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BYE BYE BORIS, 'SUP SADIQ!
After an eight-year reign, King Boris is relinquishing his crown and it seems Sadiq Khan is about to start making himself comfortable on that big old throne in City Hall. The former human rights lawyer and Tooting MP beat the other 11 hopefuls but now has to step up and make good on all those promises he made. In his manifesto, he says that he will tackle the housing crisis and low pay, be green, freeze fares and just generally make London a better and more equal place to live. This all sounds great to us and we'll be keeping everything crossed that he can make this happen during the coming years. Congrats, Sadiq and welcome – it's a big job. Don't fuck it up.
Read our interview with Sadiq and check out his ten priorities for London:
- Tackle the housing crisis, building thousands more homes for Londoners each year, setting an ambitious target of 50 per cent of new homes being genuinely affordable, and getting a better deal for renters.
- Freeze London transport fares for four years and introduce a one-hour bus ‘Hopper’ ticket, paid for by making TfL more efficient and exploring new revenue-raising opportunities. Londoners won’t pay a penny more for their travel in 2020 than they do today.
- Make London safer, with action to restore neighbourhood policing, tackle gangs and knife crime, a plan to tackle the spread of extremism, and a review of the resourcing of our fire service.
- Be the most pro-business Mayor yet, working in partnership with industry to deliver on skills, infrastructure, and growth.
- Restore London’s air quality to legal and safe levels, with action to make travel greener and pedestrianise Oxford Street, while protecting the green belt.
- Set up ‘Skills for Londoners’ to ensure all Londoners have the opportunity to train in the skills that our economy needs.
- Tackle low pay, working with employers to make London a Living Wage City.
- Challenge gender inequality, working to close the gender pay gap and support women to break the glass ceiling while helping to remove the barriers to women’s success.
- Make cycling and walking safer, with more segregated cycle routes, action on dangerous junctions, and safer lorries.
- Make London a fairer and more tolerant city, open and accessible to all, and one in which all can live and prosper free from prejudice.
Oh and here he is hanging out in our offices with City Life Editor Eddy Frankel:
Got things you'd like Sadiq to change in London? Comment below.