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Can Sadiq Khan bring in face-covering rule for London public transport?

It's hard to get a definitive answer and there could be practical obstacles too
Dave Hill

For some weeks now, Sadiq Khan has been advocating the wearing of “non-medical face coverings” – as distinct from masks used by health and social care professionals – in circumstances where social distancing is difficult to maintain, notably when using public transport. So why hasn’t he made face-coverings compulsory for people using London’s public transport networks?

There appears to be nothing to stop him where TfL services are concerned. They are required to abide by sets of rules, which can be quickly amended. This happened shortly after Boris Johnson became Mayor in 2008 when he introduced his “booze ban” to prevent people drinking alcohol on all transport services TfL runs. With the buses and the Tube, these rules are called Conditions of Carriage. The Docklands Light Railway has similar ones and London Trams are covered by by-laws.

TfL has yet to answer a request made a couple of weeks ago for confirmation or clarification of the legal position, though in her recent article for On London the Mayor’s deputy for transport, Heidi Alexander, wrote that “the use of non-medical face coverings on all public transport may have to become a condition of travel”.

However, if this suggests that it does indeed lie within the Mayor’s power to have it made mandatory for passengers to wear (non-medical) face coverings when using TfL-run services, that doesn’t mean the issue is straightforward.

One obvious consideration is that not all public transport in the capital is under TfL control. Much as successive Mayors have wished it were otherwise, suburban rail services, which bring hundreds of thousands of commuters into the capital each working day, fall outside their domain.

If the Mayor went it alone on face-coverings, the rules would be inconsistent for large numbers of public transport users in the capital. Note that he has been been calling for national government to change national guidance to bring it in line with his opinion on the matter and not saying he will go ahead by himself if it doesn’t.

There is also the question of enforcement. The British Transport Police would, of course, be patrolling the networks, but would it reasonable or feasible to ask station staff and bus drivers to challenge passengers who failed to comply with any face-covering rule (some union voices were raised against the alcohol ban on these grounds)?

Another part of the context here is TfL’s continuing negotiations with the government over emergency funding as its bank account runs on empty. Much of this is likely to be being conducted between TfL chiefs and government officials, but the Labour Mayor’s relationship with the Conservative government has been a bit testy. This is pure speculation, but steaming ahead with your own face-covering policy in contradiction of the government’s might not be judged good diplomacy by the Mayor at a time when he is seeking to get money of it.

It looks as if the Mayor could introduce a unilateral TfL face coverings rule but, so far, has stopped short of doing so for a reasons that are not do with his formal powers.

OnLondon.co.uk is doing all it can to keep providing the best possible coverage of  London during the coronavirus crisis. It now depends more than ever on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via Donorbox or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

Categories: Analysis
Tags: buses, coronavirus, COVID-19 London, Docklands Light Railway, London Trams, London Underground, Network Rail, Transport for London

Sadiq Khan maintains ‘stay home’ message as TfL awaits financial help

London presses on with "streetspace" programme as uncertainty over public transport funding under eased lockdown continues
Charles Wright

Sadiq Khan has been amplifying the stay home and social distance messaging this weekend, as the capital awaits the government’s announcement on the next stage of the coronavirus lockdown.

In starkly-worded tweets pitched as a “direct appeal to Londoners”, the Mayor said it was “essential” that the city followed existing rules and stayed at home. “I know it’s tough, but ignore the rules and more people will die,” he said. 

The message followed confirmation at Thursday’s first meeting of London Assembly Members since 19 March that Khan and officials overseeing the capital’s response to the crisis, while not privy to government plans, had provided assessments, particularly on the implications for the capital’s public transport system of any easing of the lockdown.

“It’s a key issue, with such a high reliance in London on public transport,” deputy mayor for fire and resilience Fiona Twycross told the Assembly’s oversight committee, hinting at “high level” discussions between Khan and Number 10.  

The Mayor has been under increasing pressure from Assembly Conservatives and backbench Tory MPs to increase capacity on the tube, with minister for London Paul Scully suggesting on a recent webinar with London businesses that the Mayor had been too restrictive in advising that only “key” workers should use the Underground.

City Hall leaders, on the other hand, including transport deputy Heidi Alexander, walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman and Khan himself, have highlighted safety concerns on Tube trains and buses, and the risk of the city “grinding to a halt” with just a small shift from public transport to driving.

Alexander used a recent webinar with London Travelwatch to warn that two metre distancing on the Tube would mean just 21 people per carriage on the Victoria Line compared to 125 people pre-crisis, and has highlighted her own experience of cycling in from Zone 3 to urge Londoners to get on their bikes. 

Norman has spearheaded City Hall’s new “Streetspace” plan to fast-track cycle lanes, widen pavements and reduce car traffic in residential areas, with TfL forecasting a potential ten-fold increase in cycling as well as five times more journeys by foot when restrictions are eased, while safe travel rules could see Tube and bus capacity down by 80 per cent.

“It is a real challenge, managing people getting back on public transport in a way that is as socially distanced as possible,” Twycross told AM. “We do need the transport system up and running, but at the heart of any announcement must be public safety. I can’t see a government decision coming where there’s isn’t a strong message about continuing to work from home.” 

Twycross, Khan’s deputy for fire and resilience, nevertheless confirmed that City Hall had “absolutely no idea” what was likely to be in the Prime Minister’s Sunday evening announcement, and had not signed off or seen draft plans.

Announcements yesterday from transport secretary Grant Shapps, promising £2 billion for cycling and walking, suggest City Hall’s message is getting through. Shapps reinforced the “stay at home” message, and the need for commuters to cycle more. “Otherwise, with public transport’s capacity severely restricted at this time, our trains and buses could become overcrowded and our roads gridlocked,” he said.

Whether the Prime Minister’s announcement includes a timetable for opening up the Tube network remains to be seen. But if Khan can chalk up a victory on “mode shift” and safe capacity, the battle continues over whether mask-wearing will be mandatory on public transport – as Khan has urged – and over funding. TfL desperately needs cash, with day-to-day operations at serious risk as well as medium and longer-term improvement schemes, but discussions with Whitehall are dragging on.

Today’s £2 billion cycling and walking pledge is not new money – the government announcement makes clear that it is “part of the £5 billion” of public transport funding announced in February this year – and it is not available for the capital, since the £5 billion funding was specifically earmarked for “every region outside London”.

More detail is also needed on the announcement’s reference to TfL plans for a “bike Tube network above Underground lines” – an idea proposed, though not followed through, by Mayor Johnson in 2013. The proposal does not appear in the current mayor’s transport strategy.

OnLondon.co.uk is committed to providing the best possible coverage of London’s politics, development, social issues and culture. It depends on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via PayPal or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

 

 

Categories: News
Tags: Conservatives, cycling, Fiona Twycross, Grant Shapps, Heidi Alexander, London Assembly, London TravelWatch, London Underground, Paul Scully, pedestrians, public transport, Sadiq Khan, transport, Transport for London, Will Norman

Lewis Baston: Shrinking horizons

Social distancing may be necessary for now, but in the long term it is no way to live
Lewis Baston

I haven’t enjoyed lockdown. I realise that I’m in a favourable position compared to many people. My physical health is good, although I have put on alarming amounts of weight thanks to an abundance of very tasty home cooking and a lack of exercise. I’m not on my own in the house, but there’s still space for silence and privacy. I’ve got good neighbours, even though a wave of exercise-related accidents seems to be scything them down. My retired parents are happy and healthy, enjoying their reading and gardening, and they probably hear from me more often than usual. I’m able to avoid risks, as I’m not among those people, like supermarket workers, bus drivers and NHS staff, whose work puts them in danger. I expect the government’s assistance for the self-employed is going to help me, and I’m grateful for the open-handed approach that Rishi Sunak adopted early in the crisis (although there now seems a concerted effort to row back at the expense of local government and furloughed workers).

The problem is mental, perhaps even spiritual. I’ve suffered from depression for many years, and the boredom, frustration and unrealistic expectations of what one can achieve given enough time are food for the black dog. My work lately has mostly been about European borderlands, and I usually travel a lot – not only does this stimulate my creativity, it is also liberating and enjoyable. It has become a bit of a standing joke for my On London colleagues, as I file pieces about London borough by-elections from destinations like Kyiv, Prague and Chernivtsi. But travel – and elections – stopped in its tracks in mid-March.

I struggle with a sense of purpose at the best of times, but the lockdown period has been particularly trying. My geographical horizons have narrowed. Compare and contrast the two maps below. The one on the left shows the number of days on which I was in each country shown in the 75 days before 16 March. The one on the right summarises my travel in the 54 days since. It’s all been on foot, except for one last work-related Tube journey on 18 March.

Screenshot 2020 05 09 at 08.39.41

It’s good to try to see the compensations. My colleague Vic Keegan’s columns about Lost London and the Twitter account Look Up London are encouragements to take the time to see the quirky and the significant as I walk around my little corner of the city. Even after 16 years living here, there were still a few streets of Camden Town that I had never walked down. So it was that I discovered the Dickensian alley that is College Grove – and the veterinary college’s cow enclosure, although the beasts themselves have left the city during the pandemic. I had often seen the back gardens – all willows and wooden boat docks – of St Mark’s Crescent. The canal towpath is a bit scary from a social distancing point of view at the moment, but I had never seen the other side of it and never knew that A.J.P. Taylor had lived in one of them.

I’ve been to the lovely Reed’s Place, in the No Mans Land between Camden and Kentish Towns. I’ve fussed over strange cats. I’ve noticed that synchronicity and coincidence seem to have been accentuated by the shutdown: usually one can go for weeks without running randomly into neighbours down the street, but it happens more or less every day at the moment. On a rare foray outside my borough, I was walking down a side street in Islington and bumped into – or, rather, had a two metre near miss – with two friends for whom that street was also well away from their normal trade routes.

“If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” I love my London home, but the wanderlust is still there. I heard the call of the river, and – The Clash playing in my mind – was drawn to its shore. The vista from Blackfriars Bridge is quintessential London, but to stand over the Thames is to see the water flow from England through the city and out into Europe and the world. It was a brief, vicarious taste of freedom of movement. On the south side, below the Founder’s Arms where I have had numerous happy, argumentative, poignant and sad evenings, but which now stands empty, I went down to the strange, sandy little beach. A goose was down there with me, at one point raising its wings as if to conduct an invisible, discordant orchestra. Birdsong is the soundtrack to the shutdown: the absence of bustle makes it more noticeable, but perhaps we also notice birds more because they fly free. I’ve noticed jays and parakeets, and followed blackbird and great tit family soap operas.

Screenshot 2020 05 08 at 21.06.31

I realise that it will take some time for international travel to be possible again and that it will have to be restarted in a phased and sensible way. There will probably have to be some sort of quarantine for a while, and it’s conceivable that other countries will impose strict controls on people travelling from the UK because of the poor outcome here. Rather optimistically, I didn’t cancel a trip to Finland and Estonia entirely, but in late March I punted the flight from next week into the second half of October. I’m not sure it’ll be possible or sensible, but if it is, I’ll be there.

I hope, too, that international trains will be open later this year and that the coronavirus crisis on top of the climate crisis will mean that railways become the highest-priority mode of transport as Europe works out how to resume the bustle and interchange of people that makes it such an exciting place to live. I’m pining for my friends, but I’m not visiting their houses or going to the pub. Social distancing is necessary but it’s tough. It would also be mad to keep doing it any longer than one has to.

Closing the borders is social distancing writ large – necessary, but no way to live in the long term. The worst outcome would be a permanent closing of borders and minds, for us all to become more insular. There’s enough of the isolationist virus in the air as it is. For now, though, I am planning my afternoon walk and, if I’m feeling particularly adventurous, I might ramble the far side of Kilburn High Road and enter the borough of Brent. Brent South today, Soweto tomorrow…

OnLondon.co.uk is committed to providing the best possible coverage of London’s politics, development, social issues and culture. It depends on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via PayPal or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

Categories: Culture
Tags: Blackfriars Bridge, Brent, Camden Town, College Grove, coronavirus, COVID-19 London, Kentish Town, Kilburn High Road, NHS, Reed's Place, Rishi Sunak, River Thames, St Mark's Crescent, The Clash, Victor Keegan

Vic Keegan’s Lost London 142: Victoria’s short-lived Turkish baths

The building was impressive but the needs of the railways came first
Victor Keegan

The rather magnificent building in the illustration above is what you would have seen in 1862 if you had visited the site of Victoria Station. It was not Victoria Station, but housed Oriental or Turkish baths. It was constructed barely three years before the decision to build the station was made, so it had to come down again. 

This was, in fact, a pleasant surprise for the bath’s developers, who feared they had built it in the wrong part of town because it wasn’t doing very well financially. Ironically, the arrival of the station might have made the location of the baths very convenient. But they didn’t fit into the plans of the Metropolitan Railway Company, which purchased the land. 

The facility was rather grand. It even had baths for horses, which may have been related to the fact that the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association had been established up the road at 111 Victoria Street three years earlier.

The baths were built by an Irish company led by Dr Richard Barter, who had constructed a “hydropathic establishment” in County Cork, Ireland, claiming it to be the first of its kind since the Roman occupation. They didn’t catch on in England, but proved more popular on the continent, where Turkish baths are to this day known as Irish-Roman baths.

They didn’t generate a new genre of literature either, though they do get a mention in James Joyce’s Ulysses when Leopold Bloom savours their delights in Dublin: “Nice smell these soaps have. Time to get a bath around the corner. Hammam. Turkish. Massage. Dirt gets rolled up in your navel. Nicer if a nice girl did it. … Feel fresh then all day.“

Maybe it is just as well the baths were closed. Commuters might have starting arriving for work even later.

All previous instalments of Vic Keegan’s Lost London can be found here.

OnLondon.co.uk is committed to providing the best possible coverage of London’s politics, development, social issues and culture. It depends on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via PayPal or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

Categories: Culture, Lost London
Tags: Victoria Station, Victoria Street

Mark Camley: The coronavirus crisis has shown why we must cherish London’s parks

Underinvestment in these precious green spaces threatens their future
Mark Camley

The Victorians recognised the public health benefits of parks and green spaces. Victoria Park in east London was created by the Crown Estate in response to the health inequalities prevalent in the city in the late 19th Century. “Vicky Park” is now an institution, and there was much concern and consternation when, under police advice, it had to close for a period recently.

Frederik Law Olmsted created Central Park in New York in response to a cholera outbreak in the city, having visited Birkenhead Park, the oldest public park in the UK, in 1850. During that period, Britain saw the advent of bandstands, pavilions, lidos and, along with organised sport, sports fields. Our parks were one of the jewels in the crown of our nation.

London’s many great parks, including the Royal Parks, were bequeathed to us by the Victorians and, despite the stereotypical and much lampooned “parkies” – park keepers with authoritarian tendencies – were joyous and beautiful places for all to gather in and enjoy, regardless of wealth or class. Hyde Park alone has hosted everything from the Great Exhibition in 1851, with Thomas Paxton’s Crystal Palace, to the Rolling Stones free concert in 1969 and Live 8 in 2005. London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games led to the post-Games creation of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, opened in 2014, also, in part, in recognition of health inequalities.

As well as being beneficial to both physical and mental health, reducing stress levels and blood pressure, parks provide a range of other benefits, including urban cooling (reducing the heat in the city by up to six degrees centigrade), social cohesion (through being democratic, egalitarian spaces) and providing green infrastructure (for cycling or to prevent flooding), as well as adding value to house prices.

Yet our parks have stopped being a matter of civic pride. The Heritage Lottery Fund has written reports about the state of public parks in the UK, their chronic underfunding and the very real risk of their catastrophic decline. Unlike libraries, local authorities don’t have a statutory obligation to fund them or keep them open and can even sell them off.

A parliamentary inquiry held by the communities and local government committee in 2016 made 17 recommendations and concluded: “If action is taken, and appropriate priority given to parks, we do not believe it is too late to prevent a period of decline. However, if the value of parks and their potential contribution are not recognised, then the consequences could be severe for some of the most important policy agendas facing our communities today.”

That is due not to any shortage of horticultural expertise, which the UK is a world leader in, but rather to a lack of investment. This betrays a failure to recognise the commercial, health and environmental value of our parks. Any New Yorker or Londoner who recalls the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s, when large urban parks became no-go areas and a drain on resources, will recognise that we are now at a defining moment.

Even so, the Evening Standard ran a headline at the end of last year that screamed, “Quarter of London parks break limits on filthy air”, as if it were the parks to blame for it. Can you imagine how bad London’s air would be without them?

During the current crisis, government ministers have proclaimed that we must keep parks open. And we have. They have been a great and vital outlet for people, an escape from the four walls. It is nice to be recognised and wanted. And now we have done our bit, government must invest more in our parks and their maintenance. We must keep them open and save them from decline so they can be places for all and sources of community pride long after this crisis is over.

Mark Camley is executive director of park operations and venues with the London Legacy Development Corporation, which is responsible for the development of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. He is also a former Royal Parks chief executive. Follow Mark on Twitter.

OnLondon.co.uk is committed to providing the best possible coverage of London’s politics, development, social issues and culture. It depends on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via PayPal or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

Categories: Comment
Tags: 2012 Olympics, coronavirus, COVID-19 London, Evening Standard, Olympic Park, Royal Parks, Victoria Park

Mayor’s transport deputy awaits government clarity as ‘streetspace’ plan unveiled

Heidi Alexander explained that new travel rules are hard to finalise until it's clear how lockdown measures will be eased
Charles Wright

As pressure mounts to get more trains and buses running in the capital, Sadiq Khan’s transport deputy Heidi Alexander has warned of lengthy queues, face-covering, and overall capacity being at a fifth of pre-crisis levels.

Speaking at a London TravelWatch webinar, Alexander said there is “no perfectly-formed set of answers” about the future of the city’s public transport network. With certainty still needed from government on when and how schools and different sectors of the economy would reopen and which public health rules would be applied, “it’s a bit like trying to finish a jigsaw puzzle in the dark,” she said.

Usage, currently down at 19th century levels, would go back up, she said, and Transport for London would run “as many Tubes and buses as is physically possible with the resources we have”, but the public would also expect TfL to keep passengers and staff safe.

Two metre distancing on the Victoria line, for example, would mean 21 passengers per carriage rather than 125. And on the system as a whole running at pre-crisis levels, even a one metre distancing rule would reduce rush hour capacity by more than three-quarters.

Alexander set out a mantra of four principles to avoid a “car-based” recovery: reducing numbers on the system by continuing to encourage working from home; “re-moding”, which means shifting to more walking and cycling; re-timing journeys to ease rush hour pressure as well as avoiding “pinch points” such as King’s Cross and London Bridge; and re-imagining travel, with new ways of behaviour including mask-wearing, queuing and distancing.

Her comments came as the Mayor unveiled his “London StreetSpace” plan, billed as a major transformation of the city’s streets to accommodate a possible ten-fold increase in cycling and five-fold increase in walking as lockdown restrictions ease.

The plan comes amid warnings that even a small shift from public transport to driving would see London “grinding to a halt” and pollution levels soaring. “To prevent this happening, TfL will rapidly repurpose London’s streets to serve this unprecedented demand for walking and cycling in a major new strategic shift,” City Hall announced yesterday.

The programme will initially see temporary cycle lanes on Euston Road, one of the busiest routes in the capital, with further cycle schemes coming forward alongside pavement widening on shopping streets and plans to reduce traffic on residential streets, creating new “low-traffic” neighbourhoods.

“The capacity of our public transport will be dramatically reduced post-coronavirus as a result of the huge challenges we face around social distancing,” said Khan. “I urge the government and boroughs to work with us to enable Londoners to switch to cleaner, more sustainable forms of transport and reduce the pressure on other parts of our transport network once the lockdown is eased.”

Meanwhile Tory MPs were ramping up pressure on City Hall, with Kensington’s Felicity Buchan using an urgent question to the health secretary to call for Khan to get more Tubes running and Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) making the same point at Prime Minister’s Questions, accusing Khan of “wrongly” saying that only key workers could use the Underground. 

While supporting the call for a “bigger and more expansive” Tube service, Johnson also stressed the need to maintain social distancing and hinted at work with City Hall on “helping people get to work other than by mass transit”, suggesting that “this should be a new golden age for cycling”.

With income collapsing and TfL heading rapidly towards financial crisis, focus is shifting towards the detail of the government’s recovery plans and how new ways to travel in London will be paid for.

“We are in a very live discussion with government about the financial support government will give to TfL over the coming year,” said Alexander. “All these things we would like to be doing, we need money to be able to do them. I’m hoping for some good news within the next week.”

Also speaking on the TravelWatch webinar, Robert Nisbet of the Rail Delivery Group, representing UK train operators and Network Rail, highlighted differences in the government’s approach to TfL and the train industry: “The government has stood behind us. Effectively, franchises have been paused…government has now assumed the revenue risk.”

OnLondon.co.uk is committed to providing the best possible coverage of London’s politics, development, social issues and culture. It depends on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via PayPal or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

Categories: News
Tags: Boris Johnson, coronavirus, COVID-19 London, cycling, Euston Road, Felicity Buchan, Heidi Alexander, King's Cross, London Bridge, London TravelWatch, London Underground, Network Rail, pedestrians, public transport, Sadiq Khan, Theresa Villiers, Transport for London, Victoria Line

Dave Hill: The Mayor and the government need to make friends

The Tories should help London lead national recovery and Sadiq Khan will need to help them do it
Dave Hill

Today is the day that Sadiq Khan would almost certainly have secured a second term as London Mayor had the virus crisis not occurred: an opinion poll had shown him increasing his already commanding lead over his Conservative challenger Shaun Bailey and the Independent Rory Stewart, who yesterday announced he’s dropped out of the delayed race for City Hall, failing to make the progress he’d hoped for. But instead of heading for the polling stations, Londoners are huddling indoors. And instead of anticipating another election win, the Labour Mayor is engaged in difficult negotiations with a Conservative government, the outcomes of which will be crucial to the future of the nation as a whole.

Before Covid-19 turned up, there was much heroic talk about “levelling up” the UK, making economic growth more evenly spread across the country. Its advocates, from all parts of the political spectrum, showed few signs of understanding how difficult that task would be, not least because they failed to recognise how very dependent on London’s economic power the whole of the UK is. Nearly a quarter of its economic output comes from Greater London. Arup economist Alexander Jan has calculated that 11 per cent of all UK economic activity takes place in Central London and the Isle of Dogs, home of Canary Wharf.

Altering that balance is much to be desired, but achieving it was always going to require far bolder and more imaginative measures than somehow starving “rich London” of public investment in order to feed more to the North. Such populist prattle now looks even more like an indulgence in denial. As Boris Johnson often said when he was London Mayor, when London does well, so does the rest of the country. The country he now leads will need London’s economic resilience more than ever in the months and years to come.

It would be surprising if Mayor Khan is not making that point in his dealings with ministers, as his transport chiefs and others seek the financial help they need to get the capital off its knees. Sources report that a rescue package for Transport for London, which has seen its vital income from fares all but disappear, is close to being agreed, but that it will be a “sticking plaster” deal. That wouldn’t begin to solve the already-existing problem of TfL’s increasing reliance on fares, an issue Centre for London’s Richard Brown has addressed. The Mayor’s deputy for housing, Tom Copley, writes for On London today about how the crisis is exacerbating London’s housing problems and why principles of “good growth” might need to be reassessed.

These challenges are taking shape against a backdrop of tense relations between the government and the Mayor. Whether by accident or design, health secretary Matt Hancock has publicly contradicted Khan over the level of London Underground services (other Tory voices are questioning the level of Tube staff absences). Khan has called, in vain, for all construction work to be halted, and been a general advocate for a sterner lockdown. A disagreement rumbles on with communities secretary Robert Jenrick over Khan’s draft London Plan, the Mayor’s bedrock planning policy document.

This last tiff is instructive. Jenrick’s scalding rejection of the Khan Plan, issued shortly before the election was postponed, was seen as an unusually political intervention, both in content and in tone. Khan, meanwhile, is regarded by some to be a Mayor who gives too much consideration to gaining political advantage from his engagements with the government and too little to gaining things for London.

Whatever the reality, not much good will come from endless wrangling. As well as attending some COBR meetings, the Mayor sits on a government London sub-committee that Jenrick chairs, along with Johnson’s adviser and erstwhile mayoral planning chief Sir Edward Lister, previously the leader of Wandsworth Council. It will be good for the whole country if their gatherings prove productive.

All concerned surely know that London’s recovery is crucial and, furthermore, that London, a Labour city, is very likely to give Khan a second term when the election eventually takes place. This gives Khan some room for political compromise and the government no political incentive for not meeting some of his requests halfway. The Tories should help London lead national recovery and Sadiq Khan should help them do it. For London’s and the UK’s sake, the Mayor and government need to make friends.

OnLondon.co.uk is committed to providing the best possible coverage of London’s politics, development, social issues and culture. It depends on donations from readers. Individual sums or regular monthly contributions are very welcome indeed. Click here to donate via PayPal or contact davehillonlondon@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: Comment
Tags: Alexander Jan, Arup, Conservatives, Labour, Richard Brown, Robert Jenrick, Rory Stewart, Sadiq Khan, Shaun Bailey, Sir Edward Lister, Tom Copley, transport, Transport for London

Tom Copley: Covid-19 is exacerbating London’s housing crisis. We must rise to the challenges

We need to think hard about what the coronavirus impacts mean for the city's housing needs and future 'good growth'
Tom Copley

The effects of Covid-19 have thrown into stark relief the inequalities caused by our existing housing crisis. People sleeping rough, those living in overcrowded homes and temporary accommodation, and private renters with no security of tenure have had to deal with a public health crisis exacerbated by their already poor housing situation.

But the crisis has also shown what can be achieved when we work together and, crucially, what can happen when the government stumps up the cash. This has been demonstrated in the herculean effort by City Hall’s rough sleeping team, boroughs and homelessness charities to bring more than 1,200 rough sleepers into hotels and other safe accommodation to self-isolate. To talk about opportunity in crisis might make us uncomfortable, but there is genuinely a once in a lifetime opportunity to help these rough sleepers leave the streets for good and to transform how we deal with street homelessness in the future.

The precariousness of the private rented sector has been exposed like never before. Expecting renters to build up debt and then agree an “affordable repayment plan” with their landlords is totally unfair and unrealistic. The government has put a pause on evictions, but that is simply kicking the can down the road. Unless bolder steps are taken, we could see mass evictions and homelessness in June. More Londoners rent from a private landlord than own a home with a mortgage. The case for the government to grant the Mayor the powers he has long called for to introduce rent controls in London has never been stronger.

The challenges posed by this crisis for the delivery of the genuinely affordable homes London needs must not be understated. Following Sadiq Khan’s election in 2016, there was a step change in both ambition and delivery from City Hall. Last financial year, we were on track to meet the target of 17,000 affordable home starts agreed with the government – the most since 2003. The year before that, more new council homes were started in London than in any year since 1985, the year I was born.

City Hall has also been securing more affordable homes through the planning system. On the large applications that come across the Mayor’s desk for his scrutiny and decision, the percentage of affordable homes has increased from 22 per cent to 38 per cent. Achieving this has required the political will of the Mayor and the immense skill of a crack team of viability experts who thoroughly interrogate planning applications to make sure we secure the maximum possible number of affordable homes from every scheme.

The Covid-19 crisis puts this progress in jeopardy, compounding the struggles of an industry already grappling with the twin challenges of unsafe cladding and other building safety remediation works, as well as Brexit. Construction work has halted on many schemes during the lockdown. Social distancing means that even where sites restart, work must inevitably slow down.

Current government policy makes affordable housing delivery extremely reliant on cross subsidy from private sale. In 2008/9, government grant made up 50-60 per cent of the cost of building a social rented home. That figure is now only around 15 per cent. Even when the housing market is strong, this model does not deliver enough cross-subsidy to meet housing need. In a weak market blindsided by crisis it could fall apart completely.

It is therefore essential that the government provides significantly more grant as quickly as possible, as well as long-term funding certainty. We cannot simply go back to the way things were, and the public sector must play a key role in the future delivery of homes. That is why I have established a housing delivery taskforce to plan for our recovery.

We also need to think about what this crisis means for housing need and demand in the longer term. While eventually many of us will return to our offices and other places of work, increased home working is here to stay. Freed from a regular commute, many Londoners may choose to move from Central and Inner London to the suburbs – or even out of London altogether – in search of larger homes and outside space.

This has profound implications not just for housing, but for our schools, amenities and commercial development. Demand for office space may fall, leading to less commercial development and more empty office blocks. There is a danger that owners will take advantage of a planning loophole deliberately created by the government to turn these offices into flats without having to apply for planning permission. These “permitted development rights” have already led to the creation of thousands of sub-standard flats, most of which do not meet minimum space or other standards. If this crisis should teach us anything, it is that such standards are essential for people’s health and wellbeing.

We are also likely to see rising demand for homes that enable home working (be that studies or studios), and for key worker housing. And there is one thing that I can say with absolute certainty: if there is a serious economic shock as a result of the pandemic, demand for our already short supply of social housing is only going to increase.

Of course, Inner London’s attraction is not just its ease of commuting to work. Many will still choose to stay because they enjoy the vibrancy that comes with inner city living. But London’s growth and development post-Covid-19 may look rather different from that which we anticipated before.

The Mayor has placed the principle of “good growth” – growth that is socially and economically inclusive and environmentally sustainable – at the heart of his London Plan. As we emerge from this crisis, we must ask ourselves what good growth looks like in a post-Covid-19 world.

Tom Copley is London’s new deputy mayor for housing and residential development. Follow him on Twitter.

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Categories: Comment
Tags: affordable housing, coronavirus, COVID-19 London, homelessness, housing, private rented housing, rough sleeping