The political scene in London is set for a radical shake-up following the decision to create the role of elected Mayor of London and a London development agency
London prides itself as a world capital, but its own administration is, frankly, a mess. There has been no city-wide governance since the Greater London Council was abolished by the Conservative party in the 1980s; a patchwork of local borough councils has operated in place of a body that has overall strategic control.
In May, Londoners voted by referendum to elect a Mayor of London, who will spearhead a new Greater London Authority. The mayor, to be elected in 2000, will control a £3bn annual budget and have strategic responsibility for transport, planning, regeneration, and tourism, among other concerns.
In the interim, the London Development Partnership is taking the initiative on strategic issues (see box).
A study programme has been established to set an agenda for the London Development Agency and the first London Study will be published in June and finalised in September. According to chairman of the City Corporation’s policy and resources committee, Judith Mayhew, it is the first such exercise to receive EU funding and it is to provide a practical model for sustainable urban regeneration.
As well as its business and commercial remit, the review will also address an array of social issues. The capital has 11 of the 15 most deprived areas in the country and the Square Mile itself is surrounded by some of the poorest districts in Europe.
The new mayor’s office will come under massive scrutiny when he or she takes charge. It will allocate money granted from central government to the LDA and appoint its board. Says Mayhew: “It will be very much a wait-and-see situation and very much determined by the personality, agenda and mode of delivery of the successful candidate.”
Although ideally the Mayor should be apolitical, Mayhew says: “It is very likely to be a political person simply because the management of an electorate the size of London could only be undertaken by the big parties in terms of canvassing ability and so on.”
Newly-appointed LDP chief executive Eric Sorensen says of the mayors’ office: “I think it will be a support to local democracy and will provide good leadership. It will also generate development funds when projects are initially deemed non-commercial, but they are very necessary.”
But not everybody is happy with the proposals. Edward Lister, vice chairman and leader of Wandsworth Council in south London, thinks the mayor’s powers will add a further layer of bureaucracy and frustrate large-scale commercial development across the capital. As a result of giving the mayor power to intervene in up to 300 planning applications a year is meaningless if central government retains his intervention powers too. He believes this could delay major schemes by up to two years.
Privately, some at the City Corporation think the LDA will cover too wide a geographical area and would favour an agency that deals only with the central areas and adjoining deprived boroughs. Others question the wisdom of having a strategic body without strategic money, saying that because central government will hold the purse strings the mayor is without real power; and that no prime minister will allow a Parisian-style mayor with all the power that is attached to that office.
Critics also point out that the corporation is successful because it is organised on specialised business and commercial lines.
They say in creating the role of mayor, the government has tried to accommodate a ragbag of too many interests as a result of lobbying by pressure groups. Further, the citizens who live in leafy lane suburbia do not have business or commercial interests to push and their opinions would therefore be irrelevant and inappropriate when it comes to promoting business needs.
The new mayor will need to respond to a wide range of expectations while maintaining the popular support of the electorate. The character of the city will be strongly influenced by the way in which the major meets these challenges.
The players
The London Development Partnership is the precursor to the London Development Agency, which will come into force after the election of the Mayor of London in 2000.
The LDP is a made up of 17 partners embracing local government, private enterprise, a trade union body, education, tourism and training. The principal partners are the Association of London Government , the Corporation of London, London First and the London First Centre.
The LDP will prepare a capital-wide development strategy that will be implemented by the mayor and the LDA. Its key focus is regeneration through inward investment, available grants and the single regeneration budget.
LDP will work with English Partnerships to identify key regeneration sites across London.
