London and connect more people to good jobs. 

And London is not the end of the story, later this autumn we will launch our North East Employer Alliance, co-chaired with Greggs, extending this place-based approach to another part of the country ready to seize the opportunity.

If you are a London employer and want to fill your vacancies with loyal, motivated talent while helping solve one of the country's biggest challenges, we would love to hear from you. 

To find out more about the London Employer Alliance and the Good Jobs Project, contact Amie Kendall at amie.kendall@re-generate.org.