Lib Dem Luisa Porritt informs the London group of companies that this is not a two-horse race for the town hall and presents plans for a recovery after Covid
The party’s candidate made proposals to members of the London Chamber to convert offices into new apartments and reinvent main streets, and criticized the government’s “leveling-up” agenda
Challenger to the Liberal Democratic City Hall Luisa Porritt gave the “Two horse racesArgument briefly shrunk yesterday, spoke to companies at the latest London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Online roundtable with the most important candidates for the Mayor of London.
“It’s in the interests of Labor and the Conservatives to fake it and tell people it’s after the post first,” said Porritt. “But there is very little risk that there will be a Conservative Mayor of London. People can be more flexible with their preferences. “
When asked what would move Londoners to give a voice to Camden City Council and the former London MEP selected Only in October last year, after Siobhan Benita had finished the race after the election was postponed to May this year, did she emphasize a strong pitch “Leveling up”.
“This rhetoric is very misleading,” said Porritt. “And the government seems determined to calm London down. I am really concerned with the government’s attitude. We are being ignored to appeal to the voters they won in the last election. The government seems to have given up London. ”
She added, “There is a lazy perception that we are all incredibly rich and should be squeezed like a money cow. For many Londoners this is not the reality. We have serious challenges and inequalities in our city and should not be ignored. It really needs to be justified why London is so important to the rest of the economy. “
Porritt also spoke of taking a direct, London-wide response to recovery from the pandemic by converting empty offices in the center into apartments – them “Houses in the heart of the city” Map out the 25,000 empty houses in the city and help the boroughs reinvent their main streets and the “600 local economies that make up London”.
More residents in the center, not in “rabbit hutch” homes but in high quality, affordable housing, would fuel demand, she said, while working at home, town hall investing in “locally led economic recovery,” and strategic planning would “make every neighborhood an attractive place to live and work”. It would be a departure from the “old-fashioned, retail-run high street model”.
The mayor could also be more creative with decentralized funding for adult education, argued Porritt, by supporting especially young people at risk of becoming a “lost generation” with a new London Apprenticeship Hub, offering help and information and a study on the universal basic income.
Porritt also suggested “safer and more efficient” routes for cycling and walking, as well as support for the green economy, including calling for “green roofs” for all major developments. “It is important to seize the opportunity to create a green economy. We don’t have to choose between coping with the climate emergency and economic growth, ”she said.
Europe – and the “self-inflicted economic catastrophe that Brexit is” – was also heavily represented, befitting a candidate who studied in Europe, entered politics after the 2016 referendum and became a MEP in London in 2019.
Porritt would work cooperatively with other mayors in Europe and “always put my energy into the fight for a close relationship with the EU”. She cited “cutting away” the status of the City of London as part of a wider impact “which already shows that we should be in the internal market and the customs union”.
And eventually she would build bridges with Whitehall. “Having someone new is an opportunity to heal that. The current mayor has a particularly bad relationship with the government. Maybe it’s time to reset that. “
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