All Londoners must share in the city’s success
London has achieved considerable economic success over the last 8 years, but Ken Livingstone rejects the idea that everyone will automatically benefit from this by a ‘trickle down' effect - the aim of the Mayor must be to enable all Londoners to benefit from that success through a higher quality of life.
That includes breaking
down the barriers that prevent many Londoners from participating in London's prosperity, such as lack of education or skills,
discrimination, and poverty and ensuring those with particular needs are
particularly helped. Particular priority must be given to eradicating child
poverty and radically improving youth facilities in London.
Ken will be setting out his full programme for a new Mayoral term on these pages in the coming weeks.
If re-elected Ken will introduce 24 hour operation of the Freedom Pass - giving older and disabled Londoners free travel before 9am and throughout the day. He will deliver youth centres for our young people - a £78m programme to set up youth centres and improve youth services throughout London to provide safe facilities outside school hours.
If re-elected, Ken will build on a record of success including:
- Abolition of bus and tram fares for all under-18s in full-time education; made bus and tram travel half price for Londoners on income support; defended the Transport for London guarantee of the Freedom Pass and rejected Tory attacks that the Freedom Pass is a ‘stealth tax on Londoners'
- Made it a condition of bidding for the Olympic Games that it be held in East London so that the most deprived part of the city benefited from the transport and infrastructure for the Games
- Established new £560m London Skills and Employment Board that will, for the first time, tackle London-wide issues on skills and employment, chaired by the Mayor
- Established the London Living Wage - now at £7.20 an hour - in recognition of the higher cost of living faced by workers in London
- Near-doubling of night bus network enabling lower-income shift workers to get to and from work affordably and safely
- £33m over three years for 10,000 affordable and flexible childcare places in London
- 53 per cent increase in black, Asian and ethnic minority, and 34 per cent increase of women, police officer numbers over the last five years.
- The proportion of black, Asian and ethnic minority fire-fighters has doubled in the past five years
- New scheme to support women, Black, Asian and other ethnic minority Londoners trying to become taxi drivers, with record 30% of applicants for the ‘Knowledge' now black, Asian or ethnic minority
- Greater London Authority recognised by Stonewall as UK's 2nd ranked employer for lesbian and gay rights. Groundbreaking London Partnerships Register set standards for national law change
- Three quarters of a million Londoners are disabled, so introduced fully low-floor accessible London bus fleet, and free fares introduced on Dial-a-Ride, enabling disabled Londoners to more easily travel to access jobs, services and leisure
- Won a Guardian Public Services award for disability rights
- Annual Liberty festival established as biggest disability arts event in Europe
- Campaigned against post office closures
- Partnerships set up with 11 local authorities to deliver literacy and numeracy support for employees in low-skilled occupations