London mayor priorities

The capital makes a great deal of money out of tourism and many jobs rely on it. With these funding restrictions in place and public transport usage still much lower than usual , Khan faces a tough battle to get the network making money again, not to mention Crossrail back on track. Khan has done well over the last five years to fund new homes at affordable rent levels but they are a drop in the ocean compared to the number of homeless families in need of subsidised housing.

There has been a rise in violent crime , with knife crime often in the headlines. The mayor has a tough balance to strike here. He is also the equivalent of a police and crime commissioner. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth.

Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Reviving Central London will need the Mayor to use his office to inject energy and drive, as this is as much about confidence as anything. Second on the priority list is transport. Ordinarily, City Hall and the national government ought to be able to agree that TfL needs to be funded broadly to its pre-pandemic levels and work out how this will be achieved, but given how poor relations are even this seems a tall order.

Reaching a deal will require political courage and both sides meeting the other halfway. The Mayor needs to be statesmanlike and take politically unpalatable decisions that raise more money from Londoners. In return, it will be hard for the government to avoid some form of long-term revenue support from the national coffers. Each side needs to understand the political quandary the other is in and find it in themselves to help each other — the stakes are too high for failure to be an option.

Third is air quality. Cleaner air can be a legacy issue for the Mayor and progress to date has been encouraging. Fourth, policing. I saw how keeping a city like London safe is tough, especially as the Met and City Hall have so little control over the causes of crime. But with officer numbers rising, results will be expected of the police, especially with regard to knife crime and murders — something we at Centre for London know from our own polling is leading to increasing concern amongst Londoners.

The political chasm between City Hall and the current Home Secretary might persuade the Mayor to think twice about any change at the top.

Fifth, London and the UK. Whether it will bear fruit remains to be seen. It will be hard for the Mayor to resist taking the fight to the government on all fronts, and a test might come with government plans to change the way Mayors are elected without consulting City Hall and Londoners. The old Sadiq might be provoked into battle, but could the new Sadiq let it pass?