The Mayor of London’s Budget for 2022/2023 was passed at Thursday’s (24th February) Mayor’s Question Time meeting, after receiving backing from local London Assembly Member, Len Duvall AM. The Budget commits millions to tackling violent crime and London’s green economic recovery from the pandemic. Mr Duvall said that he supported it because of its “core focus on keeping Londoners safe, tackling the climate emergency and providing opportunities to those who are at risk of being left behind by the pandemic”.
Amongst a wide range of measures, this year’s Budget pledges an additional £23 million towards schemes to tackle youth violence and violence against women and girls.
£90 million has been allocated towards a new Climate Emergency Funding Reserve which looks to unlock investment from the private and public sector into decarbonisation schemes. This comes as part of the Mayor’s wider aim to double the size of London’s green economy by the end of the decade.
The Budget is also investing millions into skills programmes for young Londoners to ensure they can access mentoring and the next generation high-paid and secure jobs.
The London Assembly passed the Budget the day before the crunch deadline of the Government’s funding negotiations with Transport for London (TfL), which faces a financial cliff-edge due to plummeting passenger numbers caused by the pandemic.
Mr Duvall is calling for the Government to come to the table to provide TfL with a fair and long-term funding deal. Without this, the Mayor has warned that London’s transport network will fall into managed decline, leading to cuts to tube and bus services, the delay and cancellation of key infrastructure projects and job losses.
During the Mayor’s Question Time meeting discussing the Budget, Sadiq Khan also revealed that London only received a 3.8% share of the Government’s Levelling Up Fund.
The London Assembly Member also criticised the moves of Conservative, Green, Liberal Democrat Groups to reject the Budget, accusing them of not being serious about making the capital safer, greener and fairer.
The other political groups proposed amendments to the Budget, but the Labour Group voted against these.
Local London Assembly Member, Len Duvall AM, said:
“I was proud to support this Budget as it has a core focus on keeping Londoners safe, tackling the climate emergency and providing opportunities to those who are at risk of being left behind by the pandemic.
“This Budget comes against the grain of the Government’s refusal to provide London’s transport system with a long-term funding deal and its exclusion of the capital from fair share of ‘levelling-up’ investment.
“Ministers know that leaving London out in the cold will do nothing to benefit the rest of the country and in fact has the opposite effect.
“It was disappointing that the other political groups on the London Assembly decided to vote against these proposals to make the capital safer, greener and fairer.
“Amendments were put forward by the other Groups, but they failed to make the grade. The amendment put forward by the Liberal Democrats was well intentioned, but their proposals to set up a support hub for leaseholders caught up in the building safety scandal were not robust and lacked adequate resources. It would have quickly fallen apart. We need a serious plan from national government to help these thousands of Londoners.”
ENDS