London Assembly MQT – 14 Sept 2011 Thirty-Third Mayor’S Report to the Assembly
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London Assembly MQT – 14 Sept 2011 Thirty-third Mayor’s Report to the Assembly This is my thirty-third report to the Assembly, fulfilling my duty under Section 45 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999. It covers the period 30 June to 31 August 2011. Executive Summary London Disturbances The last month has been one of the most traumatic our city has seen for decades. There was an explosion of criminality on a truly frightening scale and some of the images will be long remembered. We saw the very worst side of London. The broken glass has been repaired but it will take time to rebuild the destroyed buildings and restore our city’s reputation. But we also saw the true spirit of London in the response to the riots. The Police, and I know every single one of them – warranted officers, PCSOs and staff - stepped up to the mark over the last few weeks in the most difficult of circumstances. Officers were incredibly brave as they faced extreme violence, which was aimed specifically at them. I have read amazing stories of bravery and I know that there are many, many individual examples, which we will never hear about. I hope that all the officers who were injured will recover as soon as possible and get back to the job, of which all we should all be so proud. There were 16,000 police officers deployed, many working back to back shifts. They brought order back to the streets, making London safe again and arresting over 2100 people. Londoners have seen the bravery of their police officers and exactly what they put on the line every time they go out. I would like to take this opportunity to express on behalf of all Londoners our eternal gratitude for everything your officers do – not just for the last ten days but every hour of every day. Londoners also witnessed the bravery of firefighters, as they faced fires in several parts of the city simultaneously during a rapidly changing and dangerous environment. The violence was also aimed at them and their equipment, with several appliances damaged. London is rightly proud of its fire brigade and I am sure many, many lives were saved because of the quick thinking and bravery of individual officers. Buses and their drivers also became targets during the disturbances. We have all seen the pictures of the burnt out buses and some bus staff were seriously injured during the disturbances. I hope they will recover quickly and will be able to return to their roles as soon as possible. The London Ambulance Service stepped up, helping those injured during the disturbances despite the extremely volatile and unpredictable environment. The Courts Service has been working through the night to ensure that justice is done and is seen to be done. We have seen thousands of ordinary people picking up brooms to help clear up or donate to their local shops, which have been damaged, so they can keep going. This is the true spirit of London and I would like to take this opportunity to express on behalf of all Londoners our gratitude for everything all these people do, not just in the last month, but for every minute of every day. Since the disturbances, I have been visiting the areas which were most affected, to speak to residents and business people about what can be done to recover and rebuild to improve those areas in the long term. I have visited Battersea (Clapham Junction), Croydon, Tottenham, Enfield, Ealing, Peckham, Camberwell (Walworth Road), Lewisham, Hackney, Stoke Newington, Woolwich, Walthamstow and East Ham. Every shop will be repaired. Every area will be rebuilt. We are accelerating initiatives already underway to stimulate growth and enterprise in Croydon and Tottenham. £50 million fund for long term regeneration of capital’s damaged town centres On 11 August, I announced a £50 million fund to help make major long term improvements to the capital’s town centres and high streets damaged by the recent disturbances. This funding is in addition to my £50 million Outer London Fund. The new £50 million regeneration fund will invest in larger scale proposals and will build on the momentum created as repair and rebuilding work to the affected areas continue. The result of this funding will ensure that the affected areas are not only restored, but will be better places to live, work and invest in. £20m to transform Tottenham and Croydon On 17 August, along with the Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, I visited Tottenham to unveil a £20 million funding boost to deliver major regeneration to Tottenham and Croydon, two of the worst affected areas in the disturbances. The £20m Government funding brings the total of my regeneration fund to support London's businesses hit by the disturbances to £70m. The ‘London Enterprise Fund’ will be invested to specifically focus on the regeneration of Tottenham and Croydon, which I had already identified as regeneration priorities before they were appallingly damaged during the disturbances. High Street Fund On 24 August, I announced that I had joined forces with a group of the UK’s leading companies and local authorities to establish the ‘High Street Fund’, to help small businesses across the country recover from the damage caused by the recent disturbances. This new charitable fund will offer immediate cash support to smaller businesses that have suffered from the disturbances across England. The fund comprises of an initial commitment of over £3 million cash funding, plus support services from businesses including Barclays, BP, Capita, Deloitte, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS and Santander. I have committed £500,000 to kick start donations and it is hoped that more leading companies and individuals will also donate. £10 million funding for local town centres On 3 August, I announced that almost £10 million of funding has been awarded to 20 boroughs across the capital, to increase the attractiveness and economic competitiveness of their town centres in the build up to the Christmas and throughout the New Year. The funding is from my Outer London Fund, set up in March, which is a £50 million, three year initiative, to grow economic activity and drive employment in parts of London benefitting less directly from large-scale infrastructure investment in the capital, such as Crossrail and the 2012 Games. A second round of funding, open until 14 October, will see the allocation of up to a further £40m of funding to develop longer-term projects to regenerate and rejuvenate areas, ranging from a small parade of shops to town centres. £25 million investment in Barclays Cycle Hire scheme On 28 July, to celebrate the first birthday of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, I confirmed that Barclays have agreed to provide another £25 million of sponsorship which will allow the scheme to expand into west and south-west London by the summer of 2013. This will extend Barclays sponsorship by three years to 2018 and will take its total investment to £50m. I have asked Transport for London (TfL) to prepare plans for a westward expansion of the scheme through the boroughs of Wandsworth, Hammersmith & Fulham, Lambeth and The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. Sir Paul Stephenson On 17 July, it was with great sadness and reluctance that I accepted the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service. I should like to pay personal tribute to his outstanding leadership at the Metropolitan Police. Paul helped to bring crime down by nine per cent in three years. He put more officers on the beat, protected Safer Neighbourhood Teams and increased patrols by a million a year on the streets of London. It is a mark of his work and determination that crime on public transport has fallen by 30 per cent and that the murder rate is now at its lowest since 1978. Team London Launch On 30 June, I launched my £4.5 million Team London programme. Team London will mobilise around 10,000 volunteers, primarily across six large scale projects to help improve the quality of life in the city. I want to create an army of volunteers who will become leaders of uniformed youth groups, mentors, sports coaches, literacy champions, help green London through planting trees and support learning activities for older people. The scheme will also ensure better co-ordination of existing volunteering activity and help make volunteering more accessible. Volunteers and businesses can sign up to be become a part of Team London at: www.london.gov.uk/teamlondon. New London Plan Published On 22 July, I published my new London Plan, which establishes my blueprint for boosting the capital’s status as the best place in the world to live or do business and improving the quality of life for all Londoners. The new Plan focuses on key areas for London’s development over the next two decades against a background of a growing city: economic development, tackling climate change and other environmental issues, housing and transport. It particularly focuses on ensuring there are enough homes and jobs, and to make sure the infrastructure London needs is planned for and delivered effectively. To view the plan online please visit: www.london.gov.uk/priorities/planning/londonplan Consultation starts on lane rental scheme to tackle roadworks On 23 August, TfL began a 12 week consultation on plans for a lane rental scheme that would give utility companies a clear economic incentive to reduce the scale and duration of roadworks on London’s busiest roads. This followed the start of a national consultation by the DfT on 22 August 2011.