It begins:
The purpose of this introduction is to highlight the poverty of the Mayor's vision, for a growing city in a competitive world environment. In the introduction to his budget the Mayor announces 18 key budget objectives by which he wants to be judged. It is interesting that of these, 10 are objectives set by the previous Mayor, and remain largely unaltered, unless they have been scaled back.
It later adds:
London faces tough choices in a time of economic difficulty. Tough decisions are needed. But so too is a clear focus on and understanding of the priorities for our city. On this, London's Mayor just doesn't get it.
For Labour these priorities include: "protecting police numbers" and strengthening policing in particular areas; freezing bus fares at last year's levels and freezing some Tube fares too; making some cuts at City Hall but also spending more money on developing ideas for its future. These, intriguingly, include looking at bringing "the strategic NHS in London under City Hall control," and doing the same with "Government Office [for London] functions and budgets" and the LDA.
How would they have done the sums differently? Well, they'd take £150,000 out of the Mayor's enlarging Olympics team and reduced the number of press officers devoted to glorifying him in order to save the same amount. They'd also take the £75,000 Boris wants to spend on a USA Day and put it into the proposed UpRise music festival instead. And they'd maintain the sacred precept freeze, though they warn that next year might have to be different.
You can read the full document via here (it's the third item under the January heading). My tiny thoughts? They're quite right on holding down bus fares: Boris's objection to the level of subsidy betrays both his ideological aversions getting the better of his social justice instincts and the limits of his commitment to public transport. Their suggestion for the LDA seems to make perfect sense, and political winds are blowing that way too.
They wouldn't raise the Congestion charge any further than Boris plans to though, unlike the Greens, and on "police numbers" I can't quiet the little voice that says the cops have done very nicely for many years. And (he asked, naively) shouldn't most large organisations be able to handle a five percent budget cut, which is what borough commanders must do, without feeling too much pain?
The Mayor will take questions from the Assembly about his Final Draft Budget this morning from 10:00. You can watch the webcast via here.
