At last week’s plenary, after the motion on the Mayor’s toxic environmental legacy was passed it was established the London Assembly wanted London to be a fracking free zone.

The motion states this quite clearly in its fifth paragraph;

” The Mayor’s attacks on renewable and support for tracking are symbolic of his regressive approach to London’s environment challenges. Given this, the London Assembly does not support any fracking activities with the boundaries of Greater London”

This is in shape contrast to the Mayor’s view that “….. that no stone shall be left unturned to find shale gas in London…” and the Tory Group at the London Assembly lead by Tony “JR Ewing” Arbour AM of South-West London who want to turn the GLA into a centre for oil speculating like Dallas.

London is and should always be a no-fracking zone.

At last weeks plenary l put a motion up about the toxic environmental legacy the present Mayor is leaving the next Mayor of London.

We have heard plenty of charm, bluster & hot air from the Mayor on his environmental policies for the past 6 years. This when many of the biggest challenges facing London as a city relate to environmental concerns like poor air quality in Central London; scandal of cold homes; aircraft noise spreading across London and reducing our climate change impact. This while the Mayor's green credentials are in tatters as he keeps an "open mind" on whether climate change exists or not.

With air pollution, it is a case of too little too law as he has killed the issue into the the long grass. Time is running out on this silent killer for the Mayor to act for those 4,300 Londoners who die prematurely every year due to toxic air. When the Mayor leaves office his legacy is likely to be £300 m a year fine from the European Commission which could easily pass from Whitehall to the GLA. The Mayor himself has hinted that he has been too slow to tackle London's air pollution crisis. The Mayor should have taken his own advice and have tackled this problem when he was first elected. As for his ULEZ proposal, he can't be trusted to deliver on it if his track record with delivering London as "electric car capital of Europe" is anything to go which he promised in Copenhagen in 2009.

The scandal of cold homes is clear to all as 68 per cent of Londoners cut back on heating their homes as energy bills soar yet the Mayor continues to do little on this cold front. The Mayor should have backed the 20 month energy price freeze which would have saved the average London family £120 annually, as many energy companies themselves like SSE have backed as well.

When is comes to cutting carbon, the Assembly's Environment Committee only gave him a 4/10 rating with scope to do a lot better on this critical energy security and black-out issue.

This while he has failed to back renewables whilst supporting tracking. Only recently at the last MQT, we had the Mayor re-instating his backing for fracking to find shale bass when egged on by Tony "JR Ewing" Arbour AM for South-West London, who wants to turn the GLA into Dallas. This when we know all too well that Shale Gass doesn't exist in Greater London, making it a fracking free zone.

Only last week, the UN IPCC suggested we needed to kick the fossil fuel habit by the end of the century. Replacing petrol with shale gas isn't going to do this at all!

We need to rely more on renewables like solar & wind; decentralised energy and replacing demand for energy consumption in the first place with home and work energy efficiency programmes.

If the Mayor doesn't deal with these issues in his remaining time at the GLA, he will levee a toxic environmental legacy for the next Mayor.

They say politics can be a rough old game and nowhere is perhaps that more true than in the debate over air pollution in London. For the Mayor, air pollution is a sensitive issue. He recently hinted that he regretted not having got to grips with the issue when he first became Mayor. Addressing MPs at Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee he said his advice to the next Mayor was “take the tough decisions early, take the heat, and it will all pay off.”

It is perhaps this sense of guilt, of opportunities missed, which has led to such a strong reaction from the Mayor’s Environment advisor to reports that Oxford Street has the world’s highest level of nitrogen dioxide pollution. The statement was not some throwaway remark. It was made by one of the country’s leading experts, Dr David Carslaw at the renowned King’s College Environmental Research Group at a conference in June. The Mayor’s reaction was rapid and unequivocal. “B*llocks” the Mayor tweeted in disgust.

What we didn’t know was what was going on behind the scenes in the Mayor’s name. Last week it was confirmed that the Mayor’s Environment Advisor quickly wrote to Dr Carslaw’s bosses at King’s, stating that “I look forward to continuing to work with King’s ERG and trust that in future more rigour will be applied to public statements made by members of the Group’s staff.” This was a reminder to the senior management at King’s that the funding they receive for air quality research, controlled by the Mayor, could be withdrawn. This was, according to scientists at King’s, a veiled threat.

This latest episode in the air pollution debate signifies how politically toxic accusations against the Mayor’s air pollution policies have become. Clearly, if you dare to question the Mayor’s commitment to the issue you might find yourself on the receiving end of an angry letter and veiled threats. I was very pleased however to read that this will not change Kings’ stance on the issue. A source close to King’s told the Times, “The threat was very clear, but it cannot alter the facts”.

Today the Mayor is launching his consultation on a new Ultra Low Emission Zone. A scheme that will not be rolled out until 2020 amid the total failure of the Mayor to retro-fit London’s polluting bus fleet. By 2020 Boris Johnson must hope he will never face questions on air pollution again. With European fines and further legal action just around the corner the Mayor may regret not “taking the heat” as he put it, for some time yet.

Murad Qureshi AM, London Assembly Labour Group Environment Spokesperson

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/murad-qureshi/london-environment_b_6060090.html

 

Labour London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM has warned of a further round of impending police cuts after the Mayor of London refused to rule out closing police contact points. The contact points were introduced after Boris Johnson closed 3 police stations (Harrow Road, Marylebone and St John’s Wood) in Westminster last year and cut neighbourhood policing teams from six dedicated officers per ward to just two.

When asked recently by Joanne McCartney AM whether the Mayor was planning on cutting the new contact points, Boris Johnson repeatedly refused to answer stating only that “I’m afraid I can’t give you the answer”. The Mayor did however add that “some contact points work better than others” and he was reviewing their use.

The Mayor’s comments follow recent indications from the Deputy Mayor for Policing Stephen Greenhalgh that local neighbourhood policing teams may also face further cuts. When asked at the latest Police and Crime Committee about the cuts to police teams Greenhalgh questioned whether “the absolute commitment of one police constable and one police community support officer for all wards appropriate?” 

Murad Qureshi AM, Labour London wide Assembly Member, said:

“When the Mayor closed 3 London police stations in Westminster last year there was real concern that there were further cuts to come. Boris Johnson’s comments make that look significantly more likely.

“According to the latest figures, since the current Government came to power in 2010 Westminster has lost 737 police officers and PCSOs. Now Boris Johnson looks set to make further cuts to the police contact points people rely on to report crime. The Mayor’s policing cuts are already having a real impact with fewer officers on our streets and fewer police stations to report crimes at. Further cuts and closures would push the police service to breaking point.”

Notes 

• The exchange between Joanne McCartney AM and Boris Johnson at Mayor’s Question Time can be viewed in full here. The key exchange:

JM: “but Mr Mayor I’m holding you to account for your promise to put a better or equivalent service into a closed police station. These contact points, are you planning on cutting some of them? Can I get that straight answer from you?

BJ: “We’re reviewing them; some of them work better than others. I’m afraid I can’t give you the answer.”

• London Datastore figures show that since the current Government came to power in May 2010 Westminster has lost 440 police officers and 297 PCSOs.
• Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member

During the last week’s MQT, Tony “JR Ewing” Arbour tells us London needs to tap into £94bn oil and gas industry to create 46k jobs! In many ways it is not surprising that the GLA Tories want to turn the GLA into oil prospectors, as its much like their party nationally particularly when Greater London is de-facto fracking free zone!

Saying this the Party whilst saying the regulation for fracking for shale oil should be regulated much more tightly, must realise what a gold mine of opposition its coming across in the whole of the South East, South of London. In this respect, please see the diagram below. It should help are prospects of getting seats in the South East if we locally and regionally came out against fracking as a process altogether!

 

 

 

The following article was published in this week’s West End Extra:

With mansion tax proposals & fiscal devolution in the air since the Scottish referendum, both the left & the right should acknowledge the merits of land valuation taxation (LVT) as the best way forward.  The case in Central London shows LVT would work better than any mansion tax proposal in particular with empty sites and landlords like the Duke of Westminster & his Grosvenor Estate earning him ground rents which date back to a very feudal system of land ownership.

Don’t get me wrong, l am fully signed up to additional funding for the NHS; that’s the additional 20,000 nurses and 8,000 GPs, by 2020, but the mansion tax proposal with its exemptions (asset rich but cash poor residents won’t have to pay if they are not within the higher tax band) & administrative costs may become the most convoluted way of raising the additional monies required for this investment.

A much better mechanism would be an annual levy on the underlying value of land otherwise known as LVT. For example at the GLA it was revealed recently that 170,000 homes with planning permission have been left unbuilt in London on stalled developments since 2012. Such developments can be seen in empty sites all over Central London like Chelsea Barracks, and along the Edgware Rd next to Paddington Green Police Station to name but a few. Other sites like the old Middlesex hospital have till recently laid empty for decades even when land is so scarce. An annual levy on these sites would incentivise building and discourage land banking underlining its revenue raising potential and efficiency and its reputation as the most economically efficient of property taxes available. It is also estimated that the revenue it is likely to generate could easily match that of other property taxes.

Arguably, it’s also more equitable because it hits landlords like the Duke of Westminster & his Estate. Take for example Victoria Coach Station where the Duke owns a third share and netting his Estate about £230,000 annually until 2020 while TfL manage and run it and we use it and add value to it. The value is derived and borne out by the community use and public effort rather than personal effort on the part of the landlord, and therefore its return should properly be redistributed back to the community.

With a reputation for being efficient, equitable and with good revenue potential, it’s not surprising therefore that the likes of the Institute of Economic Affairs, FT & The Economist magazine have recently reiterated their commitment to LVT. It is so efficient even Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nation acclaimed it as such, as the following quote illustrates;

“Ground rents are a still more proper subject of taxation than the rent of the houses. A tax upon ground rents would not raise the rent of the houses. It would fall altogether upon the owners of the ground rent, who acts always as a monopolist, and exacts the greatest rent which can be got for the use of his ground” Book V, Chapter 2, Article 1

On the left, we still have some unfinished business on this front as we have made a number of attempts in the past to bring in a LVT. Both the Attlee government and the administration of the County of London under the leadership of Herbert Morrison attempted to install LVT in the 1930’s and 1940’s through legislation. In London it was attempted during 1938/39 under the London Rating (site values) Bill, and nationally in 1945 one of the provisions of the Town & County Planning Act 1947 attempted to collect the development value of the increase in land prices arising from planning consent. The latter was repealed in 1951 and in the former, the attempt failed but set out detailed legislation for the implementation using annual value assessment. The very first attempt though was in 1931 when a Labour government included it in their budget.

So this is not new idea but is a tax imposed on land lying empty for years, even decades, aimed at landlords benefiting from exorbitant ground rents. Past governments have been keen proponents of a LVT, the Government of today should implement it.

 

London wide Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM has raised serious concerns about London Mayor Boris Johnson’s affordable housing scheme after the Mayor accepted that he may not hit his target to build 55,000 new affordable homes by March 2015.

Under questioning from Labour Assembly Member Tom Copley AM, at Mayor’s Question Time this week the Mayor refused confirm that the target date remained March 2015 even though his Deputy Mayor for Housing stated categorically less than a year ago that the target still stood. As of September this year the Mayor had only delivered 38,412 affordable homes leaving more than 16,000 to be built in order to meet March’s target.

After numerous attempts to dodge the question the Mayor accepted that he may not hit the target but refused to take action to prevent the failure stating: “If it slips by a few hundred in March or whatever deadline you arbitrarily choose to set then we’ll look at it then.”

When asked simply when the 55,000 would be completed the Mayor simply said “well I don’t know, whenever we’ve done them.”

Responding to the Mayor’s admission that he may miss his affordable house building target Murad Qureshi AM, Labour London wide Assembly Member, said:

“This is yet another pledge which Boris is going to fail to keep to Londoners. The Mayor’s attitude towards affordable is utterly outrageous given the scale of the housing crisis facing Westminster and the rest of the capital. Hundreds of thousands of people in Westminster are being priced out of buying by the eye-watering house prices in the capital. The fact Boris Johnson is on course to miss even this relatively modest target shows he just doesn’t seem to care about the impact that has on Londoners.

“It is now clear that Boris is set to miss his affordable housing pledge by March 2015. Yet instead of owning up to his failure, the Mayor is trying to pretend that the deadline was always December 2015. We urgently need to see action to put the scheme back on track to deliver the affordable housing Westminster and the rest of London so desperately needs.”

ENDS

Notes

• A copy of the MQT webcast is available here. The exchange on affordable housing begins at 2:52.30.
• In November 2013, during a meeting of the London Assembly Housing Committee, Richard Blakeway (Deputy Mayor for Housing) confirmed on multiple occasions that the deadline for completing the 55,000 affordable homes was definitively 31 March 2015. He told the committee:
• “Ultimately, the completions will run until March 2015”,
• “It is a four-year programme which has had a very clear deadline of March 2015. “
• “Clearly, if the Committee wants to say, “You should move the deadline”, that is a matter for the Committee, but we will remain focused on March 2015.”
• The most stark exchange was:

Darren Johnson (Chair):  Thank you and welcome, David [Lunts], for this next item on the Mayor’s affordable housing commitments.  I am going to start off with the first question.  Is the Mayor still on target to deliver 55,000 affordable homes by March 2015?

Richard Blakeway (Deputy Mayor for Housing, Land and Property):  Yes.

• The transcript of the Housing Committee meeting is available here.
  • Tom Copley is a Labour Londonwide Assembly Member.

 

• Murad Qureshi AM finds the number of ambulances hitting their response time targets in Westminster have significantly dropped over the last 6 months
• Ambulances in Westminster missed target of getting to life-threatening emergencies in under 8 minutes 30% of the time in August
• Despite the fall spending on Private Ambulances has risen by over 1000% to almost £9m

Analysis of London Ambulance Service response times by Labour London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM, has shown that the number of ambulances call outs in the capital meeting the 8 minute emergency response time target has dropped by 19% to only 62%. In Westminster 30% of emergency responses missed the 8 minute target.

Murad Qureshi said that the response times show the severe strain being placed on the London Ambulance Service as a result of a rise in calls at the same time as Government cuts of £53m from the London Ambulance Service budget.

In addition to the reductions in response times figures released this week showed that the London Ambulance Service spent £9m on outsourcing to private ambulances last year, this figure was up from only £795,635 in 2011/12, a rise of 1011%.

Murad Qureshi AM, Labour London wide Assembly Member, said:

“Spending almost £9m a year on private ambulances shows just how far the Government is willing to privatise the London NHS. The amount given to private companies to run ambulance services has rocketed by 1011% in the last two years yet the latest figures show ambulance response times have gone down by nearly two minutes in the last six months.

“Ambulances in Westminster are now only hitting the 8 minute response time 30% of the time. That means patients with potentially life threatening conditions being left waiting far longer than they should be – the results could be devastating.

“With the NHS in London facing massive financial challenges people will question why we are paying profit making companies to deliver blue light services.”

Notes

 

• Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member
• Figure’s for the amount spent by UK Ambulance Services on private sector ambulances released this week showed:
• London Ambulance Service figure’s for the amount of call outs reached within the 8 minute target show:

Mar-14	Apr-14	May-14	Jun-14	Jul-14	Aug-14	Aug- 14 missed target	Difference over 6 months
Barking & Dagenham	76%	67%	61%	56%	60%	52%	48%	-24%
Barnet	76%	63%	62%	58%	54%	56%	44%	-20%
Bexley	82%	69%	75%	72%	63%	69%	31%	-13%
Brent	78%	66%	64%	60%	56%	57%	43%	-21%
Bromley	79%	71%	73%	68%	65%	62%	38%	-17%
Camden	87%	80%	75%	70%	67%	69%	31%	-18%
City & Hackney	81%	68%	68%	66%	64%	63%	37%	-18%
Croydon	79%	73%	73%	65%	62%	62%	38%	-17%
Ealing	78%	66%	64%	59%	52%	58%	42%	-20%
Enfield	81%	67%	68%	60%	55%	61%	39%	-20%
Greenwich	85%	78%	78%	72%	68%	69%	31%	-16%
Hammersmith & Fulham	81%	76%	70%	66%	59%	65%	35%	-16%
Haringey	76%	62%	64%	58%	57%	55%	45%	-21%
Harrow	81%	68%	70%	67%	61%	63%	37%	-18%
Havering	78%	69%	65%	60%	61%	60%	40%	-18%
Hillingdon	79%	71%	70%	66%	61%	65%	35%	-14%
Hounslow	75%	67%	64%	59%	57%	60%	40%	-15%
Islington	84%	70%	69%	64%	61%	61%	39%	-23%
Kensington & Chelsea	83%	75%	73%	66%	65%	72%	28%	-11%
Kingston	83%	72%	74%	67%	58%	63%	37%	-20%
Lambeth	84%	78%	76%	70%	68%	68%	32%	-16%
Lewisham	80%	73%	74%	67%	64%	62%	38%	-18%
Merton & Sutton	81%	73%	72%	68%	62%	65%	35%	-16%
Newham	85%	73%	67%	63%	60%	59%	41%	-26%
Redbridge	81%	69%	63%	58%	56%	52%	48%	-29%
Richmond & Twickenham	78%	67%	67%	60%	55%	59%	41%	-19%
Southwark	85%	77%	76%	72%	69%	69%	31%	-16%
Tower Hamlets	84%	72%	69%	65%	65%	64%	36%	-20%
Waltham Forest	78%	64%	59%	54%	53%	52%	48%	-26%
Wandsworth	82%	75%	72%	63%	59%	63%	37%	-19%
Westminster	85%	77%	74%	73%	67%	70%	30%	-15%
Whole London	81%	71%	69%	64%	61%	62%	38%	-19%

Happy Diwali
from
Murad Qureshi AM

City Hall, Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA

Contact Murad:

Email: murad.qureshi@london.gov.uk
Telephone: 0207 983 4400
Online: www.muradqureshi.com
@MuradQureshiAM
www.blog.muradqureshi.com

Labour London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM today raised serious concerns about the progress of Mayor Boris Johnson’s ‘Better Junctions’ programme after requests for an update on the project’s progress were refused.

The Better Junctions programme was established to assess 500 of the worst junctions in the capital but was later ‘refocused’ by the Mayor to only tackle 33 of the worst performing junctions and gyratories across London, including Marble Arch, Great Portland Street, Lancaster Gate gyratory and Westminster Bridge Road, all key danger hotspot in Westminster.

Last month Val Shawcross asked the Mayor when he expected the work on each of the 33 dangerous junctions to be completed. Mayor’s recent evasive response that “this information will be released within the coming months” has prompted fears that after the programme could be scaled back further.

Labour London wide Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM, said:

“London’s cyclists and road users will be deeply concerned that more than two years on from the Mayor promising to review these danger hot points very little seems to have been done.

“Despite originally promising to review the five hundred most dangerous junctions the Mayor has scaled this back to only thirty-three leaving out some notorious danger hotspots like the Earls Court gyratory.  Also, he can’t, or won’t, even say what, if any, progress has been made on those earmarked in Westminster. It is staggering that Boris Johnson has adopted such a secretive, snail-pace approach to this problem; especially given the number of cyclists killed and injured which prompted this review. As we head into winter and road conditions become more dangerous for cyclists people will want to know what is taking the Mayor so long.”

ENDS

Notes

• Val Shawcross’ question on the Better Junctions programme and the Mayor’s response is below:

Dangerous Junctions

Question No: 2014/2549

Valerie Shawcross

When do you expect the work on each of the 33 dangerous junctions scheduled for works under the ‘Better Junctions’ Programme  and TfL Cycling Action Plan to be completed?  Please list the junctions, give dates on which the work commenced, or is expected to,  and the dates of expected completion  for each project.

Written response from the Mayor

This information will be released within the coming months.

–          Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.

–          Despite pledging to review 500 junctions the Mayor only published a list of 100 junctions to receive work, this list is available here the Mayor then ‘refocused’ the list down to just 33 junctions, details of these are available here.