COMMENT London is justly proud of its status as the world’s leading financial centre and the engine of the UK economy. This pride must never give way to complacency, however. The winner of the mayoral election on May 1 faces a huge challenge. There is no doubt that we face an economic downturn. With growth in 2008 and 2009 forecast to be as low as 1.3 per cent, it is feared that London will be hit harder than the rest of the country. The City warns that 40,000 jobs may be lost, and estate agents that London’s housing market could crash.
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Forty per cent of jobs in London require degree-level qualifications, but 50 per cent of the capital’s population do not have the numeric skills expected of an 11-year-old. Our worklessness rate is the country’s highest. I want to see more cohesion in the activities of the six government agencies that claim responsibility for improving London’s skills base. There should be a one-stop shop offering career and training advice.
Of course the City would suffer in a credit crisis, but this alone does not explain the capital’s vulnerability. We must also recognise that companies and individuals are now extremely mobile. If we want them to come here and stay, we have to address the cost of living and doing business in London.
The next mayor must speak up for business. That means campaigning against Labour’s ill thought-out changes to the rules on non-domiciled residents. London is too expensive and much of the blame lies at the door of Ken Livingstone, the mayor. Those trying to get on the housing ladder face a £250,000 average cost (and £7,600 in stamp duty). Bullying councils and setting inflexible targets has not delivered an affordable housing revolution.
Since Mr Livingstone took office the sum he takes from council taxpayers has more than doubled. It is rather hard to see where all the money has gone, although staffing costs at City Hall have nearly trebled.
The price of a single Tube cash fare is £4 – three times the European average. This 166 per cent rise has failed to prevent an increase in signal failures and delays. Last year the mayor took £330m from the congestion charge, thanks in no small part to imposing the most draconian fining regime in the west. Now he wants to clobber the motorist again with a £25 charge that he himself admits will do nothing to alleviate congestion. After five years of operation, 65 per cent of congestion charge revenues go to the contractors who are running it and hardly anything on improving the roads.
The budget for the Olympic Games has trebled, proper controls and transparency have not been implemented by the board (on which the mayor sits), and the former chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority warns that the final bill could be a cool £20bn.
Investigations continue into whether the London Development Agency has become a slush fund for the mayor’s cronies. It is high time for a comprehensive review of LDA spending.
Also, it is estimated that on average each business in London loses £14,000 a year through crime. If companies routinely have to splash out on cabs because taking the night bus is unthinkable, if people see that they are much more likely to be mugged or burgled in London than in New York, then London could soon lose its pre-eminent position in the world.
The next mayor should assume the chairmanship of the Metropolitan Police Authority, prioritise the reduction of business crime and address the supposedly lower-level crime that in fact causes misery and creates an environment in which serious crime flourishes. I would put more officers on the bus network and at train stations, lobby the government to scrap the red tape that has led to police officers spending less time on patrol and frontline duties, pay for hand-held weapons scanners and institute the New York-style crime mapping that enables officers better to target resources.
I will create a Mayor’s Fund for London that will encourage companies to make time and money available to disadvantaged young people. I am delighted that Bob Diamond, president of Barclays, has agreed to help me. By doing this and by ring-fencing LDA money for the best voluntary groups we can make inroads into giving teenagers purpose in their lives and showing them an alternative to destructive behaviour.
This is the choice that Londoners have on May 1 – a fresh approach from someone who acknowledges the urgent need for change, or four more years of incompetence from an administration that has grown stale and out of touch.
The writer is Conservative party candidate to be mayor of London
