An alliance bringing together six London boroughs was launched on Thursday.

The leaders of Redbridge, Havering, Waltham Forest, Newham, Barking and Dagenham and Enfield are hoping to bring “real change” to residents after establishing the North East London Strategic Alliance (NELSA).

The partnership aims to tackle issues surrounding housing, employment and transport and is backing an eight-borough sub-regional partnership pushing for the devolution of public services.

Redbridge Council leader Cllr Jas Athwal said: “We need a clear vision for north east London, and building strong partnerships is vital for us to be able to deliver that.

“We need to do all we can to make sure our voices are heard and by joining together, we can do this more effectively.”

The leaders and mayors of NELSA’s local authority members have signed an agreement pledging to act as ambassadors for the entire area covered by the Alliance in order to influence key decision-makers in London.

The launch took place at Eastbury Manor House in Barking, where chairman and Waltham Forest council leader Chris Robbins laid out the alliance’s aims.

He said: “This area of London deserves better representation at a national and regional level of decision-making and we intend to make sure this happens.

“And in partnership with the Local London eight borough sub regional partnership, we want to secure greater devolution of powers from central government so that we can better enable growth and development in our areas – such as building more homes, helping more people into work and being able to do more to support schools, businesses and local investment.

“A bold new approach like this would represent a landmark shift in the local government landscape – enabling our six boroughs to deliver real change to hundreds of thousands of Londoners.”