London transport crime falls – except for these two serious offences August 19, 2015 Londoners can feel slightly safer in the city, after new figures revealed crime on the capital's Tubes, trains and buses has fallen 12 per cent. There were 1,300 fewer crimes in 2104/15 compared with the previous year – in fact, crime in London fell at a faster rate than the rest of the UK, which [...]
Sadiq Khan gains backing of Neil Kinnock to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London August 18, 2015 Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has pledged his support to Sadiq Khan to become the Labour candidate for London mayor. Writing for the Mirror, Kinnock said: “Labour must recapture City Hall, and our best chance of doing that is with Sadiq Khan as our candidate for London mayor in 2016.” Read more: Meet London mayor [...]
Bank and Monument Tube stations re-opened after fire alert; Waterloo & City Line, DLR to restart August 18, 2015 Bank and Monument Tube stations in central London have been re-opened this morning after a fire alert turned out to be a false alarm. Transport for London tweeted about the closure shortly after 11am, the stations were evacuated for around 20 minutes. The London Fire Brigade was called to the scene. A TfL [...]
Meet London mayor hopeful and Labour MP Diane Abbott: Can the left wing regain City Hall? August 18, 2015 Diane Abbott may be Labour’s most left-wing hopeful for mayor of London, but the longtime MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington insists that she is not campaigning to become the next Ken Livingstone. “I’m not the second coming of Ken Livingstone,” Abbott told City A.M. yesterday in her Portcullis House office. “Different gender for [...]
Why the government should take outsourcing a radical step further August 17, 2015 Government raids on the methodology of business are commonplace. Some are more successful than others. But as the challenge of George Osborne’s edict to contemplate departmental cuts of as much as 40 per cent sinks in, the search will intensify. As I sat recently in the splendidly refurbished BT Tower – a guest of [...]
TfL Tube strike August 2015: “Constructive” talks resume between RMT, TSSA, Aslef, Unite and London Underground as clock ticks on strike action August 17, 2015 Talks between Tube drivers and London Underground bosses have resumed today, in a bid to avert the strike action which will bring much of London's transport network grinding to a halt for a third time. The two sides returned to the negotiating table today following a break over the weekend and three days of continuous [...]
Government hires Lazard and Savills as multi-million pound sale of 36.5 per cent stake in King’s Cross Central kicks off August 17, 2015 The government has kicked off the sale of its 67-acre site around London's King's Cross station. Investment group Lazard and high end estate agent Savills are handling the deal. Interested parties have been urged to contact Lazard by 7 September. The decision to sell the government’s 36.5 per cent stake in King’s Cross [...]
Network Rail is poised for £1bn sale of properties including Vinopolis site and Brixton arches August 16, 2015 Network Rail has taken the first step towards selling off its £1bn commercial property portfolio after hiring bankers to conduct a review of its estate. The government-backed organisation, which runs all of Britain’s rail infrastructure, confirmed that it is working with boutique investment bank Rothschild to explore ways in which it can “make more [...]
London mayoral hopeful Andrew Boff’s radical plan for housing and transport August 16, 2015 London Assembly member Andrew Boff may be trailing in the polls behind his fellow Tory mayoral hopefuls. However, sitting down with City A.M. last week in his office in City Hall, the leader of the Greater London Authority Conservatives said he is confident he can win the open primary to be Tory candidate. “Of course [...]
From TfL Tube strike and VJ 70 Day to Google’s transformation and London’s Plague pits: Here’s what got us talking this week August 15, 2015 A tennis player got fined for not playing cricket. The Labour leadership contest turned nasty. And somewhere in Covent Garden was the sound of the house price market going super-sonic. Here's what got us talking this week 1. We are pretty tight when it comes to tipping Yep, turns out we're pretty stingy. But not [...]