• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

MayorWatch

London News and Comment

  • NEWS
  • COMMENT
  • Twitter

Labour’s alternative 2012/13 GLA budget

January 25, 2012 - John Biggs AM@johnbiggsam

Labour’s John Biggs says the last budget of Boris Johnson’s mayoralty is published against a back-drop of high unemployment, rising crime and increasingly unaffordable transport fares.

Our Labour alternative proposes to cut fares for hard-pressed commuters, better target police resources to fight crime, and funds skills and employment programmes to get Londoners back to work.

We support City Hall’s decision to follow local authorities across London in not putting up the GLA’s share of council tax this year. In tough economic times – while the saving may only amount to pennies – it is right that London’s government helps out where it can.

But while we support the precept freeze, the savings pale into insignificance next to Boris Johnson’s exorbitant bus, tube, train and tram fares. The household saving from not putting up the council tax is just 26p a month for an average family.

By contrast, a zone one to four travelcard now costs a commuter £30 a month more than it did when Boris Johnson was elected. Bus fares are up 50 per cent – from just 90p under Ken to £1.35 today. Overall, fares are up by a massive 26 per cent.

In more prosperous times, Londoners are less burdened by increases – unwelcome though they are. But with unemployment at record levels, wages stagnating and the price of other essentials like food and fuel rocketing, Boris Johnson’s fares are another cost Londoners simply cannot afford.

Labour’s alternative budget uses the extra money in Transport for London’s budget (thanks to unexpectedly high ridership and reduced costs) to cut fares. We have proposed a seven per cent cut in overall fares, an 11 per cent cut in bus fares and the re-introduction of the outer London travelcard Boris Johnson scrapped. We propose this to help the hardest pressed Londoners during a recession they had no hand in causing.

We also want to put more resources into the Met’s Safer Schools Teams and Safer Transport Teams and to cancel the Mayor’s planned cuts to the Safer Neighbourhood Teams, which Ken ensured were dedicated to every single ward in London.

We would cut the £100,000 a year plus pay of Boris Johnson’s top advisers. While pay has been frozen for most across the public sector, the Mayor has increased the number of City Hall staff on six-figure salaries by a huge 33 per cent.

Even in the year he refused to bring the pay of his lowest paid security and mail room staff in line with inflation – effectively cutting their pay – he gave huge rises to his advisers. One got a 50 per cent rise, taking her pay from £80,000 to £127,000. Another went from £82,000 to £110,000 a year – fives times the average Londoner’s income.

As the economy has tanked, so too has London’s business, skills and employment funding. The London Development Agency and most of the cash that came with it has gone. Youth unemployment in London has doubled since Boris’s election. So we would also create a City Hall joblessness taskforce and set up a targeted employment support fund to tackle unemployment in London, where one in ten are now out of work.

There are no easy answers. London is dealing with a tough budget settlement from a government that is cutting public spending far too severely – hurting the economy, increasing the deficit and costing jobs.

A Labour government would be doing the opposite and the Mayor of London would have more options.

But even with reduced budgets the Mayor has choices. He cut the police before this government was elected and has since reduced the number of Met officers by 1,700. He failed to make the case for economic development funding and he is choosing to put up fares by way more than inflation. This shows a Mayor who is out of touch with ordinary Londoners’ concerns.

Our budget shows that, in tough times, a different approach – one that protects the most vulnerable and keeps Londoners safe – is possible.

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

RECENT UPDATES

Crossrail delayed until 2021 and bosses say project could go a further £650 million over budget

TfL uses WiFi data to improve Journey Planner’s accuracy

Mike Brown to leave TfL for new role overseeing Parliament’s renovation

Transport for London seeks views on new Bakerloo line extension plans




Popular

City Hall calls in Deloitte to boost BAME progression and close ethnicity pay gap

City Hall to review pay levels amid recruitment and staff retention concerns

TfL appoints ‘Build to Rent’ partner and promises to built 3,000 new rental homes across London

TfL confirms £1bn deal to sell and leaseback Elizabeth line trains

FEATURED

City Hall halts London Overground ticket office closures but many will still see opening hours reduced

Transport for London confirms bus cuts will go ahead despite passenger opposition

City Hall and TfL publish action plan to cut lorry and van deliveries in London

TfL planning return of annual fare hikes as agency looks to balance books following Crossrail delay

GOT A STORY?

As the original London news and scrutiny site we've been casting an eye over the capital's public services and politicians since 1999.

 

Many of our top stories started with a tip-off from a reader - if you've got something you'd like us to cover get in touch and we'll do the rest.

Stay In Touch

  • E-mail
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2019 MayorWatch Publications Limited · MayorWatch is Registered Trademark · All Rights Reserved · Contact Us · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy

MayorWatch Publications Limited · 20-22 Wenlock Road · London N1 7GU · Company Number 6291816

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.