The Home Secretary’s decision not to licence water cannon for use on London’s streets at this time should be a clear signal to Boris Johnson that his proposal was ill-judged. Experiences in other countries have shown just how dangerous water cannon can be. They should have no place in our capital city.

Just last month New York’s Police Commissioner Bill Bratton warned that water cannon had a “horrific history” and would not be “contemplated being used anywhere in America.” It’s hard to see why then the Mayor is so keen on seeing them in London, especially when there is little evidence to support their use. The Association of Chief Police Officers for example said there are only three occasions in the last ten years when their use may even have been considered.

The Met Police are already facing massive budget cuts. It’s time for Boris Johnson to accept he was wrong, sell the water cannon and reinvest the money in things the Met actually need. People want police on their streets, not water cannon weapons sitting unused.

The Home Secretary now needs to hold firm and rule out the use of water cannon not only until the after the election, but for good.

Boris Johnson has admitted that he is unlikely to reach his target to create 250,000 apprenticeships between 2012 and 2016. The Mayor made the admission during a BBC interview marking the start of National Apprenticeship Week. Just four months after analysis from London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi revealed that apprenticeship numbers in Westminster had fallen for two years running.

Today Mr Qureshi said that the Mayor is “utterly failing young people” after it was revealed that amongst those apprenticeships which have been created, over half have gone to people over 25.

Government changes have meant that some types of in-work training have been reclassified as apprenticeships. The vast majority of people over 25 in apprenticeships already worked for their employer before starting an ‘apprenticeship’ under the new system.

Boris Johnson has a vast mountain to climb if he is going to come anywhere near delivering the quarter of a million apprenticeships he promised Londoners by 2016, particularly as in some boroughs, like Westminster apprenticeship numbers are actually falling.

Even with those apprenticeships which are being created, almost half of them are going to people over 25 years old and already in work. I’m greatly in favour of supporting people to develop their careers, but the government’s approach leaves the apprenticeship programme utterly failing young people.

The Government’s meddling with the apprenticeship system has meant in-work training which would have happened anyway is gobbling up the limited funds. This is locking out young people who desperately want an apprenticeship to give them a first step on the career ladder.

I spoke on this issue on London Live:

It is welcomed that Transport for London ( TfL ) are going to have a trial reducing the speed limit to 20 mph on some of the busiest roads in London along their red routes as illustrated above. But why is there not any trials along the red routes going through the City of Westminster at all?

After all we must have the greatest concentration of red routes in the City of Westminster with the highest levels of road fatalities and casualties. Drawing on (TfL) statistics, far more people are killed or injured on Westminster streets. The borough had 1,732 road casualties — including 177 fatalities or serious injuries — in 2013, the latest year for which full figures are available.

Its clear to me that Westminster needs 20 mph speed limit to cut road deaths and if the council is not going to do it on its own streets than it would certainly help if TfL did so, on its red routes going through the borough. That is why it is important we have some of these 20 mph trials along streets like Baker St, Gloucester Rd, Marylebone Rd, Park lane etc as soon as possible to see if it has an effect in reducing the number of road casualties. TfL should consider including some of these red routes going through Westminster for a trial of the 20 mph trial.

Heathrow sponsored ticket barriers at Westminster tube station

Guess who’s outspending their rival airport in advertising their expansion plans on the tube network? Yes its Heathrow Holdings ltd by almost three times that of Gatwick according to figures release this month via the Mayors Office in response to questions from myself.

Heathrow spent £262,000 already on the first two months of the calendar year 2015 while Gatwick has spent £98,398. These figures will no doubt increase all the way up to the Howard Davies announcement of the Airport Commission decision of this expansion should occur in London & the South-East. So by a margin of three, Heathrow will be putting out its propaganda to the general public on the tube to retain and expand its monopoly on aviation flights in and out of London at not only the cost of many local residents quality of life but many travellers cost of air flights as well.

Gatwick advert above  telling us the noise impact of Heathrow’s expansion proposal

A boastful Estate Agent in Paddington & Marylebone

Yesterday’s Housing Committee at the London Assembly dealt with the thorny issue of investment buyers on the market for newly built homes in London.

On the Committee l highlighted the experience of those of us living in Paddington & Marylebone, where we have been aware of the flying visits of buy-to-let-ers as the above advert from a local Estate Agent illustrates well. Their Header ” More than half of our sales come from flying visits ( from Riyadh, Doha, Moscow,Kuala Lumpur ) ” says it all quite honestly. 

Furthermore, Kay & Co go on to state;

” In the last year, 52 per cent of all our sales have come from foreign buyers. They see London as a safe haven and a wonderful place to live and work.These buyers are sophisticated, excellently financed – and we know them well. Give us your property and watch it fly.”

 On the same day Transparency International released their report suggesting that the London Property boom is built on dirty money. It suggest that the flow of corrupt cash has driven up average prices with a widespread ripple effect down the property price chain and beyond London.  As billions of pounds of corruptly gained money has been laundered by criminals and foreign officials buying upmarket London properties through anonymous offshore front companies. Some 36,342 properties in London have been brought through hidden companies in offshore havens and while majority of these will have been kept secret for legitimate privacy purposes, vast numbers are thought to have been bought anonymously to hide stolen money. 

All this kind of explains the flying by nature of this new breed of buy-to-let-ers in Central London.  

Despite the recent record breaking £5.14bn TV deal for English football many elite football clubs in London still to refuse to pay many of their employees the London Living Wage. The fact this kind of poverty pay still exists in a multi-billion pound industry is nothing short of a scandal.

Whilst the players are undoubtedly the stars, it’s the football club employees – from ground staff to suppliers – who undertake crucial work that fosters much of the match day atmosphere the English game is so famed for, and which makes it so lucrative and appealing to TV companies.

Many clubs pay weekly six-figure wages to their star players and spend hundreds of millions on the recruitment of talent. So, the fact that numerous clubs fail to pay some employees a living wage – worth £9.15 an hour – is as indefensible as it is unjust. Such comparisons really do bring home the stark inequality blighting the beautiful game.

Fortunately change appears within reach. Chelsea Football Club became the first club in the Premier League to sign up to pay the London Living Wage last year. This has thrown down the gauntlet to the capital’s other clubs. Over the weekend West Ham also announced they would pay the London Living Wage from June this year. By following their example London’s clubs have the opportunity to lead the way and put fairness back into football, resolving the ugly truth about unequal pay in the beautiful game.

London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi said he is ‘deeply concerned’ after a new report showed that over half of Londoners feel ‘fairly’ or ‘very unconfident’ that London’s emergency services are coping under the pressure of cuts and increased demand. The “Emergency Services: Casualty of Cuts?” report, published by Labour’s London Assembly Crime Spokesperson, Joanne McCartney AM, warned that the capital’s emergency services could reach crisis point without better funding from Government.

Almost 1,500 Londoners were surveyed for the report which found that the majority (57%), felt ‘unconfident’ that emergency services were coping with the increased demand, whilst only 18% said they were ‘fairly’ or ‘very confident’. The report comes just a week after the London’s population hit a record 8.6m. Murad Qureshi AM said the Government must now act quickly to ensure London’s emergency services have enough funds to cope with rapidly increasing demands.

The report warned that a combination of cuts to services, a growing population and increased demand, could mean that emergency services are less able to respond effectively. The impact of cuts to the capital’s emergency services was also highlighted in the report following the closure of 65 police stations, 10 fire stations and with six A&Es either closed or under threat since 2010.

Statistics highlighted in the report from each of the London’s emergency services paint a worrying picture:

• In December 2014, only 48% of ambulances hit the 8 minute response time target, compared with 81% in March 2014
• 249,100 patients had to wait longer than 4 hours in London A&Es last year.
• 5,133 police officers have been cut from London boroughs since May 2010 and violent crime on the rise
• Fire engine response times are up in over half of the capital’s wards since the 10 fire station closures

London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM said:

“We all rely on the emergency services to be there when we need them, so it’s deeply concerning that 57% of Londoners now say they’re unconfident services are coping. With services edging ever closer to crisis point, this report makes it clear that the Government must act quickly to make sure our blue light services, including those in Kensington and Chelsea do not become the casualties of cuts.

“London’s population is already at a record high and is set to grow even further in the coming years. Over the past five years we’ve seen our emergency infrastructure stretched, with many of London’s A&E departments, police and fire stations closed and services struggling to hit their targets. With the emergency services warning of further budget cuts on the horizon we need assurances from Government, whoever is in power, that the burden of cuts won’t fall so heavily that these vital services cannot cope.”

London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM has accused Mayor Boris Johnson of “accepting defeat in the battle to tackle London’s housing crisis” after setting a target to build just 42,000 new homes a year. Boris Johnson has set the target despite his own evidence showing that 62,000 must be built to clear the backlog on housing waiting lists in Westminster and across London within ten years.

The house building targets were included in alterations to the Mayor’s controversial London Plan which were recently pushed through despite the majority of London Assembly Members, including Murad Qureshi AM, voting against the proposals. Murad Qureshi AM said the Mayor’s “unambitious” target would leave the capital stuck with an ever-deepening housing crisis. Particular concerns were raised that the affordable housing targets within the plan, for only 17,000 new affordable homes a year, would come nowhere near to meeting the needs of Londoners.

Despite setting a target for 42,000 new homes each year, the Mayor recognised that tens of thousands more were necessary to meet London’s growing housing need. Instead of including these in his target, the Mayor has said he expects Local Authorities to make up the difference but failed to give any strategic direction as to how councils could achieve the 20,000 extra homes that are needed to bridge the gap.

The vote came in the same week that the capital’s population hit record limits, reaching 8.6m for the first time. It also came a week after a new report from the Chartered Institute of Housing found that 76% Londoners now believe there is a housing crisis in their area.

London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM said:

“By setting a house building target well below what his own evidence shows we need, the Mayor is accepting defeat in the battle to tackle London’s housing crisis. Boris Johnson’s complete absence of ambition could lock us into this worsening housing crisis for years.

“We need creative and ambitious solutions if we are to successfully tackle the capital’s housing crisis. These targets completely underestimate the need for new housing in areas like Westminster and offer no new plans on how the Mayor proposes to increase the number of homes being built. In Westminster and across London, we need to see genuinely affordable housing being prioritised. What we don’t need is yet more overly-expensive luxury flats which most Londoners could never afford.

“Boris Johnson has had seven years now to come up with a plan to tackle London’s housing need, instead we’ve seen rocketing house prices and rental charges, and not enough homes to meet demand. This was the Mayor’s final opportunity to put in place a legacy which would leave London able to build its way out of this housing crisis. He has failed to do so and sadly it is people in Westminster and Londoners in general who will suffer as a result.”

Yet again we hear of another super basement development in the pages of ES today. This time a two storey basement that will transform an already huge £ 20 million house in Belgravia, as local residents get the sinking feeling.

So l am glad l raised the issue when the Mayor finally put his Final Alterations to London Plan. I highlighted the plight of Bayswater residents, you have seen 15 such mega-basement developments just on the boundary between City of Westminster & Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea in the past 18 months.

I am not sure how much the reassures of the Deputy Mayor will assist the local boroughs to defend their residents in their battle against the blight caused to their lives with these mega-basements particularly in Bayswater where clearly we have some exporting across the borough boundaries. We will have to keep a careful eye on what impact the Mayors Special Planning Guidance (SPG) has on this growing problem in Central London. 

I recently asked how much is Transport for London (TfL) saving as a result of the recent dramatic fall in petrol costs? I only got a partial answer from them in reference solely to the buses as TfL hide behind their contracts with the bus operators just like their did with getting the bus drivers the London Living Wage across all 12 operators recently. It will be interesting to know the answer in relation to the trains as well, which l suspect will be quite different story.

Then l asked if TfL hedged their bets against energy costs with the banks? l got a better response this time. TfL does not currently mitigate its exposure to the risk of changes in energy prices through hedging with banks. In reality TfL has outsourced 99 per cent of its energy purchasing (circa £130 million per annum) to the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), which acts as TfL’s Risk Manager and Framework provider.

I also asked the Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy, at City Hall more directly how will the paying public benefit from these energy cost savings? It did not appear to occur to him that this was a reasonably demand to make of his TfL empire. It will be something l will continue to ask about.