Yahoo News Julian Glover: The capital can be a powerhouse again, but we need better leaders
One day, by a wide muddy river 2,000 years ago, London began. Soon there was a bridge, bath houses and basilicas. Then a crisis began. The Romans left. Lundenwic rotted. But not for long.
It bounced back. It always does. It’s our greatest city. And it works. Although it is horrible to live through, coronavirus will be just a blip in the story of London, not the end of it.
Yesterday the Evening Standard reported London’s crisis: offices empty, jobs crashing, the West End empty, the Tube deserted. But the raw driving force behind urbanisation won’t vanish. Population growth will go on. Skilled, clever, ambitious people will come to the city. Interesting, unpredictable things will happen. London will survive — but will it be better? That choice is in our hands.
Cities are stimulating, environmentally sustainable, creative and liberating machines for living and London has been better at that than almost any other on the planet. Whatever you want, whoever you are, there’s a bit of London for you. But knowing that we will get out the other side, somehow, doesn’t mean we should leave things to chance now.
We need to run London better to make a better London. Where will that leadership will come from?
Not the Mayor, who’s no use at all. Not from most of the boroughs although some leaders, such as Georgia Gould in Camden, are impressive. Certainly not from most property developers (there is no modern John Nash to build a contemporary Regent Street) or the City.
The response is fragmented and scared, not commanding.
London has become the world’s city and lost its own voice. When it was booming that didn’t matter. Now it does.
Talking up the left-behind north of England has become a trope of our politics. But now it’s London that needs help. The Prime Minister and his shadow are both London MPs. But we’ve heard nothing from them for London.
It’s easy to moan. So what might a plan to pull London back to recovery consist of? Here are five ideas we should try.
Idea one: A green city. Air we can breathe safely. No private cars in central London. Electric taxis only, with discounts for the disabled who can’t use the Tube (which, by the way, should go back to full service with full capacity, with masks and hand-cleaning obligatory). Full-scale road pricing everywhere inside the M25. More trees. Green corridors out to the green belt — and make that a wild place for nature and people, not scrappy lost land. Let’s look back at 2020 as the year we decided to make London a nicer city to live in.
Talking up the left-behind North has become a trope of our politics. But now it’s London that needs help
Idea two: Homes people can afford. Who’s making it happen? A mix of planning rules, vulgar taste and a chase for cash has given London a lot of two-bed flats glassy boxes sold off plan to investors. We also need new property that’s useful. New council houses would help (with decent design — see the Agar Grove estate in Camden to find out how good they can be). It looks like we’re about to end up with a lot of empty offices. Let’s turn them into homes (but not hellholes: design and space matter).
Idea three: London should stop whingeing. We should hear less from the Mayor about how he’s being let down by others because of a lack of cash – his favourite theme – and more about the city he wants to lead. What’s he going to do to get the city centre buzzing again? How’s he helping young people escape crime? His campaign website for the 2021 election tells us a lot more about what he’s against than anything he’s actually for. It’s not always someone else’s fault. London can do it.
Idea four: And when he’s done that create a more powerful role for the Mayor and lots of local initiatives to save our city. Yes, political reform is boring. But the Mayor isn’t in charge of most things — London’s streets are run by 34 different bodies which is one reason our cycle routes and planning are so poor and inconsistent. I’d abolish those sluggish, too-big-to-care, wasteful boroughs and give the Mayor clout. Then I’d counter that by setting up, cheap, creative ultra-local pocket parishes that people can feel part of and shape. I live in Mile End — not meaningless Tower Hamlets.
Idea five: London’s population is twice the size of Ireland’s. It’s a country in itself. It should take on tax powers. Make the border a real one if it needs to — a London-only visa? A London trade deal with the European Union? Our own route out of lockdown?
We live in a powerhouse. Let’s run it like one.
