The City Hall Conservatives' Alternative Budget
Our fully-costed alternative to Sadiq Khan's plan
Londoners may have seen that Sadiq Khan signed off this year’s Mayoral Budget in recent weeks. We wanted to take the time to explain the proposals which our fully-costed Alternative Budget included.
CRIME
After eight years of Sadiq Khan, it is a sad fact of life that Londoners feel less safe. On knife crime, the Office for National Statistics was forced to correct Sadiq Khan, who claimed that knife crime had declined - in fact knife offences increased by roughly 40% during this period.
In order to support the Met Police, our Budget found an additional £200 million, which would have helped the Met Police move out of special measures and enabled a more proactive approach to crime prevention.
Part of the proposed funding would have been used to fund the installation of knife arches and provision of knife wands for frontline officers - which would enable those officers to complete a less intrusive stop-and-search.
ULEZ
We have long argued against Sadiq Khan’s unfair expansion of the ULEZ to Outer London. He brought it in…
…despite promising that he wouldn’t,
…despite overwhelming opposition from Londoners in his official consultation,
…despite his own reports showing it would make little difference to air quality in Outer London, and
…despite the huge impact it would have on those who could not afford to upgrade their cars & vans.
We are clear even now that this expansion should be reversed, and this is what our Budget proposed - compensating TfL for the expected shortfall it would experience through loss of income from the fines.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
In the aftermath of COVID, Sadiq Khan suspended the provision of free public transport for the over 60s before 9am. However, as the number of people using public transport has risen again, our Budget Amendment proposed to bring back this measure. This would be good for businesses who would benefit from more customers, and it would also benefit those over 60 both by helping to ease the cost of living, and by making it easier for them to go out and socialise with friends or see relatives.
It is a shame that none of the measures in our fully-costed Alternative Budget were adopted by the Mayor, but we will keep pushing for a London that is safer, more affordable, and more accessible.
