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Zac Goldsmith Is Tory London Mayor Candidate

Zac Goldsmith Is Tory London Mayor Candidate

Zac Goldsmith has been chosen by the Conservative Party as their candidate for Mayor of London.

Mr Goldsmith was elected with 70% of the vote following an online primary and will face-off with Labour's choice Sadiq Khan in the 2016 mayoral election.

Mr Goldsmith, 40, said the main priority for London was to deal with the pressure created by a growing number of people flocking to a city that is seeing unprecedented investment.

The Richmond Park and North Kingston MP is a staunch opponent of Heathrow expansion and expanding the congestion charge and says air quality was fast becoming a priority.

"Our living environment is facing increasing pressure, and we will need to protect, enhance and improve access to our green spaces, as well as radically improving the quality of the air that we breathe," he said.

But the main issue for London is the housing crisis and Mr Goldsmith told Sky News that the solution to this requires three things, most of which the city already has.

"You need land – and we have stacks of brownfield publicly-owned land… (Transport for London) alone owns land that, if you put it together, would be the equivalent of Camden. We can prise that land away from the public bodies and we can build on it.

"You need planning – that’s a political issue, a political problem which the mayor and the local authorities can deal with.

"You need finance and the one thing London is not short of is people wanting to invest in our property.

"Put those together and you can create a very ambitious house building programme for Londoners.

"The key is that you build well – it’s not all about quantity, it’s also about quality. If you build badly…you will exhaust Londoners' appetite for development. It’s got to be done with community consent – it’s got to be done well."

The son of industrialist Sir James beat London Assembly Member Andrew Boff, MEP Syed Kamall and London's deputy mayor for crime and policing Stephen Greenhalgh.

Current mayor Boris Johnson said he is "delighted" for Mr Goldsmith, who he described as "principled, hard-working, and dedicated, he's fizzing with ideas".

Labour candidate Mr Khan welcomed Mr Goldsmith to the mayoral contest, adding: "(I) look forward to a positive and friendly debate about the big issues facing Londoners.

"This election is a referendum on London's housing crisis and I challenge Zac Goldsmith to join me in opposing the Tories' Housing Bill, which will make our city's housing crisis many times worse."