Given the lessons he could have learnt from Houchen, Street, and Burnham, there is really little excuse for Khan not to be doing significantly better.
Given more control and fairer settlements, councils could cut local taxes, back small businesses, and invest in preventative social services. Ultimately, power would rest with communities to kick out wasteful councillors and reward the prudent.
More than 70 per cent of UK AI firms are based in London and we will soon boast Chat GPT’s first research and development base outside the US. We need to capitalise on these strong foundations.
We need to be keeping the conversation going about how to fund London Councils so they can tackle homelessness more easily and provide better adult social care and health outcomes.
The Prime Minister will want to avoid the trap that Gordon Brown created for himself in the autumn of 2007.
The elements that came together to see a Conservative elected Mayor in 2008 – a national mood turning against Labour, a near-celebrity candidate in the as-yet-untarnished form of Boris Johnson, and a radical and increasingly unpopular incumbent – are not currently at hand.
Only last week, the current PCC announced the closure of ‘at least’ 30 police stations, further exacerbating citizen’s safety concerns. I cannot sit on my hands and watch this happen.
One of the biggest myths propagated by public sector unions is that it’s cheaper to employ a council officer – complete with a gold-plated final salary pension and a hugely generous set of terms and conditions – than a fixed-term interim on a higher annual salary.
I’m a fan of gentle density; mid-rise development which is beautiful, human scale, and relatively dense. Reminiscent of Paris, Florence, or sought-after London quarters such as Belgravia and Pimlico.
With further cycle schemes now being planned, it is vital that the views of local people are heard. It’s too easy for their voices to be drowned out by those living elsewhere.
We also need to accept that boroughs have different needs. Outer London is poorly served by public transport.
“I’ve already mentioned London,” says the Party Chairman. “Look at Wales. Patients almost twice as likely to be on the NHS waiting list as in England. What about Birmingham? A Council that spent time thinking up woke street names instead of looking after its finances.”
When the number of crimes in London has reached over one million a year, it is clear that the situation is out of control. The Mayor just offers gimmicks.
If Sunak stands up at the Conservative Conference in four weeks’ time with nothing better to offer than some anti-ULEZ tub-thumping, he might as well hand over the keys to Downing Street to Starmer now.