General Election 2019: Sadiq Khan’s Christmas wishlist
Election season can be a fruitful time for local councils to stick their hands out and plead with prospective governments to turn on the taps for their part of the country. With Labour and the Conservatives both keen to spend big, and prove to voters austerity is over, this may be the best opportunity in years for key projects across the country to procure funding.
However, for Sadiq Khan it looks like City Hall has been given a Yuletide lump of coal from both major parties’ manifestos. When examining three of City Hall’s largest priorities — social housing, Transport for London (TfL) and vital infrastructure projects — it could be argued London has been somewhat neglected in this General Election campaign.
Transport for London
Business advocacy group London First said there were three key transport projects that would boost business confidence — Crossrail 2, HS2 and Piccadilly line upgrades.
These long-mooted projects remain unfunded and uncertain, despite the cacophony or rallying calls from London lobbyists.
London First also emphasised the need for widespread Tube modernisation and a firm funding commitment for the Bakerloo line extension, which would see the line extended to Lewisham.
The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (LCCI) director of policy Sean McKee says upgrading London’s public transport would provide wider benefits for the UK.
“London is the economic heart of the UK, driving trade and generating tax, and the supply chains of TfL, Heathrow, Crossrail etc provide contracts and employment across regions,” he says.
However, it would seem neither the Tories nor Labour have heeded London First’s or the LCCI’s advice.
The Conservative manifesto pledged £100bn in infrastructure spending, however all the projects earmarked for funding so far are located in the north and in the midlands.
On Tuesday, the party also pledged £4.2bn for a spate of public transport projects in locations such as Liverpool, Manchester, the West Midlands, Sheffield and Newcastle. TfL, however, was not included in the list.
Labour, meanwhile, mentioned London just three times in its manifesto and has planned all of its transport spending north of the capital.
Northern Powerhouse Rail has been given a firm commitment, but Crossrail 2 has been left on the shelf.
London First chief executive Jasmine Whitbread says there was no reason why it had to be one or the other.
“Playing the south off against the north doesn’t work,” she says.
“Now is the time to invest across the country and bring people together, not drive them further apart.”
Housing
The mayor of London Sadiq Khan was elected with a mandate to embark on a mass social house building programme, which he declared was his number one priority in office.
He was given £4.9bn over four years in 2018 for his programme, with a view to building 116,000 affordable homes by 2022.
However, he has since said it wasn’t close to enough to reach his ambitious targets.
The mayor’s office in June said London will need 330,000 new affordable houses built over a 10-year period from 2022.
Khan estimated that it will require £4.9bn-a-year in funding.
Khan told CityAM in October he was already lobbying the government for this funding.
“What I’ve said to the government is at the moment we are spending one-seventh of the amount of money we need to meet London’s housing needs,” he said at the time.
“I’m lobbying the government to get the resources we need… If the government is serious about meeting housing then we need more resources.”
While neither of the two major parties have given a commitment for London to reach those lofty goals, there has been promises on a national scale around house building.
Labour has pledged to fund a combined 150,000 affordable and social housing each year, while also changing the criteria for what constitutes affordable.
The Tories, meanwhile, have promised to fund 1m new homes over their term of office.
Infrastructure
There are a number of infrastructure projects that are in need of government funding, such as the rollout of full-fibre internet, the Hammersmith Bridge upgrade, new river crossings and a bevy of road upgrades.
Both parties have pledged to rollout full-fibre broadband across the nation, with Labour also doubling down and vowing to part-nationalise BT in the process.
However, other one-off London specific projects may require more wrangling from City Hall in the future.
Richmond Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith has lobbied hard for government funding for the currently closed Hammersmith Bridge, with no announcement forthcoming.
Tony Travers, professor of local government at the London School of Economics, says now is the perfect time to build big ticket infrastructure projects in the capital.
“London is the most productive part of the country and there needs to be more investment in infrastructure, but this can be done parallel with improvements in the north and midlands,” he says.
“There’s no reason in what’s been called a ‘post-austerity election’ to not have investment in the future of London, especially while interest rates are low.
“The government really needs to better protect London’s tax base, because it’s this city’s tax revenues that will fund new projects in the midlands and the north.”