Halfway through Sadiq Khan’s mayoral marathon, the capital is in desperate need of a leader
Ifo you listen carefully in the direction of City Hall, you can hear Sadiq Khan gasping for breath as he reaches the halfway point of his mayoralty marathon.
It’s been a struggle for the past two years since his election, during which living in London has become increasingly difficult.
The cost of living is going through the roof, and the mayor’s policies are making matters worse.
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With a dramatic increase in crime, transport debt, and the lack of housing, worryingly the mayor still fails to show the leadership needed to resolve these problems, let alone the upcoming challenges facing London. His expensive PR machine may not be able to tackle the consequences.
Let’s start with transport.
Despite the fact that the number of Londoners using TfL’s network is declining, London still has some of the most expensive transport fares in Europe, even with Khan’s fares freeze.
You’d at least hope for a better service, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. Think of the union-inspired strikes, trains being delayed and cancelled, not to mention the Piccadilly line desperately needing new trains.
Travelling in the capital is a nightmare, and an expensive one at that.
With rents that consume half of people’s wages, and rising council tax, you’ll probably notice fewer people are coming to settle here in London.
The consequence is losing talent, to other parts of the country or to abroad. I wish I could put it down to our weather, but unfortunately it’s due to our out-of-control living costs.
I put much of this problem down to lack of affordable housing. This is a nationwide crisis, but it is particularly critical in the capital, and is an issue that Khan had promised to sort out.
Alas, I have severe doubts the mayor will ever be able to reach his 90,000 home starts by 2021, when he’s only done 21,000 in two years.
If he fails to reach these targets, the lack of housing will further drive up the demand – and therefore the cost of homes. I fear this will mean that the majority of our young people and families can give up all hope in ever owning a home in or even near London.
The cost of space and housing has a knock-on effect on business too.
The mayor can wave the flag of being pro-business and supporting the economic prosperity of London, but he falls short of meeting the needs of thousands of businesses across our capital.
As the cost of bricks-and-mortar retail gives way to a healthy ecommerce industry, the unfortunate knock-on effect is that it is devastating our high streets. Astronomic rents are just about manageable for the big retailers, but for small businesses, the situation is becoming impossible.
The most serious of issues is that of increasing crime. Rape, knife and gun crime, acid attacks, and moped thefts are on the increase – and it’s not letting up. The effect it has on Londoners is devastating, and cannot be palmed off onto the well-used excuse of “cuts”. There is now no time or place for squabbling over who had more money than who, especially when the government has freed up £149m of extra taxpayers’ money to support London.
Now we need to see resourcefulness, ideas, and leadership. This is the only way forward to solving this horrible spike in crime.
What of the next two years? I predict the glitzy facade of Khan’s mayoralty will start to crumble. He will attempt, as much as his talent will let him, to maintain a sense of control. But confronting the substantial issues that London faces will take more than that.
For the sake of all Londoners, and our quality of life, I hope the mayor can garner the strength to run rather than hobble to his mayoral finish line.
Read more: Sadiq Khan sets up new scheme to deliver 10,000 council homes by 2022