Building a prosperous city
In 2000, at the time of the first election for Mayor, the discussion was of London's competition with Paris or Frankfurt. London has now progressed to the point where it is ranked ahead of even New York as the most successful major city in the world.
But maintaining that position requires large scale investment for the future, which is why as Mayor Ken Livingstone has devoted so
much time to securing the funding for Crossrail, improving public transport, adequately funding the police, increasing the supply of housing, enhancing the quality of life of Londoners and visitors and protecting the environment.
Ken will be setting out his full programme for a new Mayoral term on these pages in the coming weeks.
Ken will deliver investment in major projects that will enable further, sustainable growth in the future:
- Building Crossrail to deliver the biggest increase in Underground capacity in London for decades, linking Heathrow, through Paddington, to Liverpool Street, Stratford and further east
- Using the Olympic legacy to transform the long-neglected Lower Lea Valley, with 9,000 new homes in the Park and opportunity to build 30,000 more in the surrounding area, creating 50,000 new jobs and acting as a catalyst for the transformation of a much wider area
- Regenerating the Thames Gateway, with capacity for 100,000 new homes in up to 2016
And this will build on London's record of economic success:
- Annual economic growth rates consistently out-stripping those of the rest of the country and maintaining productivity levels that are 25% higher than the rest of the UK.
- Growth of sales in shops in London that has exceeded the rest of the country for over two years
- While joblessness remains a key concern in some areas, unemployment across London has steadily fallen since 2000
- London has been the only major European city to raise its world market share in tourism for the last two years, with an extra 1.3 million visits to the capital boosting London's economy by £600 million and supporting 200,000 jobs
- Record attendances in London theatre - at nearly 14 million people in 2007, and ticket revenues rising to £470 million.
- London established in top three world filming locations, with over 100 feature films shot in the capital in 2006