From London Green Party
During the annual debate over the upcoming budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group, Caroline Russell AM led her colleagues Siân Berry AM and Zack Polanski AM in proposing a transformative budget amendment to put London’s communities at the centre of Assembly funding.
Following the decision by other Assembly Members to vote against these urgent investments, Green Party London Assembly Member Caroline Russell said:
This budget process has shown exactly how much change seems to be hiding down the back of the Mayor’s sofa. It’s time we put that money straight into London’s communities.
I simply cannot understand why my colleagues elsewhere in the Assembly continue to celebrate the Mayor’s crumbs, instead of pushing to fully fund the initiatives we know Londoners need.
We will continue to push for the investment and attention that every high street, commuter, and resident needs here in London.
The six budget components proposed by Caroline Russell AM were:
1. Public Toilet Funding: While we commend the Mayor’s new programme of additional public toilets on the TfL estate, it lacks the ambition of our previous amendments so we aim to increase funding for the TfL toilets programme to build and maintain new, free public toilets.
2. Fare Concessions: For the older people who have consistently asked for the removal of restriction on their 60+ photocard and Freedom Pass, we will bring back the free travel provisions provided before the pandemic, which the Government made London remove.
3. Investing in Dead Spaces: We want to build a more resilient local economy by ensuring small businesses and community groups have spaces to grow by putting disused (but still useful) empty office blocks and shops into their hands.
4. Resident Empowerment: And not just open these spaces but support and empower people to be able to influence local development plans, and to build their own community plans with financing from a resident empowerment fund.
5. Climate Resilience Review: We will back the work of the London Climate Resilience Review by doubling its budget to £2 million specifically for the key recommendations that include collaborative work and work with communities.
6. Universal Basic Income: And for a community group with a pilot ready to go, fund the essential wraparound support for a pioneering Universal Basic Income (UBI) programme, to fully explore an idea that could be lifechanging for many Londoners.
These six proposals could have been fully funded using the following funding sources, none of which would have taken funding away from existing services:
- £30 million from an increase to the Congestion Charge
- £4.95 million from the Business Rates Reserve
- £1 million from the GLA Climate Emergency Funding Reserve in 2024-25 (£3 million over the next three years)
- £18.255 million from Reserves Earmarked for GLA Services
The GLA Group includes: Transport for London; Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, London’s Fire Commissioner, London Legacy Development Corporation, and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation.
A copy of Caroline Russell AM’s Draft Consolidated Budget Amendment can be found here.
