Front runners: The aristocratic son of a billionaire and the working-class son of an immigrant
BY Itrat Bashir
The London Mayoral race is nearing its finishing line, with Londoners soon heading to the polls on 5th May to decide the replacement of incumbent Boris Jonson. A clear contest between two frontrunners of the race has emerged: between Goldsmith, the aristocratic son of a billionaire for the Tories, and Khan, the working-class son of an immigrant for Labour.
In the last survey carried out by YouGov for LBC-Radio in January, the Labour candidate Sadiq Khan was narrowly leading the race, closely followed by Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith. Meanwhile, Liberal Democrats’ Caroline Pidgeon and Sian Berry of the Green Party were lagging behind.
Political pundits see the main contest between the Labour and Tory candidates, as supported by the recent poll. Housing issues and high living costs in London are the main themes of both Khan and Goldsmith’s election campaigns, and both are keen to tackle air pollution and education problems as well.
Responding to questions posed by Asian Sunday, the Tory candidate acknowledged the housing problem in London. Goldsmith believes that ‘too many Londoners are being priced out of home ownership […] Yet the very forces which make London such a great place to grow a business or start a career, are also pushing people out.”
He believes that urgent action is needed now to stop Londoners being locked out of their own city. “As Mayor, I will start to fix our housing crisis by doubling house-building to 50,000 a year by 2020. I will do this by ensuring that any land with housing potential has the transport links it needs to be viable for development, cracking down on land banking and ensuring that we make the best possible use of all of the public sector land dotted around the city,” he added.
Khan also had similar views in the matter and expressed that although he believes London is the greatest city in the world, it currently stands at a crossroads. “Londoners are being priced out of our city by the Tory housing crisis and the cost of commuting,” he added.
According to him, as Mayor, tackling the housing crisis will be his number one priority. To improve standards in the private rented sector, he will create a London-wide, not-for-profit lettings agency, making renting more affordable and secure for tenants, offering leases of up to three years while offering a better and more reliable deal for landlords. It will tackle rip-off letting fees by only charging renters the true administration costs.
He also pledged to build homes that will be available at the London Living Rent, a new form of tenancy to help people on average incomes who cannot afford to buy. “With rent based on a third of local average income, rather than the market, London Living Rent homes will give Londoners the chance to save for a deposit.”
Pidgeon of the Liberal Democrats pledged to build 200,000 new homes over the next four years, of which 50,000 will be available for rent at council house rent levels. “We also need to crack down on rogue landlords who rip off private tenants by extending mandatory registration and offering long tenancies, curbing unfair letting agent fees and give tenants extra rights when landlords sell up,” she added.
Green Party candidate Berry proposes to tackle the housing crisis by stopping estate demolitions and organising private tenants into a London Renters Union. “A not-for-profit housing company will be set up to help Londoners take the lead on building homes and regenerating estates. Also, funds from the City Hall and public land will be used to create a new co-operative sector and we will shake up the rental sector by capping rent rises,” she says.
On the business front, the Conservatives have always had a good footing in the business community, but the Labour is working hard to portray a business-friendly face. Khan is determined to be a pro-business Mayor: “Our competitiveness is the key to our prosperity, and supporting our businesses to grow is a key task for the Mayor of London,” he says.
As Mayor, he plans to work in partnership with businesses to deliver solutions to the challenges that hold growth back. He also aims to support the provision of small business premises and commercial developments through the London Plan, use procurement to support small business and provide live-work units as part of his affordable housing programme.
Khan also pledges to create a Business Advisory Board, made up of experts, not political allies and work with Mayoral bodies, boroughs and business to improve the use and sharing of data.
On the other hand, Goldsmith said that London boasts almost a million businesses, yet all too often they get ‘lumped together’ by politicians, with no consideration of the difference between a sole trader and a global bank. Start-ups and more established firms have different needs, both of which he plans to address individually.
According to Goldsmith, the most important thing a candidate can do is go and talk to real businesses and listen to what they say. He has seemingly met with everyone from independent shops, to entrepreneurs at Tech City, to the big advocacy groups. They are all very clear that they want a competent mayor with a clear plan, who can work with the government to get things done.
“London businesses should be extremely confident about their future. People around the world want to invest in this fantastic city. So as well as representing them here in the UK, a key part of my role will travel the world, banging the drum for London business,” he added.
Both Khan and Goldsmith showed positivity regarding the troubles faced by curry houses in the UK. They understood the need for skilled staff by the London businesses and it needs to be addressed.
Khan said, “As Mayor I will launch a food strategy which will look at a number of things: how to boost London’s food economy and support food entrepreneurs, including curry houses; the importance of food and the food economy in local communities; and how to use policy on food to improve public health.”
According to him, curry houses make a massive contribution to London’s economy and also add to the vibrancy to this city, people from all over London flock to streets like Brick Lane to enjoy the work of great chefs from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. It is important that we create an environment for this to flourish. He showed readiness to use his role as Mayor to lobby central government so that people with the skills our city needs are allowed to enter the country.
Goldsmith also acknowledged that at times, businesses may need access to exceptional international talent. “There’s a balance to be struck, but clearly London’s businesses, big and small, need to be able to attract the brightest and the best from overseas, and as Mayor I will ensure that Government recognises that need,” he added.
On education, the Tory candidate is of the firm view that the provision of new school places must keep up with London’s exponential growth to ensure this success is sustained. “From 2019 the Mayor will gain control of the adult skills budget. I will ensure funding is channelled into the skills London urgently needs to thrive, closing the London skills gap in engineering, construction, sciences, creative media and arts, financial services and the digital economy.”
The Labour candidate sees the growing school places crisis in London as becoming critical, which needs to be addressed immediately. As Mayor, he intends to establish a School Places Forum to take the lead in coordinating and planning London’s response to increasing pressure. “By bringing together specialists from the boroughs, council leaders and the London Schools Atlas, I will give London the citywide planning for delivering the school places we urgently need,” he added.
Pidgeon is of the view that the biggest change that could be made is for the government to devolve its further education training and skills budget to London. “This would enable London to make sure that its young people were equipped with the skills that London needs,” she added.
The Green Party candidate is especially interested in tackling the soaring student rents. Berry wants to introduce the concept of a Student Living Rent. For making London clean and greener, she proposes to clean up all illegal air pollution hot spots, and prioritise public transport, cycling and walking over private car use, and start a solar revolution so that London begins to run on clean energy. “That way we can become the world’s greenest metropolis and make our wonderful city even better for all of us, not the very few who presently treat it as a billionaire’s playground,” she added.
Khan, who is wishing to become the ‘greenest’ Mayor of London, proposes to expand the use of solar across the city, and support communities who want to set up their own green energy generation schemes.
“[I will] roll out schemes like the Bunhill Energy Centre that take waste heat from the tube and make the most of buildings across the city to generate energy from solar. All of this will help London reduce its carbon emissions and generate more of its own energy in a much cleaner way,” said Khan.
Goldsmith has a different approach on handling environmental issues. He observed that across London poor air quality is shortening the lives of almost 10,000 Londoners every year. “This is simply unacceptable,” he added. His action plan for London’s living environment will tackle this by protecting the green belt from development, installing tougher rules on HGVs, encouraging greener vehicles and safer cycling and creating more green spaces across Greater London.
Pidgeon would declare air pollution the second biggest public health risk facing Londoners after smoking and introduce tough measures to tackle it. Among the measures she proposed are banning HGVs from central London in peak times and use of consolidation centres, the River Thames and rail routes to cut freight traffic.
