London may not survive another four years of Sadiq

The capital must have a pro-enterprise, pro-growth, pro-vibrancy Mayor. Our national prosperity depends on it

He has already promised to build 40,000 new council houses. Over the next few weeks, he will probably pledge to double the number of buses, halve knife crime, and persuade ChatGPT to build a huge new Artificial Intelligence complex in the city. The London Mayor Sadiq Khan launched his campaign for an unprecedented third term this week – and we can expect many grand promises.
But hold on. In reality, a third Khan term would be a disaster for the UK’s largest economic hub. On his watch, the housing crisis has worsened, motorists have been driven off the roads, and crime has run out of control, while the cost of running the Mayor’s office has risen exponentially. Under Khan, Londoners pay more, and get less. A third term would make that even worse.
To listen to Khan launch his bid for a third term in office, you might imagine that the diggers and cranes would start work immediately after his re-election in May. Apparently, another 40,000 council homes will be built by 2030, double the number that were built over the last ten years. We can expect lots more grand-standing pledges from the Labour candidate between now and polling on May 2nd. We may well see plans for road pricing, another extension of the widely despised Ulez scheme, as well as plans for yet more cycling lanes, cheaper bus fares, and more low-traffic neighbourhoods. 
And yet, Khan’s record is one of near-constant failure. On his watch, what was once a rival to New York has started to slide into global irrelevance. The greenbelt, on which the Mayor is completely silent, has strangled development around the capital, preventing building in the areas where it is most needed. That is the real cause of the housing crisis, not the shortage of council-owned properties, but Khan has done nothing to liberalise it, while his constant threats of rent controls must have driven many landlords out of the city. 
He blocked the development of a London version of Las Vegas’s spectacular Sphere, apparently on the grounds that the “light pollution” from the arena might disturb the otherwise tranquil East London evenings. Not to worry, the Vegas version only pulled in $314 million of ticket revenue in its first full quarter. He has allowed the city’s commercial infrastructure to degenerate, with the electricity grid too feeble in parts of London to support new businesses. 
Perhaps inevitably, Paris and Berlin are catching up with the British capital for tech “unicorns” (start-ups worth more than $1 billion), simply because they at least have the power to crank the servers up into action. His Ulez scheme has run into widespread opposition, hitting small businesses hard, and even tourists are now suing the Mayor because they have been wrongly fined for driving into the capital. Nightlife, the heart of any great city, is dwindling away because transport is so bad. The list goes on and on.  
The one thing Khan has been able to do is spend lots of money on himself and his senior staff. According to a report from TaxPayers’ Alliance this week, the number of staff employed by the Greater London Assembly and its subsidiaries earning more than £100,000 has risen from 655 in 2018-19 to 1,146 in 2022-23. Extraordinarily for anyone who gets a bus or a tube occasionally, Transport for London now has 772 people making more than £100,000 a year, with 84 on more than £150,000. It is probably no surprise that the “Mayoral precept”, the extra on their council tax Londoners pay to support the city-wide administration, has risen by 57pc during Khan’s time in office. All those expensive advisers and administrators have to be paid for somehow.
Working alongside a Labour administration Khan could do even more damage. Rent controls? Sure, why not? Road pricing? Bring it on. Extra business rates, and employment rights? Yes please. Between them, a Labour-controlled City Hall and Downing Street would treat London as a cash cow to be squeezed and squeezed again.
That matters, and not just to Londoners. For all the talk of levelling up, London remains the key to the prosperity of the UK. It accounts for more than a fifth of GDP, far higher than its percentage of the population. And yet it has slowed down markedly since Khan took power. Indeed, according to the Mayor’s own office, the capital’s Gross Value Added was a sluggish 0.9pc during 2023 and it is forecast at a paltry 1pc for this year. 
Like the rest of the UK, London is now trapped in a doom loop of stagnant output, rising taxes, and deteriorating services. Our capital needs a pro-enterprise, pro-growth Mayor. It needs someone who welcomes new buildings, and will stand up to central government when it gets in the way of that; who recognises that London is where the jobs are, and the much of the green belt is obsolete; who understands that no one drives around the capital for fun, but small businesses and workmen need their vans; who believes in cracking down on crime, and will make sure the police are committed to that; and who will deliver value for money for taxpayers. 
Another four years of Sadiq Khan could be a catastrophe not just for London, but the UK as a whole.