Boris Johnson today called on pubs, cafÈs and shops to open their lavatories to the public to help ease the problems caused by the lack of public facilities.
The Mayor wants every borough to sign up to the Community Toilet Scheme, which provides businesses with grants of up to £1,000 a year to open their lavatories to the public and is already running successfully in Richmond and Camden.
Mr Johnson said: "This scheme is a common-sense and costeffective solution to the lack of public lavatories in London. It is also an ingenious way around the high costs normally associated with running them.
"In the longer term, however, I want the Government to provide local authorities with more funding for essential services."
Since 1999 London has seen the highest rate of decline in the number of local authority lavatories in the country.
Charities say the lack of facilities is a particular problem for the elderly, disabled people and families with young children.
