Funding London’s priorities

more attention needed to prevention and removal of graffiti.  It drags down an area and decreases commnity respect.  Insidious, but real.

The priorities listed are well thought-out and relevant and my survey response reflects that.  In addition I would like the mayor to continue his strong campaign against rogue sweet and candy stores across London and especially Oxford Street. They bring our great city down.   

The biggest need is for a massive amount of decent social housing where people can easily access jobs and vital services. Stable secure homes at genuinely affordable rents will improve health, mean children can learn better and people will have money to spend which boosts the economy.

The Mayor needs to think about measures to help the poorest people in London.  Many people cannot afford to go into central London because of high fares, the congestion and pollution charges, parking charges, and the cost of eating out or attending theatres etc.  Helping the poor is not only morally right, but helps to cut crime and homelessness as well.  Rent control is desperately needed.  Many Londoners are spending a very high percentage of their income on rent, more than the cost of a mortgage, which makes no sense.  Parking in London for disabled people with blue badges is a shambles, and varies from borough to borough.  The economy will not thrive if people can't afford to live near ot travel to their work or the shops.

It’s protecting London’s green environment which is paramount, because housing, however necessary, without green space and play space for children will simply lead to more anti-social behaviour and ill health from overcrowded city living.   Already families with children are deserting London and schools are closing in most boroughs.  So housing and the environment go hand in hand.   Ban the use of glyphosate, copy Paris in making the London cleaner and greener and attract young families.  They are our future.  And make it possible to walk to school, the local shops and libraries. 

The Mayor’s budget must reflect the reality: addressing the unprecedented housing crisis we face in the UK by protecting and investing in social homes is a moral and legal duty, and the most financially prudent long-term strategy.

Housing Priority – Tackle Crisis, Not Amenities

London faces an unprecedented housing crisis, with 172,000 children in Temporary Accommodation (TA). Funding must focus on Social Housing Repairs, Decent Homes investment, and Stock Protection.

1. Stop Housing Speculation and Misuse London’s crisis is about misallocation, not just supply. There are 93,602 empty homes (38,386 long-term vacant) while families need housing. The Mayor should lobby for laws prohibiting non-resident, non-British nationals from buying London homes. Housing must be a right, not an asset for speculation. Enforce Airbnb rules to return homes to long-term use.

2. Create Earmarked Funding (Tourist Tax) A Tourist Tax on overnight stays could raise up to £240 million annually. This revenue should be reserved for permanent social housing, prioritizing moving people out of TA and addressing the £740m shortfall London Councils face due to TA costs.

3. Fulfil Statutory Obligations & Redirect Waste Repairs for social housing are a statutory liability under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Funds should not go to non-crisis amenities (cycling lanes, street furniture) while homes remain substandard. End energy efficiency grants for private landlords, homeowners and businesses while social tenants live in hazardous, damp, mouldy, energy-inefficient homes.

Conclusion:
The Mayor’s budget must prioritize the housing crisis. Protecting and investing in social homes is a moral, legal, and financially prudent strategy.

The survey itself is a bit simplistic. Obviously, all the topics are important.

Here's my wishlist:

I'd like to see a Paris style ban on SUVs in the capital. The pro car lobby won't like it but the proliferation of these unnecessarily large and wide vehicles is making the capitals roads increasingly difficult to navigate. The congestion charge may dissuade some from driving but does nothing to discourage on street parking. The assumption that people can leave their personal property on the street blocking traffic flows and emergency access needs to be addressed.

Other issues I'd like to see are a common London wide recycling scheme - currently every Borough seems to have different recycling criteria.

An expansion of the water fountains scheme with a better design than the current offerings and to include refurbishment and reuse of the historic "metropolitan drinking fountains and troughs" fountains dotted around the capital.

As for public transport as a South East Londoner the DLR extension is long overdue but needs to push further than just Thamesmead. 

Ideally the tram network also needs expanding across London but especially in the Outer boroughs to improve local connectivity and provide alternatives to the private car especially for those who may feel alienated by the introduction of ULEZ.

The biggest priority for London in my opinion is housing and the massive waitlist for housing.

• Push through planning applications to double the amount of social housing available. Preventing NIMBYs from blocking social housing applications. All 2026 planning applications should be about increasing housing. We don’t need more empty commercial premises, more luxury student housing, more empty luxury flats. We need more social housing.
• Tackle the empty flat situation by charging empty flat owners 10x their council tax to incentivise them to sell/rent their properties
• Particularly discourage overseas property investors who are pushing up house prices by reducing housing supply, and those who are laundering money through shell companies using a London property as a façade.
• Ongoing defaulting on council tax payments should result in evictions and seizure of property for those not on benefits.
• Tackle underoccupied housing by incentivising those with underoccupied housing to take lodgers to reduce their council tax bills or improve their benefit payments.
• Get rough sleepers, beggars off the street and public transport and reduce the social housing waitlist by half.
• Put rent caps for social housing properties
• Reduce practices of dodgy landlords to stuff their properties full of immigrants/students etc to earn more. If the landlord owns a 3-bedroom house, there shouldn’t be more than 4-6 people in there, including children and pets.
• Get people who let their homes become derelict and full of hoarding from decades of neglect have priority mental health care.

The second biggest priority I think is mental health care, which wasn’t mentioned in the survey at all.

• Some physical health symptoms stem from mental health issues. Those need to be recognised, diagnosed and addressed properly. Doing so will reduce the benefits burden significantly and improve the long-term sickness issues. The mental health services on the NHS are severely underfunded and social services are a failed agency. Note

The most pressing matter is the environment and Climate Change. The Mayor could lead the way on this, for example, by only having plant-based food at Mayoral events, leading by example. We also need more wildlife spaces in London, to increase biodiversity - more parks and wildlife corridors and more trees, and less polluted canals and rivers. Perhaps more community gardens could be set up. If the transport is better, then less people would use cars - the public transport here is one of the most expensive in Europe. Fees need to be reduced as well as an increase in buses/tubes. 

I also think homelessness needs to be made more of a priority. Perhaps there could also be an extra tax on empty residential properties, ie if someone hasn't used it for more than 6 months, then it could either be taxed heavily or if over a year, taken over by the government. Perhaps an increase in homeless shelters and day shelters too? And more social housing so that homeless people have a better chance to find somewhere permanent to live.

Stop subsidizing Councils incapable of managing their budgets. Voters elected Labour Councils, live with consequences. 

Everything is important, what is not clear is the role of the Mayor in all these areas. Are other involved and can they do more like business and A1. Assume the government has a big influence through planning on housing and rent controls etc

You need to fix the housing crisis - it is real poverty for many in work and it puts up costs for business.

Forget spending on stopping climate change  - it won't be stopped now. China, Russia and the US don't care about it so it will happen and the UK will freeze - which will make the housing crisis even worse.

Start replacing old terrace housing with factory built and fitted out  flats with Swedish grade insulation and low energy use. Sell them at the market rate and watch the rate drop as supply catches up.

"Affordable" housing means 'substandard' by any standard except the middle of a housing crisis. 

Just replace old terraces with blocks of "low energy waste" flats - and sell them at the market rate.

The owners will make a profit and you won't overload the infrastructure.

Prices will come down as supply increases and we won't be left with a city of shoebox homes.

The Mayor's support for cycling is causing huge problems for pedestrians. Lime and Forest bikes are scattered all over pavements blocking access for pedestrians that are disabled or for those wheeling prams, puschairs or mobility vehicles. Cycle riders jump red traffic lights and ride through when pedestrians are crossing at the correct time. The improvements to cycle ways are at the expense of motorists who pay through their vehicle taxes but cyclists pay no such tax nor do they have insurance when they injure people or cause damage to vehicles through their carelessness. There needs to be a change to the law to make cyclists  accountable for their actions especially as electric bikes are much heavier than pedal bikes and can travel at speeds greater than motor vehicles are allowed to on many of London's roads. Cyclists need to learn the Highway code, need to have insurance and cycles need to have some form of registration.

With regards to transport fares- rather than throwing around free bus passes like confetti, how about making 11-17 year old passes term time only, 6am to 6pm, not including weekends. On my local school run, with my 5 year old daughter, she has actually been given a black eye 4 TIMES in 18 months by unruly kids pushing and shoving on buses- and acting so entitled. Teenagers aren't the only ones needing to use transport- and I pay nearly £30 a week to travel with my child, only to face abuse and physical threats on buses.

The issue with such a survey is it is very broad and open to multiple interpretation. Just because something is important, does not mean you need to spend more money on it, or you create new rules and burdens. It may just be that you actually improve the effectiveness of existing policies by ensuring they are followed or the punishment of a breach is severe. 
My opinion is that the mayor should not be spending any money on anything that is a national requirement - example, on climate change: the mayor is not responsible for subsidising greener homes or electric vehicles, or electric vehicle charging points. This cost should be borne by the central government. The mayor should spend it political muscle to ensure the central government spends on it, or devolve the tax collection (e.g. energy levies collected from household bills in London), so the mayor can allocate this to the scheme. 

The role of the mayor is to reduce red tape, encourage infrastructure development, and spend money on local culture, and community development. Focus on the deregulation (not increased regulation), and reducing cost of doing business (not increasing cost). 

The two big policies that the mayor has directly enacted that is negative for London - ULEZ and Congestion charge increased cost. There is no improvement in public infrastructure or alternatives - the underground in outer london is just as bad as it was 10 years ago - the piccadilly line upgrade has been delayed every year and it remains shut; metropolitan line continues to have consistent signal failures and irregular and infrequent services due to shortage of trains, drivers, etc; same with a number of overground lines. Yet, if you drive into London because of lack of efficient alternatives you are penalised. So business will continue to move out. These are policies directly in the Mayor's control, and he has to take responsibility for his failure. Policing is another failure, and directly at the feet of the mayor. 

The proposed pedestrianisation of Oxford Street is a discriminates against those  who are not fully ambulant.  It will prevent them from visiting the area.

The entrenched privilege of London's homeowners, especially those in houses rather than apartments, is truely disgusting. 

I don't think they know how much damage they're doing to the city and the whole of the UK by blocking the building of denser housing.

We absolutely need higher taxes on houses (rather than apartments) to force them out. Getting rid of the single home inheritance tax exemption and the other tax property loopholes would be great too.

Demolishing houses in London to build mid and high rises is the most important way to create opportunity in the UK. This affects a whole generation of young people.