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For those of us fortunate enough to call ourselves Londoners and still be able to afford (even if barely) to live in one of the most diverse cities on the planet, it presents both opportunities and challenges.

The failures to meet the challenges of our diversity came crashing to the foreground through the horrors of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

During the past year I have been researching inequality in the UK for my book, Diversify: Six Degrees of Integration, and examining what we can do as a society to level the playing field so that everyone can contribute to the best of their ability. To help build a picture of diversity in London today I enlisted the help of inequality researchers Professor John Hills and Professor Lucinda Platt at the London School of Economics. Their findings do not bode well for our proud claim to be a fair and equal society.

It seems that if you are not a white man in the UK then your income is likely to be much lower. Using data from big national surveys they researched how much the incomes of all women and men differed from those of white men — looking at those who were in work or looking for work. Adding up all those shortfalls means the rest of the population loses out by a whopping £127 billion per year compared with their white male counterparts. Some of that is due to personal choices and some is the cost to all of us from people who don’t end up in the places where they could contribute most.

The good news is we can all do our part to address the divisions in society that cause inequality. With more than 300 languages spoken here and with one in three Londoners having been born outside of the UK, the tolerance and acceptance of people from all walks of life is one of our city’s greatest strengths. It provides the thriving metropolis with great opportunities to experiment with implementing effective equality and diversity models.

For far too long, however, Londoners of different socio-economic groups have lived side by side while remaining unconnected in a meaningful way. When we are relaxed about the lack of diversity and equal pay in various career sectors we are all poorer as the talent that might have provided the ‘against the grain’ solution is wasted. But where do we start?

I believe the change starts with all of us individually. We all have to face our uncomfortable truths — our isms, our fears, our prejudices — and stop doing the uncomfortable splutter when the subject of difference comes up. Let’s be honest: we like what we know and what feels familiar and therefore we will all feel challenged by people and situations that are unfamiliar to us. Once we admit that then we can commit to doing something about it, widen our social circles and explore communities and cultures we might otherwise avoid.

That may mean being the odd one out and entering an environment with which we are unfamiliar. And before you baulk at the idea, remember: for anyone who is a minority, by which I mean anyone who is not an able bodied straight male, being the odd one out or the ‘other’ (as I refer in my book to anyone excluded) is a regular occurrence. So be bold and demand more of yourself and of the institutions you interact with.

Ultimately London’s growth, like that of all big cities, will depend on the quality of the places it creates and its ability to foster economic opportunities that help all of its residents prosper for the benefit of society. Only through creating social and cultural institutions that encourage us to mix with others and place social integration at the forefront can we reap the gains of truly inclusive cities and make our great metropolis the fairest in the world.

‘Diversify: Six Degrees of Integration’, published by HQ HarperCollins, is out now (diversify.org)