Following last month’s progress towards the capital’s retaining a larger share of business rates raised here, London government is now applauding a further “ground-breaking devolution deal” with national government to devolve more control over health and care services. Why is that good? The main reason is the usual one for enabling decisions about the delivery of important […]
Recent internal Labour Party elections in Haringey resulting in a string of wins for candidates backed by Momentum, the group formed to back Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, have refuelled talk of big shifts in the Labour grassroots landscape, perhaps changing the complexion of Labour-led boroughs after next May’s council elections. There is also talk that nothing nearly so dramatic is […]
In London’s revivalist cosmos, where Labour’s third consecutive general election defeat was “a victory for hope”, the capital’s local authorities will soon be cascaded with taxpayer cash to be lavished on programmes of council house building not seen since distant decades when Herbert Morrison said (or maybe didn’t say) he would “build the Tories out of London” and boroughs […]
Sadiq Khan’s housing mission might be briefly summarised as trying to make the supply of new homes in London better fit the shape of London’s housing needs. Good for him, because the current mismatch is absurd. A chart from Savills makes the point, well, graphically. The supply forecast for sub-market homes to rent falls miles short […]
London businesses may be more likely to pay their workers the London Living Wage (LLW) if their local authority is itself an accredited living wage employer, according to two leading anti-poverty organisations. Figures for the capital compiled by the Child Poverty Action Group and the Living Wage Foundation, which promotes and campaigns for the living wage nationally, […]
Waltham Forest has been the London borough where the highest “affordable” percentage of new homes has been built in recent years, while Tower Hamlets has seen the highest total number built, according to official data compiled for the London Mayor. The figures, included the the annual London Plan monitoring report, show that 47% of all new residential dwellings completed […]
A Grand Narrative explaining London’s present housing problems has evolved in recent years. Emanating from a Protest Left intelligentsia of academics, upmarket liberal journalists, oppositional politicians and media-savvy neighbourhood activists, it helps sustain the populist belief that rich foreigners should take all the blame for galloping house price and rent inflation and a related “social cleansing” of people on […]
I spent an hour late yesterday morning wandering around the Finsbury Park neighbourhood where the latest London terror attack took place. I know it quite well. These days, I often travel to and from Finsbury Park station by bus as part of my route to and from somewhere else. Back in the early 1980s I lived […]
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