Boris Johnson saves Ł2.9 million from City Hall publicity budget

Press Release

Boris Johnson saves Ł2.9 million from City Hall publicity budget
13-5-2008 239

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has today announced the closure of The Londoner newspaper saving London nearly three million pounds. A percentage of this saving will be spent on planting 10,000 new street trees as London’s new Mayor continues to deliver on his manifesto pledges.

At the start of Boris’s second week he has been able to deliver two more election promises – making London greener and cutting the Mayor’s publicity budget.

The planting of 10,000 street trees will improve the residential streets that need them most with the planting programme directed at deprived areas that often have no trees at all.

Had Ken Livingstone been re-elected, Londoners would have spent around £2.9 million this year on the Mayor’s personal newspaper. By using some of the money saved from The Londoner – around £1 million per year – London’s most deprived areas will see an extra 10,000 new trees by 2012.

The Londoner was distributed to three million homes across Greater London.

These savings are one of the first steps in Boris’s campaign to provide real taxpayer value for Londoners.

Commenting on the announcement, Boris Johnson said:

“There was little commitment of resources from Ken Livingstone to reverse the trend of decline in the number of street trees. I am taking immediate action to reverse this short-sighted decision.

“In the last few years a third of boroughs have seen a decline in the number of street trees. Many London streets, particularly in deprived areas, have no street trees at all.

“I believe that as many areas as possible should enjoy the many advantages that street trees bring. So today I have taken the decision to cut unnecessary funding of the Mayor’s personal publicity budget to plant 10,000 street trees by the end of my first term.

“Trees improve the street environment in which Londoners live and work so I will do all I can to save the trees we have and campaign for more trees to protect London’s open spaces.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Londoner is distributed to three million homes across Greater London.
Had Ken Livingstone been re-elected, Londoners would have spent around £2.9 million next year on The Londoner. By scrapping this, we will save £2.9 million.
Boris Johnson’s manifesto commitment is to use some of the money saved from The Londoner – around £1 million per year – to deliver our pledge of 10,000 street trees by 2012.
The Mayor proposes to work in partnership with charities like Trees for Cities and the London Boroughs to launch a major effort to bring street trees to those areas of London that need them most. Rather than dictate from City Hall where these trees should be planted, it is intended that these charities would compile a list of the 40 areas in London that would most benefit from new street trees.
On average we will plant 250 trees in each area, and all 40 areas will have trees planted by the end of the four-year Mayoral term. Londoners will be able to vote on the Greater London Authority website to determine the order in which areas are planted.
We will commit £1million funding for street trees per year, to be funded from the cancellation of Ken Livingstone's promotional publication ‘The Londoner’.
With a major injection of funds and high profile support from the Mayor, it is anticipated that there is significant potential for tree-planting partnerships with companies and local authorities. Trees for Cities have previously secured significant amounts of match funding for tree planting projects and estimate that each annual grant of £1 million for tree planting would generate match funding of £500,000 from the private and public sectors.
£1.5 million a year for four years is a total of £6 million which, using an average cost of £600 per tree, would give a total of 10,000 street trees over a four-year term.