Warwick Lightfoot: A vision for London

Warwick Lightfoot, the first Conservative to announce a campaign for the Tory Mayoral nomination, writes exclusively for ConservativeHome about his 'vision for London'.

"In this year’s London Borough elections, the Conservative Party showed that it can win in London and that Londoners have had enough of paying ever-heavier tax bills for poorly delivered public services. The Conservative candidate for Mayor of London has got to be able to show that we have something relevant to say about the big challenges that face London. In my judgement we need someone with experience grounded in London local government and also a broader experience of central government, with the professional expertise to sort out London’s public services. That is why I am putting my name forward.

I have been a London borough Councillor for twenty years. As an economist I have worked in the City and held two of the top advisory jobs in government at the Treasury and the Department of Employment. I know my way around Whitehall. I have a practical agenda for public service reform that that will improve London’s public services. Spending massive amounts of money on the Police, Underground and buses has been found to achieve little without reform. Just as Gordon Brown’s massive hikes in public spending have patently not delivered the improvements in the nation’s public services.

The main concern of people across London is crime. We need to cut it and get a grip on anti-social behaviour. We need to prevent crime. And we should not be afraid of saying that we intend to catch, convict and punish criminals. We will only do this if London has more police on our streets. We need police officers that know their communities and stay and work in them. Too many police career paths do not take account of the importance of deep local knowledge. None of this will happen without fundamental changes to the way the police are recruited, trained and managed. This means looking at changes to the Police Act. And it means making the Police more accountable to Londoners.

London needs competently and professionally managed public services. The management of employee relations on the London Underground has got to be brought into the 21st century. This has to happen if we are to get results from the massive investment that Londoners are putting into the Tube through taxes and higher fares.

The subsidy given to London’s buses has risen from £50 million to £550 million, but the service has not improved in tandem with the increased spending. There are more buses, but they are too often badly and dangerously driven. The one-man operated buses cannot manage the people standing around the doors. At peak times buses often travel around with a third of the seats upstairs empty, while drivers refuse to take extra passengers. Inadequate ventilation results in buses ending up hotter than the tube. We need to bring back conductors, ensure that drivers are trained properly and restore windows that can open to ventilate the buses.

Over the last five years, the annual budget that the Mayor sets each spring has roughly trebled from £3.7 to £9.6 billion - that’s an increased cost of over £700 a year for every Londoner (from around £500 to £1,200 a head). The Mayor presents these budgets in a non-transparent muddle. Londoners deserve value for money for every pound that the taxpayer spends. I would cut out the waste, confusion and duplication in the GLA budgets. The starting point should be a freeze on the City Hall budget and a zero based budget. At the moment, many of the 667 officers in City Hall duplicate what the London Boroughs do already. This wasteful spending on ever-increasing staff numbers has to stop.

London needs a Mayor who will work for the whole of Greater London. The outer London Boroughs have been landed with big bills and have had little to show for what they have to pay. Communities in outer London that, elsewhere, could be cities in themselves, need better bus routes, more swimming pools and sports facilities and better arts and cultural facilities. I will work together with all the London Boroughs for the good of all Londoners.

Amid all the wealth and the opportunities thrown up by London’s dynamic financial markets and economy, too may people are left behind and trapped in unemployment and poverty. London’s share of national employment has fallen. Nationally, ten of the local authorities with the lowest rates of employment are in London. I want to change this and ensure that we offer everyone the opportunity to have a job.

I want an easier London. My vision is of a cleaner and pleasanter city that is easier to get around and in which it is easy to get work. A London that is greener has more trees and parks and is friendlier to families bringing up children.

It is because I think London could be so much better that I am seeking the Conservative nomination this autumn."

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Warwick Lightfoot's campaign website.

Comments

[Kevin Davis]

"I want an easier London. My vision is of a cleaner and pleasanter city that is easier to get around and in which it is easy to get work. A London that is greener has more trees and parks and is friendlier to families bringing up children."

Which candidate will disagree with this statement?

Have to say there is not much of an agenda for change here. Summary is:

"Lock em up"
"Manage services better"
"Bring back conductors and give driving lessons to bus drivers"
"Slash spending"

I am not sure this is very Cameroonian nor will it compete very well with the Showbiz of Ken. You either need a personality to beat Ken or a radical agenda of change that Londoners can latch onto and align themselves with.

Let's get tourists off our underground network and on the surface. They came to London to see the place not sweat on the underground. That would make London easier to get around. Tourists could fill the empty buses and Londoners can use the subway.

Why can't we have skyscrapers like New York? The Old London skyline has been completely buggered anyway so why not form a new one.

Why not reform the congestion charge so that you need an additional road fund licence to travel in the central zone of London. The trouble with the CC is that it is a system of fines.

Let's use the vast bus budget on trams and stop being so mealy mouthed about the cost when Ken is flittering away so much on other useless schemes.

Pedestrianise Oxford Street and get the buses out of the way.

Although it is not part of the Mayoral election I think the GLA should comprise of all London Council Leaders and elected Assemblymen.

The Met Police commissioner should be answerable to the GLA - scrap the MPA, it is just more bureaucracy without power.

We also need to look at not just the range of powers that Ken has but the extent of them as well. I live in Outer London and his desire to impose inner London policies on the suburbs is doing immense damage. Should the outer London Boroughs even come under his authority?

Anyway, I could go on and on but we need to get radical if we are to get someone like Warwick elected. He is clearly a good guy but no one has heard of him (although I admit that once you did hear his name you would not forget it!!).

[CCHQ Spy]

This is not a vision it is a shopping list of policies and nothing very specific either. This for example is just pap - "My vision is of a cleaner and pleasanter city that is easier to get around and in which it is easy to get work. A London that is greener has more trees and parks and is friendlier to families bringing up children." Who wants a greyer London with fewer trees and is less friendly to families?

[Henry Mayhew]

I like the competent managerial approach which emphasises the numbers involved in Labour's waste and also brings up the issue of Police reform. The cost of Ken and his impact on tax needs to publicised if voters are to start thinking about an alternative.

Just reforming the Police and Underground staff as Warwick suggests would provide an historic tenure of office.

The new skyscraper idea makes a lot of sense and I would like to see a real focus on the Thames Gateway which seems to have enormous promise if the railways can be speeded up.

[Tory Bunny]

An interesting read. I few points I'd make:

More police on the streets: obviously no-one is going to argue against this, but it is a point that needs to be made. In late July last year when the Met flooded the stations, parks and streets with officers it felt the most secure place in the World.

I see no mention of the congestion charge, good. I think there is a risk that too much emphasis on the CC and it risks becoming for London what immigration and Europe issues became for the national party in the past, the issue that seems to overshadow all else.

I'd like to see a strong policy on homelessness, it can't be ignored in London and remember as well as the wellfare of the individuals homelessness is a blight on every street that tourists and business people see.

To beat Ken we need to find the candidate with the x-factor, that set Cameron out during the leadership. I've not seen the candidate with that yet, but I'm hopeful there is someone out there.

[Justin hinchcliffe]

It's far too eary for any of us to declare for a particular candidate. That said, we do need a 'big beast' to take on Livingstone. We need to find someone who is well-known outside the Conservative Party, has a proven track record of running a large organisation or business, is charismatic, liberal minded and looks reasonably attractive. So far, only Steve Norris fits that bill.

[Westminster Tory]

Lightfoot is a lightweight - like Borwick and Boles. Bring on the heavyweights.

[Chris Palmer]

Justin Hinchcliffe, someone liberal minded is the last thing London needs.

I wish Warwick Lightfoot luck in his challenge to become Mayor of London, though like Kevin Davis, I would say that he needs to show how he would differ from other potential candidates, and clearly state why he is best for the job.

[Justin hinchcliffe]

Chris Palmer, London IS a liberal city - get used to it!

[Henry Mayhew]

Not while I'm living here it isn't.

[Selsdon Man]

Kevin Davis suggests skyscrapers - very Ayn Rand!

[Walaa Idris]

So far so good, finaly someone who knows what Londeners want and need. I meet Warick last year when he was the Mayor of K&C.If he can do for London what the Torys did with K&C, then we are in good hands. I wish Warwick all the best, this is a tough challange but he is up to it.

[Kevin Davis]

Selson man:

Are you referring to the minarchist streak within Rand's thinking?

[Selsdon Man]

No Kevin. I was referring to Rand's love of skyscrapers. She considered them to be a great architectural achievement.

[london tory]

"I meet Warick last year when he was the Mayor of K&C. If he can do for London what the Torys did with K&C, then we are in good hands. I wish Warwick all the best, this is a tough challange but he is up to it."

This is unrealistic thinking. The Mayor's race is a media driven campaign. Getting elected by your fellow true blue Tory councillors in London's most Tory and blue rinsed borough is not in any way comparable.

It's nice that Warwick and Victoria have friends in Kensington & Chelsea who want to say nice and encouraging things about them and to them, but it takes a lot more than that to win this race. The kind of wards and boroughs that we need to win to defeat Livingstone are very different from the world of gigantic town houses, crime-free streets and financially secure lives.

[A South London Chairman]

Is it just me, or is Warwick Lightfoot possibly the least electable Tory possible?

Sad but true, that far more important than policy to getting elected, is someone who is:
1) photogenic (I'm afraid his photo shots so far make him look smug, pompous and not the type of man you'd like to spend an hour with).
2) has a name that doesn't sound like it comes out of Brideshead Revisited.
3) has had experience with real people, of which his being an "economist" hardly helps.

He MAY be an excellent politican who could do great things as mayor, but the electorate will simply never let him get that far.

In short if he became the mayoral candidate, I would find every way possible for my association to avoid campaigning for him, for it would undo all the good work Cameron has being doing of late.

PLEASE somebody inspiring and electable throw their hat into the ring!!!

[walaa idris]

To South London Chairman, what you are doing and saying (If he becomes mayoral candidate, I would find every way possible for my association to avoid canpaiging for him.....!!!!!) is what going to undo all the good work Cameron and the rest of the party is doing.

[Martin Hoscik (MayorWatch)]

London tory is right, you guys need a candidate who goes down well on the estates of Newham, Peckham and Camberwell more than you need a luvvey from K&C.

Norris is very good with REAL people. I've seen him impress in areas most Tories would be subjected to a wall of abuse.

Portillo might be capable but IMO he's a bit Westminster Village.

I don't know who you might pick to beat Ken but I do know that if their political CV starts and ends in K&C you'll be wasting everyone's time come 2008.

[walaa idris]

You guys are so unfair, just because they are K&C it does not mean that they are not REAL.
K&C have housing issues, unemployment issues, homlessness, crime..... etc, and yes they have loads of succesful and wealthy people living there too.

What I am saying here is that K&C is as representative of issues as the rest of London, the degree of represntation might vary but nevertheless the issues are one and the same, and so are the people facing those challanges. So why don't we all just keep an open mind, and give them a fair chance. After all things are changing and so must we.

[london tory]

The fact of the matter is that there are over 600 wards in Greater London. In May's London borough elections, Abingdon, which Victoria represents was the 11th safest ward for the Tories out of over 600. Holland, which Warwick represents, was the 27th safest ward. In both, the Tory vote is well over 70 percent--nothing like London.

Victoria has tried, and failed, to be selected by handfuls of local Conservative activists to represent the Conservative Party even for a seat on the London Assembly. Warwick has tried, and failed, to be selected for a winnable Conservative seat in parliament.

They do not know how to win except when victory is handed to them on a plate, in tiny unrepresentative parts of London. And not even small numbers of Tory activists have ever entrusted them with anything more.

[Kevin]

"Warwick has tried, and failed, to be selected for a winnable Conservative seat in parliament.

They do not know how to win except when victory is handed to them on a plate, in tiny unrepresentative parts of London. And not even small numbers of Tory activists have ever entrusted them with anything more."

London Tory - That's a bit unfair in Warwick Lightfoot's
case - he fought the parliamantary seat of Cornwall South East in 1997 which was, and is, certainly winnable.