8 years of failure

As Sadiq Khan launches his re-election bid, the facts show he has cost London dearly

Sadiq Khan has been accused of ‘two terms of failure’ as he launched his re-election campaign with Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer today. Starmer used the event to praise the Mayor’s tenure at City Hall as the “difference Labour makes in power” – a dire track-record of increased council tax, skyrocketing crime rates and drivers hammered by his daily £12.50 ULEZ expansion tax (with work on a Pay Per Mile charge underway).

HOUSING

The Mayor placed housing at the centre of his re-election bid, making a commitment to build 40,000 ‘new’ council homes by 2030 the ‘first major pledge of this election’. Sadiq Khan’s announcement was quickly revealed as bogus, however, as he has already committed to building 33,000 of the 40,000 ‘new’ homes between 2018 and 2030 as Mayor. The remaining 7000 council homes are expected to be delivered within the Mayor’s existing affordable housing programs, meaning Sadiq Khan is in reality committing to zero additional ‘new’ council homes.

Having suggested London is building ‘more affordable council housing than any time since the 1970s’, the Mayor leaves behind a dire track record on housing. In reality, Sadiq Khan has built just 2.8% of the 23,900 homes he had promised to build by March 2026, meaning this target is highly unlikely to be delivered. Since becoming Mayor in 2016, the Mayor has built just 65,000 affordable homes, an average of 8,400 per year. This is a significant drop compared to Boris Johnson’s time as Mayor, despite being given £9 BILLION of funding from the Government. By contrast, 94,000 affordable homes were completed under Boris Johnson, an average of 11,750 per year.

The Mayor’s failure to build new homes even prompted an independent investigation into the planning system, which found that Sadiq Khan ‘now works to frustrate rather than facilitate the delivery of new homes.’ There are currently almost 90,000 empty homes in the capital – an increase of 54% since 2016, whilst London has seen a 24% increase in rough sleepers since 2016.

COUNCIL TAX

Under Sadiq Khan, the Mayor’s Council Tax precept – paid on top of existing Council Tax bills – has skyrocketed from £276 in 2016/17 to £471 in 2023/24 for the average Band D household, an eye-watering 70% increase. And the money isn’t spent wisely either - for example, £1 MILLION was spent by Sadiq Khan on beach parties.

CRIME

The Mayor has also overseen a disastrous spell managing London’s Metropolitan Police Service, with crime in the capital skyrocketing since 2016 and the force remaining in special measures. Under Sadiq Khan’s watch, knife crime is up 49%, sexual offences are up 50% and robberies are up 45%, whilst 36 police stations have been closed. Crime on public transport, meanwhile, has increased by a huge 58%.

Despite these hugely increased rates of crime, Sadiq Khan managed to lose London 2000 new police officers after failing to meet recruitment targets set by the Home Office – the only police force in the country to do so. As a result, £31 million of Government funding was lost, making London less safe from Sadiq Khan’s ever-increasing crime rates.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Having promised to be the ‘greenest Mayor ever’, Sadiq Khan has failed to meet many of his environmental targets and is many decades behind on making London ‘net carbon zero’ by 2030. A promise to plant 2 million trees in 2015 has resulted in just 500,000 being planted as of December 2023, whilst the Mayor is also behind on his targets for electric vehicle charging points, green spaces and recycling rates.

TRANSPORT

Sadiq Khan’s mismanagement of Transport for London’s (TfL) finances, meanwhile, severely damaged London’s transport system before the pandemic, making the post-Covid picture for London’s transport system even bleaker. Major milestones like the completion of the Elizabeth Line, the opening of Battersea Power Station Tube stop and the introduction of new, upgraded tube trains were all started and funded before Sadiq Khan became Mayor. A record number of strikes – 139 in the last 8 years – led to the Mayor raiding his budget to find £30 million of funding for an inflation-busting pay rise for his union friends.

NIGHTLIFE

Finally, the Mayor has overseen a disastrous decline in London’s nightlife, with his £117,000 a year ‘Night Czar’ Amy Lame recently condemned on social media by users using the hashtag #LameLondon. Under Sadiq Khan’s watch, the Night Time Industries Association says that more than 1000 venues in London have closed in the last three years.

OUR REACTION

Susan Hall AM, Conservative Candidate for Mayor of London, said: ‘From skyrocketing crime, to failing on affordable housing, to hammering vulnerable drivers with his unfair ULEZ expansion, the final Mayor’s Question Time marks two terms of Sadiq Khan failing to deliver and failing to listen. I’m listening to Londoners and I’ll scrap the ULEZ Expansion on day one, get a grip on crime with more bobbies on the beat, appoint a Women’s Commissioner and make London a genuinely cleaner and greener city’.

Neil Garratt AM, Leader of the City Hall Conservatives, said: ‘It is a genuine shame for Londoners that Sadiq Khan has been consistently unable to make good on his promises during his time as Mayor. I would urge anyone who wants to see change in London to vote for Susan Hall on 2nd May. Susan has committed to stopping the Mayor’s unfair ULEZ Expansion on day one of her mayoralty, stopping all work on Pay Per Mile road charging immediately, introducing a Women’s Commissioner and getting a grip on crime – something Sadiq Khan has been unable to do.’