The Conservative Party London Mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who is promising London a fresh start has the backing of some leading politicians from his Party as he releases his 10-point Fresh Start plan, detailing ambitious policies that are designed to tackle London’s biggest challenges.
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson and all the cabinet ministers believe their candidate has a better deal for Londoners.
Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: “Shaun Bailey’s Fresh Start plan means safer streets, more affordable homes, and a transport network fit for a global city. I’m delighted to back Shaun Bailey for Mayor of London and I look forward to working with.
Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, said: “There’s no denying the impact that coronavirus has had on transport systems across the country, as the British people heeded the necessary call to stay at home.
But in London, years of mismanagement under Sadiq Khan have left the Capital’s system unable to cope with these challenges. Debt has risen, projects like Crossrail have repeatedly been delayed and millions of pounds have been wasted on the Mayor’s pet projects.
Because of the Mayor’s actions Londoners now face cuts to vital services, making it so much harder for the capital to get back on its feet once the pandemic is over.
Now the U.K. Government has twice stepped in already to keep TfL running with £3.4 billion committed so far. But these short term fixes will only get us so far. We need a Mayor who will put London’s transport system on a sustainable footing.
And rather than securing political points, Shaun Bailey will work with the Government to fix TfL’s finances. Shaun will deliver those much needed, delayed projects like Crossrail and he will invest in a zero emissions bus fleet so that the air Londoners breathe is cleaner and healthier.
There’s a clear choice this year, three more years where the cost of Khan is put on Londoners, or a fresh start with Shaun Bailey – who has a plan to get London moving.”
Zac Goldsmith, Minister of State for Pacific and the Environment, said: “The past year has demonstrated the importance people attach to being able to live in a clean, healthy environment. So I’m proud to back Shaun Bailey’s plan to give London a fresh start.
Shaun’s plan to introduce a zero-emission bus fleet will help clean up the air every Londoner breathes. And his plan to help black cabs go electric will take the equivalent of 1 million diesel cars off London’s roads.
These are sensible, realistic plans that can start making a difference on day one.”
Christopher Pincher, Minister of State for Housing, said: “It’s no secret that London needs more homes and that ordinary Londoners are being priced out of the city.
Sadiq Khan has been given the budget and the powers to tackle London’s housing problem. But he spent five years refusing to take responsibility.
Shaun Bailey has an innovative plan to tackle London’s housing problem. By building 100,000 Shared Ownership homes that will be sold for £100,000 each, Shaun Bailey plans to help young Londoners on the housing ladder and make a real difference to people’s lives. This is a fresh start for London, let’s get behind Shaun.”
Mike Freer, Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, said: “London needs a mayor who will work constructively with government to deliver a fresh start. Shaun Bailey has a plan to do just that and he has my vote on May 6th.”
David Simmonds CBE, Conservative MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, said: “Outer London needs Shaun Bailey, a Mayor who understands and cares for our suburbs. Shaun Bailey will stand up for commuters and the green belt, and focus on actually improving London and making it safe again, after 5 years of Sadiq Khan passing the buck and playing politics.”
1. Making our streets safer – by hiring 8,000 more police and reopening 38 police stations
Shaun Bailey, Conservative Candidate for London Mayor, said: “London is the greatest city on earth. But we’re not living up to our potential. Over the last five years, ordinary Londoners have started to feel like our city just isn’t working for them. Knife crime has hit record highs. Good homes are unaffordable. Our transport network is struggling to cope. And the cost of living keeps rising. London needs a fresh start. And I’ve got a plan to deliver it. I’ll work with residents in every community to make our streets safer, help first-time buyers on the housing ladder, fix our broken transport network and cut the cost of living.”
Since Khan became Mayor, 38 police front counters have closed to the public, down from 73. When a police station is closed to the public, residents lose the ability to speak to an officer when they need to, it hurts communities, and it makes our streets less safe. There are now some boroughs with only one police station.
Shaun said, he will ensure that there are a record number of police on the streets. The 38 reopened front counters will be based in properties that form part of the police estate and will all be reopened by the end of Shaun’s first term using the Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy 2 as the source of funding.
The 8,000 new police officers will be funded both from the additional Home Office funding to the Met and from long term savings at City Hall. The New Police Stations Fund of £8m will be funded initially from monies drawn down from the future Mayor’s Community Infrastructure Levy 2 (MCIL2) receipts. In 2019/20 they raised £168.9m and they are projected to raise £8.6bn up to 2043, with average annual receipts being £373.9m.
2. Helping young people get out of crime – with 32 new youth centres and 4,000 new youth workers.
Building opportunities for young-people and halting the devastating rise in violent crime requires a fresh approach.
Shaun will open a Youth Zone centre in every borough, at a cost of £6 million each. Youth Zone centres are large operations that tie into the local business community and offer at least 20 daily sporting/educational/enterprise activities.
Shaun will match-fund the creation of a new Youth Zone in every borough, providing 50% of the set-up cost using City Hall monies derived partly from the TfL Oyster card pay-as-you-go balances and deposits that have not been spent in over 12 months.
Shaun will prioritise areas in London with the greatest need of Youth Zones, with the first five locations assigned to Lambeth, Hackney, Lewisham, Brent and Haringey.
The second part of this policy will see Shaun fund an army of youth workers to focus on youth services and create greater opportunity for the most at-risk young Londoners.
The Mayor’s Youth Service will hire 4,000 youth workers across London. Youth organisations and charities will be able to submit a bid for the Mayor’s Youth Service Fund
The Mayor’s Youth Service will be a fund of £100 million-per-year using City Hall monies derived partly from the TfL Oyster card pay-as-you-go balances and deposits that have not been spent, which was £450 million in 12 months.
3. Getting young Londoners on the housing ladder – by building 100,000 homes and selling them for £100,000 each.
Shaun Bailey will get millennial Londoners onto the housing ladder by providing 100,000 homes, which will be sold for £100,000 each, with deposits as low as £5,000.
Through shared ownership, first-time buyers will purchase a portion of a home, with a mortgage, and pay a subsidised rent on the remaining portion. Thanks to a recent change introduced by the government, people can now buy as little as 10% of their home which they can choose to increase in increments as small as 1%.
This Shared Ownership approach helps people with average salaries get on the housing ladder, build equity, and go on to buy their own home in the private sector. This policy will be funded by the £4 billion that the government is giving to the GLA for affordable homes.
The average subsidy per shared ownership home built is £32,000. Subsidy gaps can be plugged through a combination of in-kind financial contributions on private-led developments (‘Section 106’), ‘cross-subsidy’ generated from the sale of market sale homes built by affordable housing providers, and the Government through grant funding.
Shaun proposes to fund, during his first term, the construction of 100,000 homes for £100,000, utilizing up to £3.2 billion in Affordable Homes Programme grant funding to subsidise their construction.
4. Cleaning up London’s air – with a zero-emission bus fleet by 2025 and interest-free loans for black cab drivers to go electric.
When Shaun converts London’s bus fleet to zero-emission, it will be the equivalent of taking one million cars off London’s roads.
Shaun will ensure that by 2025 every new bus will be zero emission, by using part of the yearly ULEZ revenues of £127m to pay for zero emission buses. Shaun would also mandate that all new bus contracts will have to factor in the full replacement of diesel buses with fully zero-emission buses.
Shaun will also offer interest-free loans to every single taxi driver with a diesel black cab in London to help them move over to modern electric vehicles. This equates to 15,000 cabbies getting financial support equal to 10% of the total value of the new zero-emission taxi in order to incentivise rapid uptake and ensure that all taxis will be electric by the end of Shaun’s first term.
Moving all current black cabs to zero-emission by the end of Shaun’s first term is equivalent to removing one million diesel cars from London’s roads. Shaun will clean up London’s air while supporting its transport industry.
Just under £6k will be given to every taxi driver, which will be funded through a new ten-year sponsorship deal that will be run along similar lines to the Santander cycle-hire scheme. Santander contracted to TfL in 2015 for £44m over seven years, which equates to £6.3m per year. This new deal would be for £84m over ten years, which equates to £8.4m per year.
5. Fixing TfL’s finances – by introducing corporate sponsorship to the tube network, to protect free travel for the under-18s and over-60s.
TfL has now been bailed out multiple times by the taxpayer. A fresh approach to restoring TfL’s finances is needed once and for all.
Dubai generates £419 million in revenue by inviting companies to sponsor the Dubai Metro. London’s tube network is nearly five times the size of Dubai’s (which is the size of the District Line) and Shaun Bailey believes that allowing businesses to sponsor stations and tube lines could conservatively raise up to £500 million.
6. A bigger, better transport network – with a London Infrastructure Bank that will fund the public investment projects London needs.
Hammersmith Bridge repairs, tube upgrades and Crossrail will all come under the purview of Shaun’s London Infrastructure Bank.
Shaun’s London Infrastructure Bank will facilitate private sector investment in large scale, costly infrastructure projects after initial seed equity funding from the public sector.
This is a tried and tested model, based on successful projects such as the UK Infrastructure Bank and KfW (the German equivalent), where private investment is harnessed and public assets remain in public hands.
The London Infrastructure Bank will secure London’s long-term infrastructure investment, allowing London to confidently deliver the projects needed to safeguard the future functionality of the city’s infrastructure and transport network.
The German infrastructure bank model, KfW, raises more than 90% of its funds from capital markets with the remaining 10% from budget-funded from state sources. The Mayor’s 10% investment can be taken from MCiL2 and the Business Rate Supplement, which based on estimates should be a fund of over £437m annually, of which £363.5m could be used for seed funding. This could raise a total of over £10.9 billion over three years.
7. Reversing the congestion charge hike – and scrapping plans to extend the £12.50 daily ULEZ charge to outer London.
Sadiq Khan’s expansion of the Congestion Charge and the ULEZ are designed to punish regular Londoners to make up for Khan’s failure in budgeting.
Shaun will scrap Sadiq Khan’s expanded Congestion Charge Zone and Ultra Low Emission Zone without hesitation.
Customers, tradespeople, suppliers and commuters should not be penalised; they are the people who will drive London’s recovery and prosperity.
Shaun will fund the roll-back of Sadiq Khan’s expanded charging zones through savings and efficiencies made from part of the £9.56 billion wasted under Khan, and from additional fare revenues as travel patterns return to normal.
8. Saving every London household £307 – by reversing Sadiq Khan’s 10% council tax hike.
Shaun will reverse Sadiq Khan’s 10% Council Tax hike that forces Londoners to pay for Khan’s wasteful spending at a time when everyone is struggling. Sadiq Khan will have raised his share of Council Tax by over 30% by the end of his term.
Shaun pledges to fix London’s finances, and deliver value for money, without putting the burden of bureaucracy or mismanagement onto regular Londoners. The council tax savings will be accrued across Shaun’s term from reductions in City Hall’s bloated bureaucracy.
9. Standing up for outer boroughs – by scrapping Sadiq Khan’s plans to charge people £5.50 to drive into outer London and providing 30 minutes’ free parking for outer boroughs.
Shaun will reverse Sadiq Khan’s proposed £5.50 daily boundary tax, which will raise the total daily charge for driving into central London to £32.50, affecting businesses and employees who serve London, and those who spend their money here.
Shaun Bailey will also support Outer London by providing funding for local councils in outer London boroughs to implement and sustain free 30-minute parking schemes to increase ‘stop and shop’ visitation to high streets and to boost London’s COVID recovery.
Free-parking will cost approximately £37.2 million for Shaun’s first term as Mayor, based on the cost of the current 30-minute free parking scheme in Hillingdon. This will be funded from the additional revenue accrued from penalty charge notices.
10. Working constructively with government – Shaun will work effectively with Ministers to get a better deal for London and will always take responsibility for London’s problems.
The last few years have shown that a Mayor obsessed with good PR and scoring political points will fail when the time comes to step up.
As Mayor of London, Shaun will take responsibility for London’s problems, and won’t pass the blame on. With a fresh and constructive leadership approach, Shaun will work proactively with government ministers to find solutions for the challenges that lie ahead.
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