LDN Weekly – Issue 59 – 9 January 2019
OFF TO A ROCKY START...
...is the unavoidable impression emerging from 2019’s first couple of weeks, with MPs rebelling against the government only days before the ‘meaningful vote’ on Brexit and with the capital’s main business associations expressing substantial concerns about the plans for and outcomes of secession from the EU.
No Images? Click here OFF TO A ROCKY START... ...is the unavoidable impression emerging from 2019’s first couple of weeks, with MPs rebelling against the government only days before the ‘meaningful vote’ on Brexit and with the capital’s main business associations expressing substantial concerns about the plans for and outcomes of secession from the EU. But business and politics in London grinds on and LDN’s first edition of the year casts a critical eye, as ever, on the key issues affecting the capital. Aside from touching on London’s Brexit pains, we cover in detail the latest developments at Transport for London (TfL), politics and people moves in the London Boroughs of Haringey, Tower Hamlets, Camden and Westminster, as well as planning and development stories in Southwark and (again) Camden. Other topics covered by this edition include Sadiq’s media profile and early campaigning for the 2020 Mayoral elections, notable Londoners in the latest New Year Honours list, as well as a flurry of recent news from the capital’s aviation industry. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback and do follow us on Twitter @LDNComms if you don’t already. BREXIT LOOMSThe London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and London First have opened the year by voicing in their members’ concerns in the face of Brexit.
It is clear at this stage that the sheer level of uncertainty about the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU, less than three months before the official secession date, is reaching fever pitch. With Whitehall and Westminster in a deadlock, a snap general election remains a possibility. Perhaps surprisingly, the first major general election voting intention poll of 2019 by YouGov shows the Conservative’s steady at 40% and Labour trailing at 34%.But strong calls for a second referendum from some quarters - and a number of other factors - mean that such an eventuality remains but one among several possibilities. CROSSRAIL WORRIES (CONT'D)The Christmas holiday marked little more than a brief hiatus in the debate surrounding TfL’s finances and more particularly the knock-on effects of the Crossrail project’s delayed delivery. As LDN readers will recall, the project’s central section was to be operational by the end of 2018, but is now expected to be delivered no earlier than end-2019. Furthermore, it will only be delivered with a massive Department for Transport (DfT) loan of up to £2bn, which the cash-strapped GLA has pledged to pay back. Ongoing media coverage and official investigations have focused on who is to blame and on why the public announcement of the delay came with so little warning. Following a legally binding summons, Sadiq and TfL Commissioner Mike Brown appeared before the London Assembly Transport Committee on 21 December, where they squarely laid the blame on technical challenges and the way these were communicated by Crossrail Ltd’s leadership. For his part, former Chair Sir Terry Morgan appeared before the Assembly only this morning, where he insisted that even if the official notice of the delay was delivered at the end of August, the Mayor and his team had been fully briefed that it was unavoidable a month earlier. ...AND TfL'S OTHER TROUBLESIndeed, Crossrail forms only a part of TfL’s wider list of worries – financial and otherwise. Ongoing scrutiny of the Mayor’s Budget for 2019/20 in the London Assembly, as well as close media attention, have highlighted a number of issues that are set to challenge the transport authority this year. In the last few weeks alone:
HARINGEY CABINET RESHUFFLEHaringey Council’s Labour Leader Joe Ejiofor has made waves by sacking two prominent Cabinet members. The official Council announcement provides no clues as to his motivations, but Ejiofor himself has Tweeted that he ‘acted to eradicate a number of persistent & personal conflicts’. For their part, Councillors Peray Ahmet and Zena Brabazon have publicly speculated that strong policy disagreements with Ejiofor are behind their dismissal. Meanwhile, some outlets have further reported that, in an email to Cabinet members in late December, Ejiofor complained about apparent leaks of confidential information to the press. His decision is undoubtedly a daring one, especially as both councillors competed against him for the Council’s leadership following the May 2018 Local Elections. In their place, Ejiofor has appointed Councillor Sarah James to take over Peray’s Adults and Health brief and Councillor Kaushika Amin to lead on Civic Services. TOWER HAMLETS LATESTOver the break, Tower Hamlets Council has seen two Labour councillors resign. Councillor Ruhul Amin resigned two days into 2019, stating personal reasons and his decision to relocate to Bangladesh. Not long before, Councillor Mohammad Harun revealed that he was stepping down following the launch of a formal investigation by the council’s monitoring officer, into allegations that he has been committing housing fraud by renting a social home and subletting it, while also owning a number of private properties. Harun has denied the accusations and insists he is cooperating with investigators. The allegations made about Harun, who also sat on the Housing Scrutiny Committee, are concerning for a council which has been working very hard to improve its governance arrangements and reputation under current Mayor John Biggs. Indeed, the rapid launch of an investigation is demonstrative of the Council’s eagerness to turn the page on the irregularities seen under the watch of former Mayor Lutfur Rahman. The by-elections for the two seats, in Lansbury and Shadwell wards, are set to take place on 7 February. SOUTH BANK SALESouthwark Council has acquired Courage Yard, a mixed-use scheme on the South Bank, on the former site of the Courage Brewery, in the latest example of a local authority buying up retail and other property assets. The site was owned by Columbia Threadneedle and sold to the Council for £89m. It is comprised of seven buildings which include retail, commercial and residential space. The entirety of the site’s office space has already been let to property company Zoopla until 2031. The retail space is occupied by tenants including Rush Hair and Beauty, Starbucks, Hamptons, Skinsmiths, Londent and the Watch House, with the public space providing potential accommodation for pop-up shops. Southwark Council has confirmed that it expects the site to generate revenue of about £5m per year which will be spent on the Council’s ‘frontline services’. Councillor Victoria Mills, who holds the finance, performance and Brexit portfolio, pointed to the need to counter flagging income from commercial assets, caused by the sale or conversion of council-owned properties into homes in recent years, and called Courage Yard a ‘valuable asset for the council’. As noted above, a number of English councils have been making substantial forays into property investment of late, partly to ensure greater control of town centre regeneration and partly as a means of generating much-needed income. ULEZ LAUNCH APPROACHINGOn the wider issue of air quality, a pressing issue in London, it is worth noting that City Hall is carrying out an awareness-raising campaign in order to prepare businesses and drivers for the launch of the new Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ) in April. While many firms, heavily dependent on the use of vehicles to carry out their business, have been raising an almighty fuss of late, it should be noted that the measures have been a key manifesto pledge of Sadiq’s since the 2016 election – and the measures have been extensively mooted and reported on since then. Non-compliant vehicles (such as diesel cars and vans that do not meet the Euro 6 standard) will be charged £12.50 per day in order to drive within the zones and there will be an increased charge of £100 for larger non-compliant vehicles (lorries, for example, will also have to meet Euro 6 standards to avoid the new charges). Anyone driving a vehicle in the Zone – whether a car, motorcycle, van or lorry – can use TfL’s online compliance checker to assess whether they will be subject to the new charges. TOTTENHAM COURT ROADOn a more local level, Camden Council has released the details of its planned transformation of Tottenham Court Road, which includes the banning of lorries, cars and taxis between 8am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday, from the thoroughfare – at which times only bikes and buses will be able to use the road. The plans are part of the Council’s wider West End Project, and are expected to be complete by 2020. Camden is working to realise its plans in close collaboration with partners including City Hall, TfL and Westminster Council – which remain, entirely separately, at odds over the transformation of nearby Oxford Street. Camden's plans, which also propose the conversion of the current one-way road into a two-way road, are aimed at reducing congestion and improving air quality in the area, but have faced opposition from the taxi industry, which lodged a High Court challenge against the them in 2015, which failed. PEOPLE MOVES
KHAN'S 2018The end of the year saw several outlets publishing articles assessing Sadiq’s performance in 2018 year. Indicatively:
2020 STARTS NOWThe London Election campaign has well and truly begun, with Khan hitting the streets on the first working day back after the Christmas and New Year break to hand out leaflets to commuters at Waterloo station. The leaflets emphasise policies such as his (partial) fare freeze and the introduction of the Hopper fare on the TfL network – and compare these to the Conservative government’s transport policies. Meanwhile his Tory rival for the 2020 elections, Assembly Member Shaun Bailey, has once again been targeted by Labour and the Guardian, which this Monday drew attention to a series of statements he made in 2007 with regards to teenage pregnancy and abortion, as well as comments in which he referred to his own education as a time when ‘there was none of this PC nonsense’ and ‘teachers were men’. LONDON AVIATION LATESTThe past few weeks have seen significant movement in London’s airport industry:
LONDONERS IN NY HONOURSWe noticed a number of prominent Londoners in the New Year’s Honours list and have outlined a sample of these below. Please note that this is not a comprehensive rollcall – you may find this here – but does include many of the personalities that have excelled across the capital’s public, private and third sectors. We warmly congratulate them all! Knighthoods for:
Dame Commander for:
CBE for:
OBE for:
MBE for:
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