Have your say on the draft London Budget for 2023-24

The PDF consultation document is very long and most Londoners don't have the time to read through it all.  A lot of Londoners don't have English as their first or second language either.  London certainly does need a long-term settlement rather than year-by-year funding.  I support the Mayor's call for a rent freeze and a landlord's register.  As Meg Hillier said on BBC Any Questions today, a lot of properties in London are owned offshore.  There needs to be a move to taxing assets, rather than employment or productive work.  Leaving properties empty should be prohibited.  NHS nurses, junior doctors and other key workers should be prioritized for housing.    

 Over the past 50 years I have first hand experience that the Police believe they are above the law. Recent events and social media  have at last provided evidence that the Police are institutionally racist and mysoginistic - they do not provide value for money because they are not properly accountable to us.Increasing the budget for the Police is not the way forward, Replacing the IPCC with a genuinely independent body will provide greater accountability and oversight. Giving the funding instead to organisations which support young people to provide activities, drug education and mental health provision will be more effective in reducing youth crime than any current policing tactics.

The Mayor is sadly ill educated about vehicle emissions and many older vehicles have zero emissions compared to many newer vehicles which are supposedly compliant - his ULEZ policy is ill judged.

Electric vehicles whether 2 or 4 wheeled are not sustsinable when we cannot produce enough electricity for our basic needs without falling back on to fossil fuel power generation.

The way to tackle climate change is not to just plant trees but  tackle carbon emissions at source by reducing  the human population, reducing  the number of domestic animals including pets, changing our diets to consume more vegetables. We can also cut back on our consumption of electricity in cities by controlling street lighting and lighting of large corporate buildings.

Regarding "1.65 In line with the Mayor’s 2023-24 Budget Guidance, this proposed budget has been developed to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies, reduce air quality and deliver a green new deal for London." - this should read "improve air quality" (not "reduce").

Regarding -> "Taking the boldest action of any city in the world to tackle air pollution and the climate crisis." - it is the most important point to me. While I applaud the specific measures outlined (ULEZ expansion, promote walking and cycling, 30% of new development as green space, net zero in parks, sustainable heat network and energy infrastructure), I note that there is no mention at all in controlling high levels of noise and pollution caused by gas-powered gardening equipment, in particular, gas leaf blowers. 1 gas leaf blower is extremely noisy, and polluting as about 20 passenger cars combined (comparing per 1 minute of operation), and other big cities are already taking steps to ban this wasteful and polluting equipment in favour of quieter and cleaner electric alternatives, e.g. Washington DC was one of the most recent cities. Thus "the boldest action of any city in the world" clearly does not live up to its promise until London does the same - please make it happen.

What I find utterly mad is that enormous amounts of energy (50mW or 5000 homes!) and water (25 litres per second!) are used to cool data centres, and this heat is seemingly lost - at a time when we need to be as efficient with energy as possible. In other European countries this heat is captured and used in district heating. This represents an utter failure of the planning process.

What is needed in London (and all across the UK) is investment into reducing sheer waste. Projects which result in saving on ongoing costs. Like lights with light sensors to turn them on and off automatically instead of having floodlights on at broad sunshine on TFL stations. Streetlights with solar panels on them, insulations on buildings, etc...

There are many examples where with a bit of investment, installation of newest technology, significant savings can be achieved. We should never shy away borrowing even big if the savings justifies and pays for that.

These kind of investments, following financial and economical studies should be done asap even if they cost a fortune, since they can pay for themselves. For example, solar panels above railway lines. Huge amount of unused, unutilized space and the power could be used straight by the railway without any loss on delivering the power from a huge distance. Yes, it would cost a fortune and yes, there are technical challenges to overcome but it could save a fortune too. Pays for itself.

We should not have these project done by 2100, but by 2030 latest. We went to the moon in 10 years...It is all about the will.

London is already overcrowded, building more homes and increasing the population without increasing public services or improving infrastructure is destructive. Promoting green policies is good in principle, but when the details are examined, a lot of these don't change anything or even make it worse, while adding a lot of cost and/or misery to Londoners for no effect. The infamous road improvement plans are a case in point. There barely is any road that has been "improved", in most cases enormous traffic issues have been caused where they didn't exist before. While in Central London, cycle lanes and large pavements may make sense, in outer London they are simply not needed and actually have the opposite effect - causing traffic and increasing pollution, not to mention stress, which is the biggest killer. Nobody drives for fun in London, it is a necessity for many people, especially shift workers, emergency services etc. Public transport is inadequate to meet the needs of the population - most tube lines are ancient and lack capacity, many outlying areas have no direct trains, but have to go into central London to come back out; the whole of SE London has no underground! The South circular is made up, compare it to the North Circular. Busses take too long and are too infrequent, bus lanes are underused and do not need to be 24hrs when some of them have 3 busses an hour! Enormous pavements aren't needed in outlying areas, in some places the pavements are bigger than the roads. If you live in outer London, it's unrealistic to be asked to cycle 20 miles a day to work, cycle lanes are a novelty, not a solution to anything. It is not true that older cars always pollute more than new ones - base it on actual emissions taken at MOT, not on made up criteria. Scrap the ULEZ and focus on actually improving roads - remove unnecessary traffic lights, cycle and bus lanes, reduce huge pavements and widen the streets. If the streets are big enough, then there is room for everyone!

why don't you stop increasing council taxes at a higher rate than inflation? Absolutely idiotic policies making living in London impossible.. ULEX extension because the mayor's asthma has gotten better. What an absolute narcissist.

If you truly want London to be open, lets not start hading out 18% pay raises to unions when no-one else in the private sector is getting those sorts of raises.

PLEASE DO NOT RUN FOR MAYOR AGAIN! NOONE WANTS YOU!

Not entirely sure why increasing funding for the met when crime is decreasing. Need more focus on tackling inequalities during cost of living crisis. Local authorities need more money to upgrade buildings and make them more energy efficient. I support the ULEZ expansion as there needs to be some mechanism for decreasing the number of cars on the road. Also, need to invest further in cycling infrastructure to make it safer/more appealing. 

In regards to transport, that is just not an easy problem to fix and yes, it requires comprising. 

It would be great if we could all cycle, but that is simply not an option to many. Old people and disabled are just two examples. Cycle lanes are important, but like others say, they also cause traffic (and therefore pollution?). Cycle lanes should be built, but not treated as THE solution.

Buses are also really important, but they are also a big factor for heavy traffic, in special in central London. We need timetables to have a proper analysis (using data). If/when we have too many buses in one location, don't just stop one bus and ask people to get into the next one. Plan before and add those extra to areas outside central London. Also a proper investment in actual electric vehicles would be great.

Trains are great, even if they fail often due to strikes, too hot or too cold weather and lets not forget the dreaded leafs. I am not an expert, but some investment in keeping the trains going is also positive.

Cars are the chosen devil (and with good reason), but like many say they are also the livelihood for many people. Please invest in actual solutions to reduce the number of cars on the street ( better bus/train/cycle services) and invest on a proper charging network (big oil companies like BP and Shell will try to keep milking us). Asking people to buy electric is ok, but people who need to drive should not need to buy a new car (eg older people) or pay ULEZ. Also actually having "green energy" (instead of burning large amounts of cheap Russian oil) would be great, but that is probably more of a government problem, not jut London.

More homes built will bring the London's population up. This could mean more cars on the roads and less green spaces. Ensure you protect our green spaces and trees especially if you want to protect our climate. South London also needs better transportation available such as more tube stations because ULEZ will effect South Londoners the most.

Provide safe storage for bikes, prams. Blanket policies following Grenfell mean no bikes on landing even if they don’t pose any fire risk. (And there’s no law saying we should)  having to lug a bike up and down floor flights of stairs whilst being dyspraxic. Is a nightmare. Trying doing it old, or very young  . 
after requesting SAFE bike storage the council sends a hostile letter to everyone on the estate saying it will cost them …. Let them know if they want it. No mention of the benefits to those who chose to cycle. They’re 5 bike users all on the top floor. We all have our bikes in our flats in the hall by the front door an actual fire risk!

Redbridge council is so behind in all environmental stuff. It often feels .
your pushing from one direction with progressive ideas and they are pushing:punishing from another direction with no interest or understating. 
 

ban them from using loud machinery and big lawn mower machines to shred patches of grass to pieces - again Redbridge housing are useless at maintaining/protecting the green space we have. They have no skilled gardeners or environmental folk championing this on estates. 

triple tax empty property. the city is full of empty dwellings. Just walk through the new part of Stratford at night.

Remember those on universal credit will also have to pay this charge £29.00? Will there be an increase in support for them?  

stop letting tescos charge high prices for the same items in the big stores. When your only store is an express you’re being fleeced for basics. It will be more expensive for people to go further a field it’s important the local stores are Charing a fair price. if you live on a low income on an estate in a gentrified part of town - it’s not fair.
 

How many barber shops, cake shops, and other money laundering shops do we need in east London. 

Ensure the construction industry delivers on its social value promises. Been in this field 10 years. Still not any further forward! 

Did I mention The London Borough of Sutton hosts  a great monstrosity namely the South London Incinerator (Beddington ERF). Initially we were told it would burn 275,000 tonnes which quickly turned to 302,000 tonnes during the planning process, only a couple of years ago this was increased to 347,000 tonnes and now Viridor, KKR have applied to increase the amount of waste they burn to 382,286 tonnes. That’s a 39per cent increase from the initial proposal. And there’s nothing to stop them coming back for more in the future, either.

This is despite the 40 emission breaches in the last 42 months.

Many of those permit breaches have been for volatile organic compounds, or “VOCs”. The high VOC releases are usually associated with the smell that is released by the incinerator. By definition, the gasses are unstable and when released in large amounts they can induce undesirable effects to those who have asthma or other chronic health problems. Health effects range from the relatively minor, such as itchy eyes, to headaches, fatigue, coughing, nausea through to serious conditions, like cancer. 

 Viridor admits that the additional waste incinerated will be from outside the local area, well beyond the Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton. They suggest the waste will be coming from all over London and the south-east, by the lorry-load. 

Viridor struggles to cope with the current volumes of waste and recycling. Croydon and Sutton are actually sending recyclable waste to the incinerator, rather than processing it correctly, simply because it is cheaper. The incinerator’s bunker is frequently overloaded with waste, and additional storage area has been provided to cope when large volumes arrive.

Far from having it’s permit increased it needs to be shutdown 

Sutton needs to stop being treated as a dumping ground and more investment is required in Sutton.  

I second what Berkhamsted said, the Mayor and his cronies don’t give two hoots about our opinions like our Prime Minister the Mayor is also out of touch, lucky he wasn’t replaced, this forum is just a tick box exercise for the mayor to pretend he actually cares, should be renamed, it’s really talk London but we won’t listen anyway! 

The Mayor issues consultation documents, but seldom takes any notice of contrary opinions.  In fact most of the consultations are constructed and worded to prevent honest feedback and to align to his assigned agenda.  The ULEZ and Congestion Charge zones have grown house prices and standard of living in roads/areas that were already advantaged, and reduced the quality of life for all other areas.  He and his colleagues are blind to the impact on communities and workers who cannot move from A to B to earn a living or live their lives.  On all his priorities listed above he is failing, and his default response is not to take responsibility for failure but to blame the government.  Sadiq - you get a budget, that's it.  If you fail to work within that budget, it's your fault.  It's your choices that decide where the money is spent and it's your fault if you spend it on vanity projects rather than allowing businesses to make money, and individuals and family's to prosper. 

Below inflation budget increases for key services being heralded as a ‘success’ by the mayor just plays in to your rhetoric. Need to challenge this and stop talking about cash in absolute terms and relative to inflation. Public services chronically underfunded and public sector workers grossly underpayed and are overdue a proper pay rise : especially to live in london. 
 

Expansion of ULEZ welcome but not enough. Driving for vulnerable people needs to be exempt but all others should be discouraged from the needles journeys made. Ubers and black cabs should pay more. 

More investment is required in Outer London Boroughs (Sutton in particular) there are Poor transport links, TFL roads poorly maintained, scrap the ULEZ expansion it will ruin businesses and charity organisations dependant on people just outside the zone. Residents within the zone that are already struggling with the cost of living crisis and cannot afford to replace their vehicles, small traders providing svs such as window cleaning, plumbers and electricians, hospital workers to name but a few. 

unfortunately the mayor does not understand the  Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has caused so many issue how do i sell my car which is on finance to buy a new car??? i would be left with nothing no deposit to even buy a car , he does not understand anything and is out of touch i am a young person who uses my car for work and my life but you charge me 12.50 a day what do i do please advise ? how can i sell my car to even cover my car finance to pay it off and buy a new car do i have 3k saved to even buy a car? you do not care about us you just want to talk about your book and cleaning the air in the London but you rather not bring ideas and think logical and be real. 

Regarding the ULEZ extension:- Sadly the Mayor shows that he is totally out of touch with the People that live in London & the outskirts. Is he not aware of the cost of living increases that have deeply affected the people of this Great Country & particularly those who will be subject to the ULEZ Extension Zone?
 

I ask the question, what has he done with the money that has been paid by the ULEZ charges & how much has been raised? As was mentioned by the MP for Orpington, it would appearvthis is just another “cash grab” by the Mayor who seems to be oblivious to the views of the communities who will suffer the most. 

I'm not sure if any money is needed for it, but having some sort of communication between the police and the local community would be very helpful. 

Ok maybe some money might be needed to print some fliers, other than that I think that there is enough technology already created that can be used by the authorities to give out information such as recent crimes in the area, ways to avoid scams, how to deal with stab attacks, ...

In the end of the day, its all about the right people giving out the correct information.

The mayor takes no notice of consultations. 60% of londoners did not want expansion of ulez and he ignored them.