Review: “Our London’ – Ideas for London’s future”

In a new book released today, Labour’s Shadow London Minister Sadiq Khan, has kick-started a conversation about London’s future with a wide-ranging look at the major challenges facing the capital over the next decade and some bold and radical solutions.

‘Our London’ is not a tribal book. Sadiq has pulled together leading experts from all different backgrounds in London. This includes leading Labour figures like Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Lord Adonis and Sir Robin Wales, but also figures from other parties like Baroness Jenny Jones from the Green Party and academics and experts with no political affiliation like Professor Tony Travers and Matthew Bolton. As a result the book contains new ideas and fresh thinking.

Khan writes about the opportunities his family had when they moved to London from Pakistan in the 1960’s. His dad was able to get a job as a London bus driver, his family were able to get council housing so they could save for a deposit to buy their own home, Sadiq and his siblings had a fantastic state school education and were able to go on to university and apprenticeships, successful careers and ultimately buy their own homes and bring up their families in the same part of London. With the severe cost of living crisis facing Londoners today – as real wages fall while the cost of housing, transport and energy rockets – there are real questions whether the same opportunities exist in the capital today.

As well as the lack of opportunity, the second challenge that runs throughout the book is London’s rapid population growth. With the population set to rise by a staggering 1.3 million by 2021 – London will need new homes, transport infrastructure, schools and hospitals in order to cope. Boris Johnson’s hands-off approach to planning for the future means there is currently no preparation to put any of this in place. Government policy is also making it more difficult – closing A&E’s and hospitals just as we need more, failing to build schools where demand is highest and a complete failure to get London building more homes or infrastructure.

In his chapter, Sadiq sets out Labour’s plans to tackle the housing crisis in London, which he describes as the biggest challenge to face our generation of politicians in the capital. My experience in Feltham and Heston is that the crisis is dramatically affecting all Londoners – the housing market is out of reach for most, rents are rising beyond control and conditions in the private rented sector are getting worse.  Labour’s plans to build 200,000 homes a year, make renting more secure and affordable, build more social housing, make ‘affordable housing’ actually affordable and build the next generation of new towns and garden cities is an ambitious plan that will make life easier for all Londoners.

‘Our London’ contains a lot of new ideas for Labour to consider as Jon Cruddas, a fellow London MP, begins planning our manifesto. New bridges, tunnels and Crossrail 2, devolving funding for unemployment to local government, creating new apprenticeships, the possibility of a London minimum wage, London-wide planning for school places, ensuring we have more ethnic minority police officers, supporting community art projects and protecting local services.

One of the most powerful contributions is from Baroness Doreen Lawrence, who Ed Miliband recently made a Labour peer. Doreen writes that despite the progress made, life is still a struggle for young black Londoners who will earn less, are twice as likely to be unemployed, more likely to be stopped and searched and to leave education without qualifications that their white counterparts. It’s sobering to hear from someone who has led the fight against discrimination for twenty year and shows exactly why a serious conversation about London’s future is so important. Because although London is a wonderful city, with strong communities, fantastic culture and arts, too many Londoners are still left behind and don’t have the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

This is an excellent Fabian Publication which I recommend to all interested in shaping the debate about London’s future.

‘Our London’ is edited by Sadiq Khan MP and published by the Fabian Society. You can download it here. Seema Malhotra is MP for Feltham and Heston, and President of the Fabian Women’s Network