The Mayor’s Budget for 2024-25

• Investing in green projects so we can continue to lead the way on tackling air pollution and the climate emergency – from making our buses zero-emission to planting over half a million trees.   

This is frankly garnish.  Its a misleading soundbite on subjects adopted by the Mayor to virtue signal.  The tube network is where the environment for Londoners needs to be addressed.  There's needs to be an urgent study of noise levels and the cumulative damage done to Londoners's hearing after regular exposure to this as it is apparent on the Victoria and Jubilee lines that there are excessive levels that have become far worse in recent times.  Further more, the air in the tube is toxic and far worse than on the streets above.

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TFL is grossly overpriced and over-run. Levels of staff "family and friends" who use transport for free is grossly abused but we are threatened with losing Freedom passes for those who have worked their whole lives.

Council houses are required but I also believe that these should be monitored as they are often abused. On estates such as Woodbury Down, many council houses are sub-let. Many are not looked after and despite owners having to stick to many rules re oudside spaces etc, it seems council tenants can do what they want and trash the properties.

Local policing is non existent but when there is an event in London there are thousands of police everywhere together with private security firms!

Every Council reinvents the wheel. There is no continuity with services such as resident's parking. So much could be saved if theses were uniformed

Lastly, although not on your list...POT HOLES. These have been earmarked to be repaired using HS2 monies. But surely utility companies, who cause most of these problems, should be made to pay? Thames water have dug up the same piece of road in Crouch End 5 times and it is still leaking! PLEASE!

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I see no evidence of being tough on crime in London, we have 2 tier policing, some causes and groups are treated  with kid gloves and left to their own devices, youth stabbings are really out of control and women are vulnerable. Much crime is drug related and London's streets stink of cannabis but no one cares about this. The centre of London has been taken over regularly by protestors so it is no longer pleasing to visit.

Ugly, small, unaffordable flats seem to be all that is on offer in terms of housing. My son will never afford a place in his home city.

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All the priorities are clearly important, but I'm worried about what is left out, particularly making London a more equitable place to live for people from groups whose voices aren't always heard.  It's disappointing that this isn't reflected in the budgetary priorities.

Disabled people, for example, now comprise 24% of the UK population and are much more likely to live in a poor household than other people: nearly half of everyone in poverty is either a disabled person or lives with a disabled person.  We often struggle to earn a living because of systemic barriers to employment, including the attitudes of employers, compounded by a crumbling, underfunded NHS and a public transport system much of which is still inaccessible, even in London and so can't be described as world class.  

At the same time, levels of welfare are extremely low and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) wants to increasingly invade the lives of disabled people: their latest plan is to scrutinise our bank accounts to check what we buy with what little money we have.  Many of us of course can only afford necessities.

The omission of a priority focusing on equity and inclusion is particularly concerning given that certain mayoral initiatives, particularly around active travel in the form of the introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, can make life much more difficult for people with accessibility requirements - including elderly, disabled and neurodivergent people - to get around London.  Such innovations need to be introduced extremely carefully if they aren't to further disadvantage people who are already struggling.

It's surprising that a London mayor coming from a socialist political background isn't explicitly prioritising equity and inclusion in spending plans for next year.

 

 

 

 

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• Keeping London safe, by being tough on crime and the causes of crime - get the Met out of special measures and stop the scourge of low level crime that shatters communities 
• Ensuring the Met and London Fire Brigade both have the resources they need to reform and serve Londoners effectively - we have enough officers in the Met, we just need them to be deployed properly 
• Building more council homes and the homes Londoners can afford - I can barely afford private rent and prioritising council and social housing when so many occupants don’t pass means testing is a disgrace
• Maintaining a world-class transport network in London - cut your advertising budget and put the money into cleaning services and get TfL employees to stop turning a blind eye to fare dodging
• Continuing to offer free skills training to anyone who is unemployed or in low-paid work - lovely idea, but it’s not worth the increase when I can’t afford my bills
• Providing additional support for people during the cost-of-living crisis - I’m in a cost of council crisis as it cost me more than all my utilities for atrocious services 
• Providing a mentor to all young Londoners in need and positive opportunities to young Londoners at risk of getting caught up in gangs and crime - clearly not working
• Investing in green projects so we can continue to lead the way on tackling air pollution and the climate emergency – from making our buses zero-emission to planting over half a million trees - I look forward to zero emission buses, it’s a shame vanity ‘elect Sadiq’ projects have been prioritised

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I am happy to pay a higher council tax if it helps maintain public services and helps people who can't pay (I was unemployed a few times, so I know the situation well). I am less concerned about crime than I am about the causes of crime - lack of mental health services, poverty, lack of leisure and training opportunities etc. I have a lot of empathy for people turning to crime under the difficult austerity conditions. 

I like the Mayor's concern for the environment as well, as people tend to underestimate the damage that pollution and climate change is doing to us (I did not tick this in the top 3, because many people need more immediate help for survival, but I agree with this priority). Public transport for me is part of the effort to tackle both environmental and accessibility issues. 

The housing situation is just shocking and will probably be the reason why I have to move out of London despite living here for over 20 years - both in terms of environmental health and cost. I earn an average income at the moment, but I am still just living in a cold, damp room in my mid-40s, because better housing is out of reach. Houses are really badly insulated, too, especially since the Conservatives scrapped support for sustainable housing. As a member of the LGBT+ community, I appreciate the Mayor's support for LGBT+ retirement communities and nightlife opportunities. There are many venues (especially small, interesting venues) being closed and, without help, London is on the way to becoming a culturally desolate place.

Many thanks for what you are doing under the current difficult conditions. Even if I have to leave, I will remain a Londoner in spirit! 

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Preventing the damage of Greater London is a fundamental part of the Greater London infrastructure

Provides  a more settled environment. Especially protecting against any potential terrorism and or deliberate damage .

Leaving action required for natural ageing and improvement   

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quite a good balance  what needs to be achieved 

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Homeless levels and rough sleeping in London are unacceptable. Covid showed that London was  able to house all rough sleepers. Scandinavian models show that housing should come first then treatment. Hostels don't work and often scare mentally fragile people. House first, then treat.

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I think the London Mayor has been fantastic in almost every way. It is a very difficult role to fulfil but his priorities have been looking after those in society whose voice was not previously heard. Air quality went on getting worse until children living in poor housing on main roads were being hospitalised. The mayor actually did something to solve this problem. It may not have been perfect and it did still favour the rich to some extent over the poor, but all Londoners will ultimately benefit. Investing in green projects is suggested. I would like to see an element of re-wilding achieved when this is done. Just after the war, London became a wildlife haven as native flowering plants thrived on bombed sites and open spaces. The endless manicuring of open spaces and concreting of front gardens has led to the dearth of insect and bird species and to London being nature depleted. With thought, this could be reversed. I used to work in social housing. Much could be achieved by small scale development on infill sites and the rehabilitation of older street property. Much of the better quality social housing has been lost to right to buy speculation where those good quality previously social homes are now rented out by absentee landlords at eye watering rents. There must be an end to such practices.

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Pollution is far too high. We need more aggressive measures to reduce motor traffic and prioritise walking, cycling, wheeling, buses and trams. Parking needs to be far better controlled, particularly in outer London. We should not allow these vast swathes of public space to be swallowed up by the storage of people's personal or business property just because it has four wheels. The use of the public streets to store commercial vehicles, obstructing them for transport purposes, has become a huge issue in outer London, and need dealing with. Local authorities do not seem to have the powers, budget, staff, or, often, willingness to deal with this. Why should residential streets, often near schools, be full of lorries, car transporters, trailers, diggers and sundry commercial vehicles stored day and night on the public roads? Sometimes these are also on bus routes, where they obstruct public transport. Additionally they create poor sight lines and extra dangers to pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

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Improving public transport in the light of ULEZ, or if you can't provide decent public transport (without being packed in like cattle, charged a fortune, and having limited routes), withdraw ULEZ. 

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It's of course impossible to choose between the priorities offered in this list and the survey as they are all important and intimately interconnected.

No planet = no people, so climate change has to come top - including greening up the capital, reducing pollution, and transitioning to renewables.

Levelling out socio-economic inequality and ensuring that everyone has access to a safe home, education and employment/ income that enables them not just to survive but to thrive would dramatically increase our collective wellbeing, happiness and dramatically reduce social ills such as crime and ill health.  We must stop punishing and excluding those who are most vulnerable and at risk and move towards a rehabilitative, restorative model of social care and justice.

The systematic defunding, impoverishment and overburdening of our vital services - such as the NHS, Fire, Police, Schools and Youth Centres - widens the divide between rich and poor. Many of our services and public organisations are still running with out-of-date over-bureaucratised systems which are riddled with socio-economic inequalities - so reinvesting must be accompanied by a commitment to revision and revitalise them to meet the needs of our modern city.

The arts and culture sector have a huge role to play in supporting collective wellbeing and helping reimagine and revitalise our city, so we must treat artists with the same respect as any other career - we would not ask a plumber to work for free, so we must stop exploiting the gifts of creative professionals.

Whilst these are all enormous tasks, the good news is that even a small step in the right direction triggers a positive knock-on in all areas, so we must just keep taking one step at a time towards a fairer, happier, healthier London.

 

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They are all important priorities, however due to central government having for the past 40 years cared more about the needs of the rich than the poor, the lack of affordable rented housing is now an acute issue that needs tackling urgently. London cannot solve this alone and needs central government funding directed toward ending the scandal of the homeless existing on the streets and in shop doorways.

Air pollution became a major issue caused by the 2008 scrappage scheme pushing motorists into scrapping smaller older petrol cars in favour of large diesels. This and the mass marketing of log burning stoves together with the overall clogging up of the road system by reduction of rat running reduced air quality to the extent that Londoners were dying from toxic air. The ULEZ has been successful up to a point but the problem of log burners still needs to be tackled in the whole of the ULEZ area.

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Why are we Londoner’s still paying for the London Legacy Development? The Olympics, which were apparently fully funded happened 11 years ago. The area in East London has been redeveloped yet you seem to want us to keep paying for it! Newham benefitted from the Legacy, let Newham residents pay for their free infrastructure upgrade! Remove the time limit on both Oyster 60+ and Freedom passes. Save some money for TfL by charging secondary aged school children to travel outside term times.Show less of comment

For me, the main problem is high rent costs in zones 1-3. Also, the purchase prices are still too high and interest rates are insane. There's no first-time buyer program anymore. I can surely afford it, but I don't see those prices as fair and can't justify the value I'm getting, so I decided to move away from London, and am now considering moving from the UK altogether. There's also a lack of properties in the 1000-1500 pcm price range for single professionals. And I believe the city is too landlord-focused - they regularly take advantage of people by manipulating contract terms / via frequent rent increases with no mechanism to hold them back. 

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The crime is on all time high and the police is too soft. 

There should be more help for renters and first time buyers. If you can pay rent, you can pay a mortgage, all tenants do is pay somebody else's mortgage that complain about interest and that they don't make profit. 

Oh and foreign investors should be banned from buying properties here, London has been the place for corrupt rich people to put their money in, at the expense of the residents trying to make a living. 

Toilets and bins everywhere should be the norm in a civilized big city and consistent trains without strikes every week. 

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All of those seem eminently sensible. As part of 4 and 8, the vocal minority of regressive Londoners who object to ULEZ, LTNs, cycle lanes etc. clearly need educating. Perhaps more hearts and minds campaigns – I see such messages on public transport but that is preaching to the converted.

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Failed on all counts so far!  Helping people through the cost of living crisis ? No help whatsoever - higher fares- hitting those who can least afford it by issuing heavy charges/fines re ULEZ. Highest crime/knife rate EVER.  Shops closing down every day - loads of beggars. Transport strikes all the time making public transport less reliable. Filthy trains. Failed council housing targets.  People moving out of London due to crime and high cost of property/rents.  London is on a downward spiral but of course the mayor will not accept any responsibility as it’s always someone else’s fault. It doesn’t matter how big your budget is, if you miss- manage it. The priority should be actually making London great again. As for all the tree planting (which would improve the air quality no end) how many of those are just replacing mature ones ripped up for cycle lanes/development?  Londoners deserve better than failed priorities and empty words. 

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