Funding London’s priorities

I am a firm believer that we need to address the lack of up to standard as well as social housing. Until this isn't resolved Londoners are going to continue to struggle paying most of their salaries to unkept accommodation and will not have stable foundations to build their lives on. Solutions need to be strategised for the long term too so that they can be sustainable and not simply push the issue down the line.

I also believe that the city can do better ensuring cleaner streets, green spaces and minimise the traffic in the city. The Super loop bus was a great initative for this. Supporting Londoners to be more attached to their communities would also be great, especially younger generations who are feeling disheartened by the lack of positive prospects for the future. 

I visited Battersea Powerstaion last week. A superb top quality development. Unfortunately the Northern Line trains to the station were all filthy dirty, extremely noisy and an embarrassing disgrace to Londoners. The seats were so dirty I could not bring myself to sit on them! Why are the tracks so noisy when this last section has only just been completed? The new station at Battersea is however very impressive! Investment by TFL on the Northern Line rolling stock must be a top priority! 

Very sorry to see that environment and nature recovery, and maintaining and extending green and blue space is not a priority 

Make footpaths usable only by pedestrians. 
Get those wretched bicycles and scooters off the footpaths. I'm fed up with jumping out of their way when they are on the path with their disregard for pedestrians. 

London's wildlife and greenery is my top concern. If they can thrive I know I can too. I wish for a world willing to learn, learn, learn. I feel alone in my quest for truth, dignity and integrity. I observe madness around me. People "dream". See? Singular.

As  a 78-year-old, I do a lot of walking in London and love it. My biggest bugbear are electric scooters and bikes using the pavements and jumping red lights you are walking along you don't hear them coming and they don't slowdown.

after living with the torture of anti social behaviour for over 22 years i just wish someone will take it more seriously than all the authorities do now.

why don't the council  want to help ? .

they should charge the multi tenancy houses more council tax to cover the cost as they all commit anti social behaviour and crimes . they have done this for over 22 years without any one stopping them or doing anything . if the council need to save money they could close the noise teams and any anti social behaviour  people  as they don't seem to have any desire or ability to stop crimes

1. Every 100 metres in urban space, there could be seating for elders, disabled, parents with children, people injured or wanting to rest. This seating could include memorials to local people - paid for by memorialising local residents who have died, by those wanting to remember them. 
   2. Legalise, regulate and license natural products for health & well-being. Please end the racist laws that criminalise cannabis and other natural products, while licensing poisonous substances like whiskey. Stop wasting police time by making them patrol racist laws. 

Deal more effectively with ASB. Invest in more supported housing - not everyone can manage to live independently - the thresholds are too high. 

More social rent housing

Why does the definition for genuinely affordable housing include - shared ownership (also requires rent payments) and london living rent which is unaffordable to most londoners?

We need to spend tax payers money on providing these assets- not waste billons on developers profit. Issues tenancy's that guarantee a home, but not a property, limit the length of a certain property to 10 years - so that we can have churn in council housing stock to alleviate over crowding. It's about changed expectations. 

Invest more in jobs and retraining our workforce - why are there so limited training opportunities for skills we lack? All therapys and hospital staff, teachers, trades, engineers etc - this should be easy to do without having to take 3 years on an expensive course. People in their 20s-50s need flexible training options - evenings, accelerated etc help make this happen with national government help - without AI is going to leave millions without work before the market transitions

Nationslise failing utilities 

All the issues that are laid out are equally important one way or another to people living and working in London. Housing and Crime are what impacts people currently and while seeing all the new housing being built in the capital we all know it is far from affordable to most either as renters or to buy. One thing that stands out is that huge swathes of new build are gobbled up by overseas investors at the expense of Londoners. The Mayor should pressure the Government to stop this and put in place measures to make sure Londoners get affordable housing and push for rent controls like they have in Europe.

The current housing policy needs a complete overhaul. 

Firstly, building 880,000 homes in 10 years is totally unrealistic when the current build rate in London is at 38,000 homes a year. How is this going to be more than doubled? Where are the workers and resources going to come from? 

These unrealistic targets are leading to the unnecessary release of Green Belt land, which is vital for the health of the community and ecosystem in and around London. These new developments on the outskirts will be car-dependent, which goes against everything the Mayor has previously stated he stands for. Also, planning permission for 300,000 homes around London has already been granted. Why not start with those - and aim for development in more central, brownfield sites that would be more accessible for residents. 

Additionally, the policy skirts around the actual problem. It is not one of supply. From 2013-2023, the London population has grown by 6%, but the housing stock has grown by 11%. So why have things gotten so much worse? We don't have a supply issue - we have an affordability issue. 

The current housing policy needs to be updated to actually benefit Londoners, and not the government or developers. We need to prioritise brownfield sites that already have good transport connections and increase affordability instead of going for the vanity metric of 'number of homes built'. 

A clear understanding of how and why the situation is as it is.  Tinkering around the edges and pussyfooting around the greedy commercial interests of rich companies instead of making them accountable. Not just the company but the individuals that work there. The law is there I believe. Deliberately polluting our water is a criminal offencfe, yet Thames Water continues to deliberately pollute water as do the others. Housing Assoc exploit tenants, neglect their housing stock, care not a jot about people yet continue to receive council and government contracts to build homes e.g. Peabody. We know just how to make our cities greener. Individuals can make a difference but the big money and destruction is with the councils and private companies who either don't care or continue as before, instead of having a rethink and adapting effective methods to look after what we have and add, not destroy and start again over and over. The money wasted is huge. We need a culture where truth and honesty is valued and lies and misdeeds called out. Where the 'villains' are not welcome in society and top jobs. Kindness needs to be seen as a great strength and promoted acroass the board. We've lost sight of 'keep it small and simple'. We seem to value, growing bigger, spend money, flash, fake, profit at all cost. 

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Increase taxation on empty properties, increase fees on foreign national who do not live in the UK and own property, keep freeze school lunch, create more public transport across south London (do you know how hard it is to go from Brixton to Lewisham???), if tfl is going to be run like a private company they must reduce their investor bonuses and improve service, Londons transport next work is one of the most expensive in London, introduce rent caps based on location and size of property, 

There is an overwhelming need for housing, but the schemes currently being approved by the Mayor contravene multiple planning policies and exclude the input of the communities. 

Predictably, this produces schemes which fail to meet need. There is already a significant over supply of luxury student housing compared to the demand for this accommodation. But standard building regulations don't apply and it attracts a 4% developer tax rebate. No wonder there is tower after tower of this stuff being applied for. The question is, why on earth is the Mayor approving it when it does nothing for housing need or even student demand as university numbers are falling fast. 

What is worse, student housing does not require an affordable element, just a one-off payment to the local council which is soon spent. 

What affordable housing is built is frequently one bedroom, counted as a single unit equivalent to three and four bedroom private units - not an equal comparison and doing nothing to meet the urgent need for family housing. 

Further reducing housing provision, Transparency International reports that as much as 40% of London new builds are sold to buyers from financial questionable jurisdictions. The purpose of the purchase is not to house anyone. 

That would explain why all these huge towers remain largely dark at night. Too often they are unsafe for the few genuine residents, who bitterly regret buying. 

Even at ground level, schemes are being put through with layouts so poor they result in both wind blight/significant rises in anti social behaviour. Planning policy is to prevent that kind of permanent damage to London. Why therefore is it being ignored?

So, normally answers to this questionnaire would prioritise housing. But no point doing that if all that means is more of the developments currently being approved by the Mayor which do close to nothing for housing need while making millions for developers. 

That surely is not the priority the Mayor intends to continue to push for

Freeze the precept added to our council tax, it has increased more than inflation repeatedly and is unacceptable. The best way to make public transport more accessible is to lower its cost and ensure that buses run fast because not blocked by parked cars, traffic and new cycle lanes taking over bus lanes.

South east London thrives despite being massively neglected by the authorities. While many areas receive substantial transport investment, the Bakerloo Line extension remains a distant plan and seemingly reduced in scope with each revision. South London deserves equal attention, equal investment, and equal respect.

I think addressing the climate crisis is fundamental to bring about improvement