Have your say on the proposed London Budget for 2021-2022

Many London councils. IE. Hounslow Council, have erected themselves new town hall office block, during years of Austerity...Why is council tax payers having to pay for this corrupt / deceitful & fraudulent policy?... When in the fifth richest nation in the world we see homelessness / rough sleepers on our streets, plus many on food banks..Local MPs / councilors in their ivory towers, are all on the gravy train receiving wage increases / bonuses & travel expenses..Enforcement officers / parking wardens like "hawks" ready to hand out PCN fines in a scam operation, for pure financial / stealth revenue!...Social housing is now non existent...Multi storey / occupancy flats are being erected with dangerous cheap (Cladding) materials...Examples of another Grenfell towers disaster waiting to happen!   Many of these flats are empty, only being rented out by "greedy" scam landlords, using them for pure financial / money laundering purposes...Extortionate high costing rents, that only the privileged can afford!..Investigation into all these corrupt mentioned practices, must be top priority by the London mayor in 2021..    

COVID is a temporary situation, and just the same as in the past London will recover. The real question is what kind of recovery do we want to see? Will it be a return to the same old problems, or can we build a better future for all Londoners?

By far the most important issue facing London is the climate crisis. We now have a unique opportunity to drive forward wholesale change in how we travel, work and spend our free time. 

Within the next ten to twenty years the number of petrol and diesel vehicles on London's roads will decrease. Therefore it is time to stop punishing and vilifying car drivers. Transport policy must include all forms of transport - cars are not going to go away.

Housing in London is abysmal, too many poor quality, badly maintained tiny little flats - and that's just the new build tower blocks.

Business is the absolute beating heart of London's economy. Time has come to stop thinking the 'City of London' and financial services are the be all and end all. 

Since I'm a resident of Peckham in SE London I can express continual dismay at the ragged, confused filthy aspect that Peckham's main shopping areas portray. It really is not acceptable to have open-fronted food shops spilling their wares onto busy pavement space that are constricted enough already for pedestrian space with an overabundance of street furniture (posts, bollards and the like) getting in the way. Added to this is that these open-fronted shops together with side street market tables, just off the main Rye Lane shopping street, discard boxes and other refuse against lampposts in Rye Lane adding yet more to the grim untidy atmosphere of a thoroughly unattractive Peckham shopping scene. As for the Peckham Rye Station surrounding area it's a disgrace of gloom and inconvenient access to the lovely hidden architecture and facility of what ought to be pleasant access to public transport. If budgeting is to be expended on high streets then Peckham's Rye Lane requires urgent inspiration.      

I agree with the comment about tower blocks.

In general as an ex-councilor I know all authorities try to blame someone else ie the Government. We in London benefit from extra Government income so we should not push more costs on the rest of the country. In a financial emergency we should not increase capital expenditure at the expense of current. However all current expenditure should be reviewed and unnecessary expenditure on things such as consultants and publicity should be constrained. Similarly where capital expenditure can be funded by borrowing advantage should be taken of the current low (or even negative) rates should be taken advantage off.

People are wanting to shop locally now more than ever before, yet most high streets and local areas are still very unattractive places to visit by foot or cycle. High streets and local areas are still being dominated by cars - parked or in use (parked mostly). Where I live in Tottenham, vast areas of public space are swamped by parked cars and unsightly car parks. And the High Street is often clogged with congested traffic and residential streets used as rat runs by drivers who have little regard for the safety of local residents. I speak to local residents about this and they agree that this makes the local area unappealing, and the thought of shopping locally a very unattractive option. Now is perfect golden opportunity to undo the past mistakes and make the positive changes needed to boost the local economy. It's unfair that there's such disparity between the changes made to streets in areas like Hackney when compared with Haringey. It's unfair that inner London boroughs are allocated more money for schemes like LTNs when boroughs next door in "outer London" can't afford to do the same. This needs to change urgently. 

London's only hope is to get the city moving again financially.  The mayor can best help with that by cutting his share of the council tax, freeing off the streets of London by getting rid of all the constrictions he has wasted our money on and generally interfering as little as possible.

Healthy eating must start in schools now. It is already late and COVID  has highlighted the importance of good nutrition for health.

schools should ban any kind of pudding except to fresh fruit. Just the idea that you have to finish your meal with puds is wrong and leading to obesity in adulthood.

increase the vegetables options on each meal, not just potatoes or sweet corn (they do not count as vegetables, but starch). More seasonal vegetables and variety everyday, mu son eats iceberg lettuce and sweet corn everyday at school, who is that dietitian saying it is ok?!

We have to reduce junk food availability in stores and increase their costs, water cannot be more expensive than soft drinks!

It is probably the easiest and quickest topic to address, we should act now.

AFFORDABLE HOUSES, not just in zone 4-5, we still have lots of people commuting to central London and the cost of transport is a heavy weight on a family budget. 
We need truly affordable housing in zone 2, not scams like shared ownership where u end up paying more then renting for a silly 25%. Those schemes have lots of hidden costs, building service charges and high rents that rise every 2-3 years. Not realistic at all.

London is now bankrupt thanks to lockdown.  We have to prioritise or else endure decades (not years) of decline and deprivation .

At best only 60% of commuters will return. By far the majority of  those residents who still travel to work prefer to use cars (not bicycles) to avoid catching Covid on public transport. Almost all home deliveries are by van not cargo-bike. Green is meaningless (and/or counter-productive) without the mass roll-out of charging points  and active help for residents to use affordable electric cars, buggies and/or scooters (less likely to get stolen than bikes) and for business, especially SMEs to go electric. 

All GLA properties and wayleaves (including TfL, Emergency services etc.) should be made available at no charge to those building broadband networks to international inter-operability standards (fixed, mobile, fibre and wireless). All Boroughs should be encouraged to do likewise. LGfL should be funded to organise uncharged broadband access (services and equipment) for all pupils in receipt of free meals.

All GLA on-line services should be tested for usability by their target audiences (elderly, disabled, language etc.) with disabled groups paid consultancy rates to do the acceptance testing.

The Metropolitan Police should adopt the 2011 "rules" for recruiting special constables and other volunteers as part of a overall programme to recruit locally and improve relations with the communities to be  served. These allowed, for example, military reservists, medical and security (incluidng cyber) professionals and youth workers to become "specials", subject to obvious conditions. 

We also need to make it much easier for now redundant city centre office/commercial property to be converted to residential.       

www.covidsolutionsuk.com - These guys have some great ideas. They are an SME that perform COVID19 Antigen and Antibody testing. These guys are willing to go out and actually test you at your home, place of work or even on construction sites. They are trying to get an agreement with TFL and the Govt to test all those  working on construction and rail sites and monitor their COVID H&S status throughout. With regular testing you reduce risk to others and can get on working on various projects. Stats show that over 90% of Covid related deaths are in the 65+ age group and that any deaths before 50 are quite rare. With regards to clubs, restaurants and entertainment, these guys are willing to open 4 central venues and conduct 24/7 testing using up to 50 nurses. That's equivalent to 2000 people a day! If you want to go out, why not get a test (Rapid - Results within 10 mins) and prove that you do not have the virus. (https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-birmingham-test-and-dine-scheme-off…) Why can a venue not open when it can prove that all guests are clear of the virus?? People will co-operate as they want to use the service or facility. And....guess what? When unemployment is high, these guys are willing to take on up to 100 people and train them to undertake these tests. When you look at the 'free' NHS tests, all well and good until you look at the cost of the test, the cost of the nurse, the overheads and so on its not so cheap. These guys have low overheads and I think that their service is cheap. They were out all over Christmas and offered to the bone charges for unemployed or those in bad places. When the NHS is overloaded, why not use these SMEs to shoulder some of the burden. Check em out www.covidsolutionsuk.com (Understand that discounts are available on volume and repetition)

Please cancel all spend on new cycle lanes. They congest the traffic, as they are often empty, whilst traffic beside them is forced to queue. They are not fair, as they inconvenience the vast majority (over 95%) of road users. They do NOT help with the environmental agenda, as queuing traffic is more polluting than flowing traffic. And, most significantly, THEY DO NOT IMPROVE SAFETY FOR CYCLISTS.

This information was provided to me by TfL's own team in response to a FoI question I posed, as it refereed me to this government study: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycle-city-ambition-programm…, which makes it clear on p. 3 that SAFETY IS NOT IMPROVED. It was also unclear in the majority of schemes studied that the new infrastructure had significantly improved cycling take up and even worse, when one does look at the cycling take up cited (2m kms/yr) that equates to only two to three hundred new cyclists per city studied per year against tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people commuting. So the take up rate is pathetically small in comparison to the money spent.

Therefore the bottom line is that money spent on new cycling infrastructure is extremely badly spent and it should be top of your list for a cut in these severely cash-strapped times.

The climate emergency will make Covid look like a walk in the park. Everything possible must be done to both reduce London's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and to prepare for the effect of climate change, such as sea level rise.
In addition, air pollution is a serious issue that must be tackled more quickly. Detecting and fining those with highly polluting vehicles and driving styles would be welcome.

I would love to see a better ,brighter,cleaner and kinder future-whatever it takes.Let's think about the people and planet and our mental and physical wellbeing.Stop prioritising capitalistic policies and think about the bigger picture.Listen to the Londoners and stop making decisions based on politics.Stop building-Start planting!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop building tower blocks!   They take heat right up into the stratosphere!  If you have a bonfire or barbecue you can hold your hand over it at a certain height, no heat...  Tower Blocks are taking heat all the way to the rooftop & out into the stratosphere - heat from central heating, air conditioning, electric works, gas works, elevators, lifts, heaters, TVs, Computers, cookers, washing machines, electric kettles, everything!   A plane flies by, a car drives by, but the building is there fixed, generating heat 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (366 Leap Year!)