GLA sets out difficult choices for new mayor
At the Evening Standard’s first mayoral hustings on Wednesday 3rd February, passions were running high. The main drama of the evening was centred around attacks on Labour candidate Sadiq Khan. The row was sparked after each of the candidates — who also included Zac Goldsmith (Conservative), Caroline Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat), George Galloway (Respect), Sian Berry (Green), Peter Whittle (UKIP) and Sophie Walker (Women’s Equality Party) — were asked to talk about their party leader.
Though Khan’s main rival is undoubtedly Goldsmith, it was Galloway who accused Khan of “stabbing Jeremy Corbyn in the back” in a bid to win votes. Zac Goldsmith did also weigh in, however, describing Khan as “too partisan” to work with the Government to be able to protect London’s police. Nonetheless, Khan appeared relaxed and confident throughout the hustings and was the only candidate apart from Galloway to crack any jokes.
Housing, one of the key issues of the mayoral race, also dominated the debate. Pidgeon, who has said City Hall should set up its own housing company, said the next Mayor should continue the Olympic precept on council tax to pay for a huge increase in affordable house-building. Whittle called for a “golden age” of social housing with Londoners getting priority over new homes, while Ms Berry, who rents, said: “There will be an infinite demand for our homes if you’re not controlling who buys them. They will be snapped up by investors and then they will still be charging us the same amount.”
A second Evening Standard London Mayoral Hustings is set to take place at the Guildhall on 21st April 2016 6:30-8:00pm.
London councils allowing developers to dodge affordable housing allocations through cash payments
The business lobby group, London First, has reported that councils in the capital are accepting an increasing number of cash payments in lieu of affordable homes. In 2014, developers were shown to have spent more than £250m, far more than the £20m spent in 2011. The Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was shown to be the worst offender.
In The London Plan that has been adopted under mayor, Boris Johnson states that in “exceptional cases” payments can be made instead of on-site affordable housing provision “where this would have demonstrable benefits in furthering the affordable housing and other policies in this plan”.
The real problem is that the money paid to the council to bypass the provision of affordable homes is not regulated, and can be used on general expenditure, not directly on affordable homes.
London First recommends “that councils be required to put in place clear criteria for when the payments can be made, calculate the sums consistently and declare them to the GLA as part of its annual monitoring process.” A solution is clearly required to address the problem of a lack of affordable homes in London.
A black hole so large gravitational waves have been detected
Labour’s candidate for the London mayoralty has received constant criticism over the past few weeks for his plans to freeze tube fares in cash terms for the next four years. Sadiq Khan’s team claim this will cost just £450 million over the four years, but TfL’s analysis claims they’re out by almost a factor of four, and his proposal will actually cost £1.9 billion instead. Zac Goldsmith has labelled this discrepancy as Sadiq Khan’s ‘black hole’, a term repeated by many Conservative figures including the current Mayor Boris Johnson.
So far Khan’s tactic to defend his key transport policy has been one of denial, claiming that the £1.9bn claim is “nonsense” and doesn’t come from TfL at all, accusing journalists of misleading the public and telling them “I am correcting you”.
In response to media inquiries, TfL has responded very clearly: "A four year fares freeze … would reduce our income by £1.9bn over the course of our Business Plan to 2020/21."
The Conservatives are painting a worst case scenario for the public, with Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin saying central government won’t pick up the tab, "If Khan becomes mayor and fails to balance the books, it will be Londoners who pay the price for Khan’s policies." CCHQ has even claimed that plugging Khan’s back hole may result in council tax increases of 59% for ‘typical’ households.
Sadiq and his team are trying to start a debate which would chime with a lot of Londoners: fare increases hit commuters’ pockets hard. By letting the facts get muddled however, they have managed to turn a matter close to voters’ hearts, and one about social equality, into an argument about Khan’s own honesty and credibility.