--- election_year: 2016 party_id: green party_name: Green Party party_leader: Siân Berry political_spectrum: left victory: false government_outcome: opposition sections: - economy - taxation - health - education - housing - immigration - foreign-policy - environment - transport - law-and-order - welfare - democracy-and-constitution - agriculture - energy - devolution - science-and-technology - local-government --- # Green Party London Mayoral Manifesto 2016 THE POWER OF GOOD IDEAS LONDON GREEN PARTY MAYOR & ASSEMBLY MANIFESTO 2016 ## THE POWER OF GOOD IDEAS For the first time in history over half the world lives in cities, and there is no better city to start changing the world than London. We have a rich history of change and invention and our eight million people are bursting with ideas to solve our problems. This Green Party manifesto sets out plans for the Mayor and Assembly that build on these ideas. Greens put fairness at the heart of all our policies: building more homes with co-operatives and smaller companies not big developers, funding experts to help communities defend their estates and helping private tenants with rent controls and a renters’ union so they can organise and stand together. We will create better jobs by supporting new, green and small businesses and make sure more workers win fair wages. We will save lives and set an example to the world by cleaning up our air and creating a network of better green spaces, and by reducing our waste and impact on climate change. We will make London a better place to live by reducing traffic, improving public transport and helping people walk and cycle on safe streets to nearby shops and services. We will restore trust in the police by working with citizens to rethink their priorities, and we will work to protect London’s health services from privatisation and cuts. Above all we will make sure City Hall listens to Londoners and involves them more directly in the decisions that affect our city. The new Mayor and Assembly elected in 2016 must take the first important steps towards a better future for all our people. We can do that, and build on sixteen years of effective work by Green Assembly Members in City Hall, if you help elect more Greens on 5th May. SIAN BERRY, GREEN CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR ## CHAPTERS 1. Action on housing 4 2. Transport that works 8 3. Air pollution and public health 12 4. Jobs and businesses 16 5. Policing and communities 20 6. Equality and diversity 26 7. Our city’s environment 30 8. Energy and climate change 34 9. Giving Londoners a voice 36 Cover: Sian Berry, Green candidate for Mayor of London, with Shahrar Ali and Caroline Russell, candidates for the London Assembly Our KEY POLICIES FOR LONDON Real Action On Housing Transport that works 200,000 new homes, half of them built affordably by councils, smaller developers, communities and housing associations. Fair fares for commuters, with lower costs for outer London, flat fares by 2025 and change between buses, tubes and trains at no extra cost. Renters’ rights supported, with a London Renters Union and a push for rent controls. Fair charges for motoring, to reduce congestion and pollution and help pay for improvements to public transport. No more estate demolitions, with practical help for residents to make alternative plans. End rough sleeping, with places for at least 2,000 former rough sleepers and people moving on from hostels in our housing plans. Cut Deadly Air Pollution End the crisis of filthy air, bringing pollution below legal limits by 2020 at the latest. Get the most polluting vehicles off the road, and switch all buses and taxis to zero emissions. Tell Londoners the truth, with clear, consistent warnings about polluted air days. People-friendly streets, with big ticket projects in every borough to support walking and cycling. Bring privatised trains back into public hands under the wing of Transport for London. A Greener London No new runways at Heathrow or Gatwick and close City Airport to build a new quarter for London. A not-for-profit London Energy Company to compete with the ‘Big 6’ and power Crossrail. More than half of London to be green space, to support access to nature, growing food locally and reduce flood risks. Stronger businesses and more jobs Create a Bank for London to support small businesses and the local economy. Fight for the London Living Wage for the one in five working Londoners who are still paid less. Education, Skills And The Arts Stop the loss of arts and music venues, particularly through the use of planning powers. Protect independent businesses, particularly from soaring rents and unchecked regeneration. Rewrite the London Curriculum to support a broader range of subjects including arts and tech skills. Better part-time jobs, with 1,000 new employers signing up to truly flexible working. Create at least 150,000 high-quality apprenticeships. Policing AND The Community Focus more police time on community policing, tackling hate crime and supporting young people. Involve communities in addressing extremism, rethinking the flawed and discriminatory Prevent strategy. Achieve ambitious diversity targets and gender equality in the police, and introduce name-blind recruitment across London. Giving Londoners A Voice Bring Londoners into City Hall’s decision making and kick out big business lobbyists. Gain more powers for London to decide its own taxes, policies and services. Campaign to keep the UK in the European Union. GreensontheLondonAssemblyhavealready: • Helped establish the first major community-led housing project at St Clement’s in Tower Hamlets, ensuring the Mayor provided them with the land. • Supported council tenants in stopping or changing plans to demolish their homes, including residents of the Heygate estate in Southwark, the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates in Earls Court, North Tottenham estates in Haringey and Cressingham Gardens in Lambeth. • Secured £5 million for community groups to bring empty homes back into use, helping homeless people learn new skills and develop homes at affordable rents. 4 London Green Party Manifesto 2016 Housing actionon A decent, affordable home is a basic human right and should be at the heart of any civilised city. However, London’s housing is in crisis. Most young people can’t buy their own home and millions of us pay a huge proportion of our wages in rent. A city that is affordable only for the very well off is a broken city. The Green Party will set up a not-for-profit housing company to help Londoners take the lead on building affordable homes and regenerating our estates. We will use City Hall money and public land to support residents in planning their own regeneration projects and to create a more diverse, public, private and co-operative sector for new homes on smaller sites. We will make sure new housing is built to the highest environmental standards, making them warmer and cheaper to run. And we will insulate older homes to the same standards. We will shake up the private rented sector by setting up a renters’ union to help tenants help themselves against rogue landlords and lettings agents, and we’ll set annual figures for a living rent for students and private tenants to help us all campaign for the power to control rents. GreensinCityHallwill: CREATEanot-for-profithousingcompany Leaving housing to the big developers and investors clearly isn’t working. Our plans will enable a wider range of smaller companies, co-ops, community land trusts and individual self-builders to be involved in the development of the vast amount of public land under City Hall’s control.This will improve the speed of delivery of new homes as well as pioneering new ways of providing real affordability. We will set up a not-for-profit housing company for London. Thehousingcompanywill: • Create a new People’s Housing Precept, replacing the existing Olympic Precept from 2017, using an increase in council tax to create a fund to invest in new homes and community-led housing projects. * Establish a People’s Land Commission, making more public land available to community-led housing projects and using compulsory purchase powers to help them assemble other sites ready for development. * Provide a Community Homes Unit of experts in planning and project development in City Hall to help communities and small builders develop their plans. * Offer residents a ‘Right to Regenerate’, giving them the chance to take control of regeneration in their area by developing their own Neighbourhood Plan and establishing a community-led company to realise their plans. * Aim to provide 200,000 homes by 2020, with 50,000 new homes a year created through a combination of new-build and redeveloping empty properties. ## SET UP A LONDON RENTERS UNION More than two million Londoners are private renters and they currently get a raw deal. High rents, insecure tenancies and poor conditions are a normal part of life for far too many. We will comprehensively reform the private rental sector to reduce rents, make renters more secure in their homes and protect them from exploitation. We will support renters’ organisations by helping to establish a London Renters Union with core costs and office space funded by City Hall but with the union operating entirely independently of the GLA, which it will also need to lobby and influence. ### THE UNION COULD: * Work with the Mayor and London Assembly to lobby for radical reforms, giving the Mayor the power to bring in rent controls and require more stable tenancy agreements. ## EXPOSED: PLANS TO CUT 7,000 COUNCIL HOMES Darren Johnson AM has exposed that plans to regenerate estates across London will lead to the loss of more than 7,000 council homes. Figures from the Mayor obtained by Darren show that Assembly candidate Jennifer Nadal supporting residents of the threatened Silchester Esttate estate regeneration schemes will result in the loss of 1,389 affordable homes and 7,326 social rented homes. These are all plans to demolish and redevelop estates that have been given planning permission already by councils and the Mayor. Darren says: “Under the cover of tired stereotypes about sink estates, the Mayor is whittling away homes that are affordable to Londoners. He talks up the new homes being built, without mentioning all those he is knocking down at the same time. “Almost without exception, estate regeneration has been a complete disaster in London and made our housing crisis worse.” * Support renters taking legal action against private landlords with advice services, a guide to their rights and signposting to other agencies that can help them. * Establish and support local groups exposing wrongdoing and prompting local authority enforcement action, for example undertaking ‘secret shopping’ exercises to identify those lettings agents not complying with laws relating to fees or uncovering racial discrimination against tenants. * Set up a Londonwide landlord register, working with accreditation schemes, borough licensing schemes and tenants to establish a database of landlords and campaign for mandatory licensing of all landlords. The database could also include a blacklist of rogue landlords. ## PLAN FOR GENUINELY AFFORDABLE HOMES We will bring Londoners into City Hall to rewrite the London Plan, which has become a charter for bad developers. This will give citizens’ groups a real opportunity to shape the future of development. ### WE WILL: * Set targets for new homes of different tenures based on need, supporting our aim of building 50,000 homes a year and include at least 16,000 social rented homes and 10,000 low-cost rented and ownership homes in the target. * Produce a usable definition of London affordable housing, ensuring that no ‘affordable’ home costs more than a renter’s or buyer’s income can realistically support. This will include a definition of a ‘living rent’. * Publish detailed supplementary guidance on viability, which includes measuring the value of land at its existing use and accounting for excessive land prices; removing any default or minimum profit level; requiring developers to publish their assessments in full and with a non-technical summary; and setting up an expert unit in City Hall to scrutinise applications and support borough planners. * Develop better policies for major regeneration projects by supporting neighbourhood plans, providing the community with financial support and giving expert advice through our not-for-profit housing company and Community Homes Unit. * Introduce planning policy requiring any regeneration of council or housing association estates to have a comprehensive, independent analysis carried out of the social, environmental (including embodied carbon) and economic benefits of all possible options, which will always include refurbishment and regeneration. Landlords must set out * an adequate Statement of Community Involvement, giving residents a genuine opportunity to co-produce any plans. No estate will be demolished without the genuine consent of its current residents, and the Community Homes Unit will provide support to residents who wish to take over their estate through their Right to Regenerate. * Introduce new policies on taller buildings, which can provide new homes and office space but must be located in the right places. Stronger planning rules are needed so that they play a positive role, both practically and visually, in London’s development and include street level amenities in their plans. * Make sure the new London Plan includes affordable homes for people at all stages of their lives, including Lifetime Homes so older people can stay in their homes as their needs change and making sure 10 per cent of new homes are wheelchair accessible. ## ELIMINATE HOMELESSNESS The Government’s policies mean more and more people in London are living without proper homes in temporary accommodation or on the streets. Rough sleeping has unacceptably doubled in London in recent years. We have policies to help deal with the causes of homelessness and we will also provide greater direct support to deal with this immediate and growing crisis. ### WE WILL: * Make sure London has a ‘housing first’ approach to end rough sleeping and include places for at least 2,000 former rough sleepers and people moving on from hostels in our housing plans, together with support for the private rental sector with deposits and advice. * Offer the services of our not-for-profit housing company to self-help co-operatives, which can work with homeless people to bring empty homes back into use and help them house themselves. * Set up a Homelessness Board in City Hall, bringing in public services such as the NHS, London Councils, the Metro- politan Police and specialist services to ensure a more joined-up approach is offered for pathways out of homeless- ness, particularly for those with multiple needs to make sure they do not slip through the cracks. * Make sure our housing policies form part of an integrated London strategy for improved mental health. Overcrowding and poor or precarious living conditions can lead to illness, and people with mental health problems are too often left to fall into homelessness. * Back a new law to prevent people on the streets being turned away by councils and extending the City Hall ‘No First Night Out’ scheme, with more GLA buildings and land used for emergency shelters particularly in the winter months. * Lobby London boroughs and the Government to protect homelessness funding and press for the London Councils grant scheme to be taken over by City Hall to protect essential services that operate across multiple boroughs. * Increase support for asylum seekers and EU migrants at risk of destitution and homelessness who have very little access to statutory help with housing or benefits, campaigning for more devolu- tion of funds and increased aid via the European Union. ## GUARANTEE HOUSING FOR ALL COMMUNITIES The impact of the Immigration Bill risks severely constraining access to housing for people receiving benefits and for migrants and their children. We must avoid creating an underclass of renters based on employ- ment status, nationality or ethnicity. ### We will: * Create an anonymous hotline for renters to report discrimination. ## COMMUNITY HOMES Both Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson promised to provide land for a Community Land Trust. But both dodged this commit- ment, preferring to sell land to the highest bidder. That usually meant big developers. Residents on the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates putting together plans. So Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones worked closely with London Citizens over several years to force Boris Johnson to honour his promise. She lobbied the Mayor to ensure the East London Community Land Trust could establish itself at the St Clements site in Tower Hamlets. Jenny also pursued Boris over his promise for a Community Land Trust on the Olympic Park. Our idea of a Community Homes Unit comes from Jenny and Darren Johnson working with groups like West Kensington and Gibbs Green Community Homes, who want to take over their estate, and Self-help housing, who help homeless people bring empty homes back into use and rent them. With a Green Mayor, this unit would help transform the way we build homes and communities in London. * Set up a task force to review the impact of the Immigration Bill on Londoners. * Petition the government to recognise the unique needs of housing in London and reverse the harmful measures in the Immigration Bill. ## GIVE A FAIR START TO STUDENTS IN LONDON Eight out of ten students worry about making ends meet. Student rents are soaring with London by far the most expen- sive region of the UK. We are not serving our valuable young citizens well when they are faced with such a high cost of living. ### We will: * Commission work to produce an annual London figure for a ‘Student Living Rent’ and then work with universities and colleges to make sure at least 50 per cent of rooms in their halls of residence are available at that rate or lower. ## TRANSPORT THAT WORKS Londoners need to be able to get around easily on a transport system that is fairly priced and works for everyone. Our streets are not just for travelling on but for spending time in, visiting shops, sitting, playing and getting exercise. Greens will prioritise investment in walking, cycling and public transport to help people out of car dependency. Our policies won’t create new traffic or make air pollution and congestion worse. Cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam chose to take a more liveable path many years ago and have reaped the benefits. Their leaders had the vision to make fundamental changes and now these cities have healthier streets and people, backed by huge public support. We can do the same in London by having the courage to make the right choices now. ## GREENS IN CITY HALL WILL: ### BRING IN FAIR FARES FOR EVERYONE It’s not fair that people in outer London pay so much more to get to work or that part-time workers pay more per day than those using monthly travelcards. And it’s not fair that if you need to take two buses, or change from a bus to the tube on the way you pay more than one fare for one journey. ### WE WILL: * Cut the number of zones to four next year, with savings for everyone currently in zones 3-6. ## GREENS ON THE LONDON ASSEMBLY HAVE ALREADY: * Tripled the cycling budget and introduced plans for cycle hire and cycle superhighways. * Provided crucial support to campaigns that scrapped a motorway bridge over the Thames and a third runway at Heathrow. * Started a smarter travel unit to support people swapping their car for the bus or bike. * Worked with bus campaigners to force Transport for London to publish a comprehensive bus safety plan, including a whistleblower scheme. * Achieve flat fares by 2025. By freezing and cutting outer London fares and letting other fares rise in line with inflation we can achieve flat fares and a single zone for all of London. * Create a new ‘ONE Ticket’ so you pay to get where you are going, not each stage of the journey, changing between any buses, trains and tubes along the way. * Ensure fair treatment of part-time workers with a lower rate for daily pay-as-you-go caps to match the savings made on monthly travelcards. * Integrate payments for bike hire and car clubs with public transport to make registration an automatic part of the system. Bike hire will be free with a Freedom Pass or 60+ card and discounted with Zip cards. ## REDUCE TRAFFIC AND POLLUTION We need to renew the creaking 13-year-old Congestion Charge. Experts and industry agree that London needs a new, smart road-charging system covering the whole city, which rewards drivers who avoid rush hour and the busiest roads. We also need much faster ways of reducing air pollution. This means extending plans for the new Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). We will start consulting on the develop- ment of these new measures straight after the election in May. Meanwhile we will take immediate steps to improve our existing efforts to reduce traffic and pollution. With new policies to discourage unnecessary journeys, particularly commuting by car, we will also raise funds to pay for lower fares and investment in better alternatives. ### We will: * Begin consultation on a replacement for the Congestion Charge to cover the whole of London and based on three key principles: levels of pollution from the vehicle, the distance driven and the time of day and type of road used. * Clean up our air with a stronger, Londonwide ULEZ, developed alongside the new congestion charging scheme to start in 2019 at the latest. The two schemes could be merged or imple- mented separately, and it is likely we shall need to exclude the most polluting vehicles from our city entirely, not simply charge them more. This issue will be a key part of our consultation with the public and public health experts. * Work with London boroughs to increase car club parking to match the potential for these services. We will aim for one million car club members by 2020. * Push for more freight and waste to be shipped on rivers and canals, protecting them from property development and creating a strategy for carrying more deliveries, parcels and post by bike. * By 2018, introduce a levy on workplace parking spaces, with higher rates for central and inner London and a lower #FAIRFARES 2025 ZONE MAP ## FAIR FARES AND ONE ZONE FOR LONDON London’s transport isn’t serving everyone equally. At stations across London, hard-pressed commuters are backing our plan to flatten the fare zones and let everyone change between buses, trains and tubes without paying extra. Our fares plan is fully costed and will be a better deal for Londoners across our city, helping people on low pay and part-time workers as well as everyone in outer London. Read more about our fares policy and see how much you would save here: sianberry.london/fairfares rate for outer London, to help reduce the impact of car commuting and encourage workplace travel plans and car-sharing schemes. * Recognising that taxis help fill the gaps in public transport and reduce the need to own a car, we value London’s black taxis, which provide a well-regulated, quality service. We will take steps to regulate the growing number of private hire vehicles, while promoting ways for people to make shared journeys and more efficient use of those vehicles. ## Invest in transport for a better future We will cancel plans for new road-building schemes, including river crossings and new road tunnels. Instead, our investment plans will be for new river crossings for people on foot, bikes and public transport. We will reduce the impact of traffic by investing in Londonwide improvements in walking and cycling, buses, trams, tubes and trains. ### People-friendly streets We will: * Ensure we have people-friendly street projects in every London borough to support better local town and village See more of our comprehensive policies to reduce air pollution in Chapter 3. centres. These will be led by local communities who want to see the benefits of reduced traffic levels. Each borough would receive a similar level of funding to the current ‘mini-Hollands’. * Fully implement Healthy Streets and Lifetime Neighbourhoods principles in all aspects of London’s spatial and transport planning. This includes making sure streets have places to stop and rest, find shade and enjoy pleasant surroundings, as well as providing good access on foot and by bike. * Introduce funding for better street play areas for young people, with rat-running reduced by closing off roads, and parklets and play streets for communities that want them. ### Cycling and walking infrastructure * Complete Transport for London’s current cycling vision and superhighway plans. * Increase funding for major cycling projects and ensure they are all of a high quality, with safe junctions and segregated space, so that Londoners of all ages can cycle safely. * Support major walking and cycling infrastructure projects, such as the planned pedestrian/cycle bridge from Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf. * Bring in ‘Car-Free Sundays’, starting with an expanding area of the West End, and encourage all London boroughs to follow suit in their town centres. * Permanently remove motor vehicles from Oxford Street as soon as possible. * Expand the Cycle Hire scheme and test the viability of expanding it into outer London boroughs or creating new town centre hubs. * Expand cycle training in schools and prioritise improvements to the road network around them to enable 100,000 more children to cycle to school. * Incentivise City Hall and Transport for London staff to walk and cycle to work as often as possible. ## Public transport ### We will: * Review the long-term infrastructure plan to 2050, ensuring more investment is made in new rail links, trams, light rail services and rapid bus routes to improve connectivity. * Increase bus capacity on overcrowded routes and ensure capacity on the wider network grows to meet demand. Use detailed data, working with bus, taxi and technology firms to explore where new routes are needed. * Support new public transport projects with strong local campaigns behind them, including the Sutton tram exten- sion, the Bakerloo line extension and an Overground link from Barking to Abbey Wood. * Support Crossrail 2 in principle but work to ensure that the route and new stations are in the best position for as many Londoners as possible to benefit. * Take all privatised commuter rail services under Transport for London’s wing, running them for the public good not private profit. Increase the frequency and quality of services with new investment, particularly on orbital routes to help reduce the need to travel by car in outer London. ## Better access for all ### We will: * Immediately review bus driver training with the involvement of older and disabled people’s groups to address issues of poor driving and behaviour towards people with disabilities. * Ensure all buses have the best possible access, including working with bus manufacturers and making procurement decisions by working closely with older people, parents and disabled people’s organisations to maximise access for people of all ages and needs. * Commission an independent audit of ways to improve accessibility on the tube and rail networks. Too many projects to provide step-free access at stations are currently on hold simply due to cost. We will make the case for the social value of these schemes and build a new investment programme. ## Reduce danger on our streets ### We will: * Introduce a 20mph default speed limit on all Transport for London roads, including red routes where people live, work and shop. The new speed limit will be properly enforced with average speed cameras. * Reinstate the road user hierarchy, putting pedestrians and those with disabilities at the top and private car travel at the bottom of priorities for schemes such as junction improvements. * Update and improve London’s Transport Health Action Plan and ensure that safe and healthy travel is a key goal of all our transport plans. * Support the extension of the Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS) to coaches and heavy goods vehicles in London (see box). * Develop the use of speed limiters and journey data recorders on all vehicles working for Transport for London. * Increase and improve traffic law enforcement, including training of police and TfL staff and monitor the impact of transport law enforcement on people walking and cycling. Work to treat dangerous and careless driving offences that kill and injure as seriously as violent crimes, seeking devolved powers to address this directly. ## REDUCING BUS DANGER Assembly Members achieve more by working with communities and campaigners. Darren Johnson AM has worked closely with campaigners like crash survivor Tom Kearney to improve the safety of buses for pedestrians and passengers. Bus safety campaigner Tom Kearney with Green Assembly candidate Caroline Russell Their first small victory was persuading Transport for London to open the bus fleet up to a whistleblower scheme called CIRAS, already used by train operators. It will let bus drivers raise safety concerns anonymously. In February, a comprehensive bus safety plan followed. This includes new technology to improve braking and limit bus speeds on 20mph roads. Bus contracts will include incentives to improve safety. TfL will also be much more transparent about safety statistics, and about collision investigations. * Install countdown signals at all major junctions and review traffic lights to ensure pedestrians and cyclists have enough time to cross. * Introduce a rush hour construction lorry ban (as a condition of planning and effectively enforced), and a rush hour HGV ban, implemented by amending existing planning restrictions on delivery times working with businesses, local communities and the boroughs. * From 2016 ensure all GLA Group procurement insists on direct vision cabs and HGV safety technology, extending this by 2018 to all lorries operating in London. * Risk assess regulated routes for HGVs in London to minimise danger on side roads and back streets. * Support the London Freight Enforcement Partnership to take dangerous lorries off our streets. All HGV operators and drivers in London will have to undergo cycle awareness training and register with the official safety schemes FORS and CLOCS. PUBLIC HEALTH AND CLEAN AIR The Mayor and City Hall have a clear responsibility to make sure London is a healthy environment in which to live, work and enjoy life. Air pollution causes more than 9,500 premature deaths in London every year. Sixty years after the Clean Air Act helped put an end to the deadly smogs that came from coal fires and power stations we need a similar level of urgent action now. Greens will stop the half-hearted efforts to clean up our air and make comprehensive plans to bring pollution below legal limits by 2020 at the latest. We will develop plans to meet this commitment whether the Government plays its part or not. The public health responsibilities of the Mayor also include promoting physical activity for daily trips with great streets for walking and cycling, making sure healthy food is widely available, supporting good mental health and wellbeing and reducing the risk of disease at all stages of our lives. ## GREENS IN CITY HALL WILL: ### TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION ON POLLUTING VEHICLES ### WE WILL: * Tighten up the standards on the current Londonwide Low Emission Zone for vans and make sure they are properly enforced through vehicle checks, with enforcement of the existing ban on idling for parked vehicles. ## GREENS IN CITY HALL HAVE ALREADY: * Secured cross-party support for the Low Emission Zone and other policies to keep the most polluting vehicles off our streets. * Set up London Food, which has gone on to train almost 2,000 school and hospital catering staff to provide healthy food. * Supported local campaigns against NHS privatisation and hospital closures. * Consistently been the only party to promote traffic reduction as a way of reducing pollution. * Introduce a higher congestion charge for all but the cleanest vehicles in central London, to create a Very Low Emission Zone. This will ensure that where drivers have a choice of vehicle they never bring polluting cars into London and will provide a strong incentive for London’s car owners either to give up their vehicles or to change from diesel to petrol, hybrid or electric cars as quickly as possible. We will invite boroughs to opt in to expand this zone into illegally polluted parts of inner and outer London. * Accelerate the programme of replacing diesel buses with hybrids and electric vehicles, ensuring the entire fleet is moved to these technologies by 2020 at the latest and that the Ultra Low Emission Zone can be extended to all of London without affecting bus services. * Maintain and extend scrappage grants and loan schemes for black cab drivers so that all their vehicles are zero-emissions capable by 2018, ensuring there is a suitable charging infrastructure for them to run on electric power in all areas of inner London at least. * Join car owners and those affected by high air pollution in bringing legal action against car makers for cheating on their emissions tests and misleading all of us about the pollution caused by our vehicles. * Begin consultation immediately on introducing emergency traffic-reduction measures to protect Londoners from the worst air pollution days we currently experience. * Lobby Government for a scrappage scheme for diesel vehicles, and for changes to Vehicle Excise Duty and the new Roads Fund to encourage reduced car ownership or a switch to low- or zero-emission vehicles. ## MAKE LONGER-TERM, COMPREHENSIVE PLANS TO REDUCE TRAFFIC AND POLLUTION To do everything we can to reduce pollution, we also need effective planning and traffic-reduction policies. The planned Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) starting in 2020 is too small and has standards and charges for polluting vehicles that will be too slow in bringing pollution below legal limits. ### WE WILL: * Begin consultation immediately on a scheme to replace the ULEZ that will protect all Londoners and be effective in complying with the law. It could be combined with the new Londonwide traffic demand management scheme we will develop to replace the Congestion Charge. * Put much stronger car-free housing policies in the London Plan to support the trend for lower car ownership in both inner and outer London. This will be supported by our transport policies to improve public transport and make living without a car easier in all parts of our city. Find more policies for cleaner ways of getting around our city in Chapter 2. * Ensure all planning applications are air quality neutral, requiring new developments to reduce air pollution in the most heavily polluted areas. * Oppose all road and airport expansion and put together proposals for City Airport to be closed and replaced with a new quarter for homes and businesses, working with local authorities, businesses, smaller developers and academic and cultural institutions. * Revisit plans for the ‘New Bus for London’ to explore a number of newer, more accessible, higher-capacity and cleaner versions of the new design, more suitable for Londoners’ varied needs. * Ensure the electric car charging network is properly maintained and funded and aim to expand it to provide 25,000 charging points across London. * Develop more electric vehicle charging networks for vans, car clubs and private cars in local areas in collaboration with local councils. ## IMPROVE MONITORING AND HEALTH INFORMATION ### WE WILL: * Ensure that air pollution is monitored and properly publicise the data so that people can better protect their health, for example by cutting car use and avoiding outdoor exercise when there is high pollution. * Provide support through air quality funds for local communities to carry out their own monitoring exercises, helping improving public understanding and identifying hotspots that need urgent action. * Help to develop and install more continuous monitoring equipment, and innovative ways of providing public displays of real-time air pollution data on the streets. * Make sure all schools, retirement homes and day-care centres are able to develop air pollution action plans to respond to high pollution episodes. ## Bring in Integrated policies to support public health ### Healthy streets and neighbourhoods Our transport policies are integrated: focused on promoting walking and cycling and public transport, and helping people leave their cars at home. Car use is associated with low levels of physical activity, which increases the risk of obesity and poor health. A recent study for TfL found that if the potential for converting short car trips to walking and cycling was realised, there would be a net gain for Londoners of around 61,500 years of healthy life and economic benefits of £2 billion. ### We will: * Reduce fares on public transport for all of outer London, let people change between buses, trains and the Tube without paying more than once for their journey, and abolish unfair zones by 2025. * Ensure we have people-friendly street projects in every London borough to support better local town and village centres. * Fully implement Healthy Streets and Lifetime Neighbourhoods principles in all aspects of spatial and transport planning, and make London a dementia-friendly city through training for public staff as well as better planning. * Complete TfL’s current cycling vision and superhighway plans, and increase funding for major cycling projects, ensuring they are all of a high quality, with safe junctions and segregated space, so that people of all ages can cycle safely. ### Healthy food We know that the challenges people face in accessing healthy, affordable food and doing so in a sustainable way are as great as ever in London in 2016, with more than 100,000 Londoners turning to food banks last year for help. Rising inequality and poverty, small shops under threat from development into housing, and markets under threat from squeezed local authority budgets all add to the pressures on land use that reduce our ability to grow our own food and afford what is in the shops. Greens in City Hall will follow in the footsteps of Jenny Jones AM, whose pressure on the Mayor helped lead to the formation of London Food and make her its first Commissioner. We will strengthen this role, and integrate it closely with the public health work of the Mayor and boroughs. ### We will: * Develop a co-ordinated and strategic response to food poverty in London, working with boroughs to help protect and extend meals on wheels and free school meals, and deal with problems such as ‘holiday hunger’ when school meals are not available. Charities and voluntary groups are a vital part of the picture, as are monitoring the impact of welfare refore and strong policies to promote the London Living Wage. * Work with boroughs to map food poverty and identify opportunities to improve access to affordable healthy food by introducing new street markets and allotments in areas where it is hard to buy or grow food. * In the London Plan, require boroughs to create exclusion zones around schools where fast food shops aren’t allowed and to resist a saturation of fast food shops in any part of their borough. * Support and significantly expand London’s street markets, provide for them in major regeneration projects, and drive forward the recommendations of recent reviews by trade associations, the Government, Parliament, City Hall and the London First Retail Commission. * End the sponsorship of sporting events by junk food companies, and ensure all events given support by the GLA group offer healthy food options. * Back the introduction of a sugary drink tax. * Support schools, hospitals, prisons and care homes to grow their own food, offer more healthy food including organic vegetarian and vegan options, and remove all junk food and drinks vending machines. * Introduce standards in the London Plan so that every new home has space to grow food, whether on a large balcony or roof garden or in a garden or allotment plot. ### Harm reduction in sexual health **We will:** * Support key services such as sexual health clinics and domestic violence refuges as vital Londonwide services. Instead of a clinic or refuge being dependent on one local council’s overstretched budget we will ensure that these services are adequately funded at a London level. * Oppose cuts to local government’s public health budget. * We will lead the fight on sexually transmitted disease prevention and sex education, working to make sure sex and relationship education is included ## GREENS TAKING THE LEAD ON AIR POLLUTION Across London, Greens have been monitoring pollution levels through citizen science projects, working with local community groups to measure the pollution we are forced to breathe. Dee Searle, Green London Assembly candidate, has been co-ordinating a Camden-wide monitoring project. She says: Sian Berry and Caroline Russell join Islington Greens to put up air pollution monitoring tubes “Scientific studies have shown that 9,500 Londoners die prematurely each year because of air pollution. We need to know what that means for our neighbourhoods. “Our community pollution monitoring has shown hotspots on main roads, rat-runs, near schools and health centres, and even on residential streets. Greens in City Hall will use information like this to draw up effective Londonwide and local measures to reduce polluting traffic and prioritise people over cars.” Find out more about Camden Green Party’s work here: www.camden.greenparty.org.uk/waking-up-to-no2 in Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) classes in all London’s schools, and support efforts by Greens nationally to make it a statutory requirement. ### Drugs as a health issue **We will:** * Treat drug addiction as a health issue instead of waiting for it to become a crime issue, supporting changes to the priorities used by the police and ensuring that services are better integrated in order to bring a greater number of addicts into health care rather than the courts * Support the evidence and consensus among health workers, the police and educators against the blanket national prohibition of less dangerous drugs, a policy that pushes people into greater danger and underpins a lot of organised crime. 16 London Green Party Manifesto 2016 BUSINESSES JOBSAND London’s economy brings prosperity for London and for the whole of the UK. But the benefits are not felt by every Londoner and we still depend too much on financial services and the undue influence of the biggest of big businesses. We will ensure that smaller firms and co-operatives, alongside creative venues and businesses, receive the support they need to flourish. Small and medium-sized firms are at the heart of our communities, providing tmost of our jobs and helping to make our neighbourhoods distinctive and our city somewhere people want to live and work. We will back the firms creating the high- quality jobs of the near future: our rapidly growing digital and technology sector and new jobs in green energy. London’s young people will get the skills and training they need for a wide range of fulfilling opportunities, and our support of workers in their efforts to win fair wages and decent working conditions will also continue. GreensinCityHallwill: Backlocaleconomiesandsmall businesses The Federation of Small Businesses reports that the availability of affordable premises and difficulties in securing finance are key problems facing these crucial businesses. Support and financial services Wewill: • Create a Bank for London specifically tasked with providing loans and finance to small businesses. It would also be an ethical choice for London’s savers. Regional banks of this kind are a common feature around the world and this idea is long overdue for London. See more policies to reduce inequality and support workers in Chapter 6. GreensontheLondonAssemblyhavealready: • Introduced planning protections for small shops , as a consequence of two major investigations. • Held two Mayors to account on the number of jobs and apprenticeships for young people. • Exposed the loss of space and rising costs faced by small businesses and creative industries, forcing the Mayor and Transport for London to rethink policies around redevel- oping light industrial sites. * Help local authorities create town centre rejuvenation funds financed by the business rates paid by large retail developers and contributions they will be required to make as a part of gaining planning permission. The funds would be run by boards of local businesses, residents and community groups. * Make a small business owner chair of the London Enterprise Panel and focus the GLA’s economic development budget on support for small businesses and co-operatives. * Establish at least one Community Enterprise Zone on the GLA’s land bank, with the infrastructure to support small and social enterprises. * Create a strategic appointment in City Hall to oversee the continued development of London’s digital industries, supporting the development of ultra-fast broadband, protecting premises and helping start-ups and smaller firms gain access to promotion abroad. * Put the GLA’s banking services out to tender and include each bank’s track record in lending to micro and small businesses as an important factor as well as whether they have divested from fossil fuels ### Planning policy and protecting premises **WE WILL:** * Protect existing employment and small business space. The Government’s permitted development rights, allowing offices to be converted into residences, are not right for much of London. We will support local authorities in creating permanent exemptions where needed. * Define and protect areas where groups of businesses are of particular heritage and cultural significance to the city as a whole, such as the musical instrument cluster on Denmark Street’s ‘Tin Pan Alley’ or the restaurants on Brick Lane. ## PROTECTING OUR LIVE MUSIC INDUSTRY The number of live music venues across London has dropped more than a third in the past eight years alone. This is why Darren Johnson AM called on the Mayor of London to convene a Music Venues Roundtable, and this has now produced an action plan to protect an important part of London’s economy. Greens will help protect music venues. Pictured: Orphan Colours performing recently at The Borderline. Darren says: “London’s music venues are facing a crisis, not through lack of popularity, but from rapidly rising property values which have led to landowners increasing rents and new development projects that have have cost us some very long established venues. “Greens in City Hall will bring in stronger planning policies and new rules for when new homes are built next door, putting responsibility for dealing with sound-proofing on the new development, rather than threatening the existing venue with complaints about noise.” * Ensure all businesses displaced in City Hall and Council regeneration plans are able to return to those sites at reasonable rents * Protect London’s vital remaining high street launderettes, by exempting them from any new permitted development rights. * Use planning policy to ensure that all local neighbourhoods have a range of essential local services and shops. ### Tenders and contracts **WE WILL:** * Procure a larger portion of GLA services from smaller firms, using duties to consider social value when spending public funds. * Promote the Fair Tax Mark by encouraging firms tendering for contracts to become certified. * Maintain and improve the CompeteFor system helping micro and small enterprises bid for public sector contracts. ## SUPPORT ARTS AND CULTURE ### WE WILL: * Include in planning rules a requirement for a range of cultural spaces, including arts and music venues, to be built in new developments. * Protect our grassroots music venues, which are being lost at an alarming rate, by supporting their listing as assets of community value and with planning rules and a new approach to licensing, working with the boroughs to ensure that existing venues are not threatened by noise complaints from new residential developments around them. * Set up a register of ‘meanwhile’ temporary spaces available to help arts and cultural organisations where rising property prices threaten rehearsal spaces and artists studios. Many small and medium-sized organisations are seeking creative solutions to rising prices by looking to take over – either temporarily or permanently – warehouses and other industrial spaces and we will find ways to support such ventures. * Help small arts organisations and existing and emerging artists to benefit from our new advertising policies for London’s transport network. Local arts venues will get discounted advertising space at their nearest Tube station and at local bus stops. * On a permanent basis ensure that existing digital advertising space in Tube stations will be dedicated to art projects for one minute every hour. ## DRIVE IMPROVEMENTS IN WAGES, SKILLS AND EDUCATION ### WE WILL: * Extend City Hall’s London Living Wage requirements to include all the purchasing contracts within the GLA group, not just direct contractors. * Incentivise small firms via contracts and advertising discounts to sign up to be accredited Living Wage Employers. (Currently more than 60 per cent of small firms in the city pay the London Living Wage but very few are signed up to the scheme.) * Introduce anonymised CVs in all GLA Group recruitment and work with employers to use them more widely. This will help to ensure any conscious or unconscious biases are removed from the job application process. * Create at least 150,000 high-quality apprenticeships aimed at young people under 25, all paying at least the London Living Wage and with half a day’s off-the-job learning per week. * Continue to oppose tuition fees for further and higher education and the cuts to the Education Maintenance Allowance and university grants, all of which limit opportunities for young Londoners. * Lobby the Government strategic education priorities to be devolved to the GLA, in co-operation with local authorities in London, and for control of the Mayor’s academy schools to be returned to local boroughs. * Create a Deputy Mayor for education and assign staff in City Hall to work with schools and colleges to improve the co-ordination of education in the capital. A second post will help coordinate and improve further education, which has faced damaging cuts, putting at risk the ability of Londoners of all ages to train and improve their skills. DEAR MAYORAL CANDIDATE WELL YOU SIGN UP TO THIS **ART** AGENDA 4 LONDON? SUPPORT EVERYONES HUMAN RIGHT TO SING DANCE DRAW PAINT PHOTO GRAPH MAKE MUSIC+SPEAK OUT FIGHT TO CREATE TRUE EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY IN THE ARTS STR MAKE ALL SCHOOLS ART SCHOOLS EMANCI ALL MUSEUMS. DEASSERT PUBLIC VALUES AND NOT OYEE SKEEPMUSE UDC FOUNDATION “We have to think about values other than profit in this great capital of ours, otherwise we are in danger of losing the cultural richness that helped make it great in the first place. “I was involved in the sadly unsuccessful campaign to save the Cass art faculty – a creative powerhouse on the edge of the City – from being redeveloped. Just because it stands in a place where land values are rocketing off the scale, it is now being sold off, with courses disbanded and so much staff and student skill lost.” London Assembly candidate Caroline Russell, pictured with Sian Berry and Patrick Brill (better known as artist Bob & Roberta Smith), an associate professor at the Cass. ## POLICING AND COMMUNITIES *An effective police force is one that truly represents the people it serves. In a city as complex and diverse as London it’s essential that police officers get out from behind their desks and onto the streets to help build trust with local residents and business owners.* We will ensure the Metropolitan Police service (commonly known as the Met) gets the resources it needs to tackle crime and increase community cohesion and safety in the most effective ways. We will set new priorities in collaboration with the community and ensure that safeguards for civil liberties and fair treatment of all sections of the population are preserved. Working together we will do everything we can to keep all Londoners safe from harm. ## GREENS IN CITY HALL WILL: ### REVIEW BUDGET CUTS An investigation by the London Assembly concluded that officer numbers are a bad way to measure whether the police have the resources they need. Cuts to other public and community-led services can also have a significant impact: cuts to youth services have undermined the police’s ability to tackle knife crime, ## GREENS ON THE LONDON ASSEMBLY HAVE ALREADY: * Exposed the loss of lower-cost community support officers and civilian staff that will ultimately result in more police officers being back behind their desks and off the streets. * Reversed cuts to road safety policing, resulting in big falls in casualties from collisions. * Been at the forefront of defending Londoners’ civil liberties by helping to constrain the use of Tasers, leading cross-party opposition to water cannon, reforming stop and search and the policing of protests, and forcing the Met to delete thousands of peaceful campaigners from their database of ‘domestic extremists’. and mental health service cuts have left the police dealing with the consequences in often tragic ways. ### WE WILL: * Replace arbitrary officer targets with more sophisticated frontline capacity targets, with a particular focus on neighbourhood and community policing. * Undertake a review of council service and funding cuts since 2010 and explore ways of using more of the Met’s budget to support community organisations that are a vital part of their work of tackling issues such as knife crime, mental health and domestic violence. * Lobby Government for a fairer settlement on costs incurred from national and ‘capital city status’ duties and for the power to recover all policing costs from commercial venues and events such as airports and football matches. ## IMPROVE COMMUNITY POLICING ### We will: * Work with Londoners to develop new approaches to policing, and a model of policing by consent, extending to community policing, preserving public order while maintaining free speech and the right to protest, and the use of force. * Protect and expand Safer Neighbour-hood Teams with a new drive to recruit community support officers from their local communities, making the teams more representative in order to increase levels of trust. * Get more police officers out of their cars and onto the streets either on foot or on bicycles, providing a more visible presence locally. * Promote more inter-agency cooperation between the police, social services, physical and mental health organisa-tions and youth services, for example by placing youth workers in A&E departments and increasing the number of school visits by local police officers. * Create a fund within the Met budget for voluntary and community groups that help reduce the causes of criminal behaviour, for example youth groups that address knife crime. ## ADDRESS YOUTH VIOLENCE EFFECTIVELY Too many young people full of potential find themselves exploited by gangs. We need to work harder to help people escape violence and find a place in everyday society. ### We will: * Work with boroughs and community organisations to roll out a ‘community initiative’ response to gangs as a replacement for the flawed Operation ## CHALLENGING THE GOVERNMENT ON PREVENT IN ISLINGTON Green Councillor Caroline Russell proposed a motion calling on Islington Council to work with communities and faith groups to ensure that extremism is challenged collaboratively not driven underground. Caroline Russell backs the commu-nity cohesion work of Mohammed Kozbar at Finsbury Park Mosque. She tabled it in response to an incident in 2015 that saw a Muslim pupil at an Islington school questioned about links to Isis after using the word ‘eco-terrorism’ in a French class. Caroline says “Islington faith communities and schools are doing amazing work to promote community cohesion and challenge extremism. We need only look to Finsbury Park Mosque for an excellent local example of a faith community leading the way. What no one should be doing is treating a young person as a potential extremist for talking about protecting trees in a French class.” Shield. Police, community members and family members would confront young people at risk of exploitation by violent criminals with the impact of violent crime on their local area. * Offer those who are willing the opportunity to participate in intensive programmes of mentoring, training and job support, together with access to a one-stop-shop for housing advice and other local services. Make clear the alternative of tough law enforcement. * Help undermine the criminal drug trade that sustains gangs by campaigning for the decriminalisation of all drugs and the legalisation of less harmful drugs such as cannabis. We need a drugs policy that is evidence based. * End the arbitrary and discriminatory blanket use of stop and search and other tactics that alienate the very communities the police most need to work with, creating a new, strongly independent organisation to oversee stop and search powers. ## BUILD A POLICE FORCE FOR ALL LONDONERS The police can only keep our streets safe if they have the confidence of the local community. We will introduce reforms to assure every Londoner that the police are on their side. ### WE WILL: * Improve the diversity of the Met, setting ambitious targets for the number of women and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) officers to reflect the local community, including a target for 50:50 gender balanced recruitment. * Introduce a clear strategy for identifying areas of underrepresented talent and actively promote women and BAME officers. Strategies similar to the successful NHS Race Equality Standard will be adopted. * Review the implementation of the Prevent legislation that links violent and nonviolent extremism and work with groups and communities to find better ways to develop a positive counter-narrative. * Commission community and voluntary organisations to investigate ways in which the police can improve their relationships with local communities, particularly in areas with high levels of violent crime. We will require Borough Commanders to act on local findings. * Pledge that the Met will do all it can to eradicate hateful and anti-social behaviour, including all forms of hate crime, racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic violence and harassment and hate crimes against disabled people, investing in programmes that are proven to change attitudes and prevent violence. * Ensure all police officers receive adequate disability equality training. * Guarantee a liaison officer in every borough to work with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and all sexualities and gender identities (LGBT+) communities and send officers into local schools to challenge anti-LGBT prejudice. Each borough will also draw up an Anti-Homophobia Action Plan to remedy local hate crime hotspots. * Lead a Londonwide review of training, resources and delivery of local health, police, child, adult and community services to ensure harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, honour killings and forced marriage are prevented or prosecuted. * Call for comprehensive reform of the IPCC so that the police watchdog has real teeth. ## ADDRESS CONCERNS AROUND CIVIL LIBERTIES A society that is willing to sacrifice civil liberties in the misguided pursuit of greater security will ultimately destroy both. Greens will deal constructively with the crucial issues surrounding civil liberties. ### WE WILL: * Scrap the controversial Territorial Support Group and use its current funding to train more ordinary police officers for public order situations. * End the use of ‘kettling’ to contain lawful demonstrations and scrap the proposed introduction of water cannon. * Help to eliminate deaths in custody and unnecessary police shootings by supporting independent inquiries into every death. * Carry out an audit of all databases that hold the personal details of Londoners, remove all records that aren’t operationally necessary and publish a complete list of the remaining databases so the public can see the information the police hold and why. ## DEAL WITH VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Women and girls must have the utmost confidence that the police will handle all gender violence with sensitivity and a resolve towards delivering justice. ### WE WILL: * Ensure domestic refuges are funded strategically at a London level, leaving no refuge overly dependent on an individual borough council’s budget. * Guarantee sufficient funding for four rape crisis centres in London, making sure that all survivors of sexual violence are given the support they need. * Work with councils to set up one-stop shops for domestic violence survivors in every borough, expanding the provision of women’s refuges with specialist skills to help ethnic minority women at risk of honour killings and other criminal acts. * Make sure language is no barrier to accessing services and ensure refuges and services are advertised to all communities. * Build on ongoing strategies to prevent female genital mutilation (FGM) of girls by continuing to build strong community relationships and greater confidence in the police. * Increase women’s confidence about reporting sexual violence by ensuring every case is investigated with the seriousness and sensitivity it deserves. * Continue training all police officers in how to handle domestic and sexual violence sensitively. ### IMPROVE TRANSPORT POLICING AND TRAFFIC JUSTICE * We will develop an agenda for traffic justice reform, ensuring the rights of victims are properly recognised, while also taking every opportunity to reduce the potential dangers travellers face. ## HOLDING THE POLICE TO ACCOUNT Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones has developed a fearsome reputation through her scrutiny of the Metropolitan Police Service. Her work has always been motivated by the belief that they can only work effectively if they earn the trust of Londoners, and if they stop wasting money on counterproductive and illiberal tactics. Jenny Jones AM in 2003 monitoring a police mobile safety camera initiative in Greenwich. While other politicians compete to offer uncritical support to the police, Jenny has always been a critical friend. She recently discovered that, for this, she had been monitored by a secretive unit within the police who target so-called ‘domestic extremists’. Jenny has since brought this unit’s activities to light, persuaded the police to change their definition so they only target serious criminals, and supported women who were the victims of unethical undercover police operations. Jenny says: “I’m often a lone voice on policing. But I’ve also been able to win other parties to our point of view. When Boris Johnson decided to buy pointless water cannon, I managed to persuade politicians from all political parties that it was a mistake. I even worked with a Conservative member on reforming the police’s tactics at public demonstrations.” ### WE WILL: * Improve enforcement of the rules of the road with a higher priority for the traffic police budget and a crackdown on uninsured drivers, and continue Transport for London’s promotion of driving bans for unsafe drivers. * Make traffic speed policing a higher priority, including detecting careless driving and mobile phone use and the enforcement of 20mph speed limits with average speed camera technology. We will require local police teams to work with cycling and pedestrian groups to enforce speed limits and take action against dangerous driving. * Monitor the impact of traffic law enforcement on the numbers of people walking and cycling, including people with disabilities. * Commission research into how our laws and justice system can better protect and promote walking and cycling. * Support the London Freight Enforcement Partnership to ensure that dangerous and non-compliant operators are targeted and taken off our streets. We will also bring in a range of measures to improve the recognition of the rights of road traffic victims. ### We will: * Show victims of road crime that they count by counting them, provide the best services for road crash victims in the country and treat all victims of crashes as victims of crime until the contrary is proven. * Ensure that driving offences that kill and injure are recorded and treated in the same way as other violent crime. * Ensure that all casualties are reported and categorised by the vehicle types involved, and establish a working group with victims and campaigners to agree performance indicators and increase community confidence in the investigation and prosecution of drivers who kill and seriously injure people * Review road death and injury investigation in London and set standards for fatal and injury investigations. Support the production of local guides detailing road deaths and injury investigation for victims. Report the outcomes of collisions and publish the reasons given by the police for deciding to take no further action * Lobby the Government for a full review of driving offences to ensure that criminal charges and charging standards, are revised to reflect the values of a society promoting active, safe travel. ## SUPPORT A SAFE FIRE SERVICE FOR LONDONERS Greens on the London Assembly have condemned how cuts to the fire brigade are increasing response times and risking Londoners lives. ### We will: * Increase the council tax precept for the London Fire Brigade to help reverse the damaging and tragic cuts to fire stations and fire engines across London. ## SIAN BERRY: MY VISION FOR GENDER EQUALITY London in 2016 is one of the most forward-thinking and successful cities in the world, but women are still getting a raw deal. As Green Mayor, I will help close the gaps with practical policies to do the job properly. Solving the housing crisis will also help tackle the root cause of much domestic tension and give women more options when facing threats in the home. I will fully support services for women who are victims of violence and survivors of rape and expand programmes aimed at changing attitudes and improving reporting of these offences. And I will make sure specialist services for women from specific cultural and national groups are kept open and support a pan-london response to issues like female genital mutilation and forced marriage. I will also work to support asylum women who have experienced abuse in their countries of origin. Women of all ages will have a champion in me: childcare costs will be a focus of my attention, as will the plight of women in their fifties facing hardship from having their pension rights taken away at short notice. We represent three quarters of part-time workers – more than half of whom earn less than the living wage, and who pay more for their journeys to work. My fair fares policies will help them too, by bringing down their daily costs to the same as for those who pay for a monthly travelcard. We need positive action within the public workforce to bring truly equal opportunities. This means tough targets for a fully representative Metropolitan Police Service – including a gender balanced recruitment policy – and action to make sure women are equally represented among senior staff and deputy Mayors in City Hall. Only three of the current Mayor’s thirteen top advisers and deputy Mayors are women. As Mayor I will make gender pay gap reporting compulsory for every firm, large or small, that is contracted by the GLA, as part of our improved ethical procurement policy, which will also require name-blind job application processes. Of course my first task is to make sure I have an impact on the election itself. Everyone – from the old men who need to learn to value it, to the young men and women who can be inspired by it – deserves to see female leadership in action in London, and I’m determined to make that happen. EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY More equal societies are healthier and happier, with lower levels of violent crime. We must address the damaging concentration of wealth and power we have in our city. We can make London a city where no parent needs to choose between seeing their children in the evening or having a second job to stave off poverty and where our public services help everybody flourish regardless of their gender, race, age, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, faith or any other aspect of their identity. We will lead by example pledging to make the Mayor’s cabinet representative of our city’s population. Our cabinet of Deputy Mayors will be gender balanced and at least 40 per cent from BAME backgrounds. Green Assembly Members, who pioneered the concept of the London Living Wage, will push for its extension to the one in five Londoners who are not yet paid at this level. Greens will also work to break down the discriminatory barriers that prevent people from finding rewarding jobs and contributing fully to London’s culture and economy. ## GREENS ON THE LONDON ASSEMBLY HAVE ALREADY: * Secured funding to set up the London Living Wage Unit which has put £60 million in the pockets of low-paid workers. * Made City Hall, Transport for London, the fire brigade and the police publish transparent information about their wage gaps. * Helped introduce a scheme for civil partnerships at City Hall in 2000 which paved the way for legislation at a national level and equal marriage rights. ## GREENS IN CITY HALL WILL: ### REDUCE PAY AND WEALTH INEQUALITY We can start to reduce the pay gap in London and support reforms that will help workers gain more power in the workplace. ### WE WILL: * Reduce the pay gap between the highest and lowest paid staff in the GLA group to no more than a multiple of ten. * Establish a Fair Pay Mark recognising companies who publish their own pay gap, commit to reducing it to less than 10:1 and pay at least the London Living Wage to all employees. We will ask companies bidding for contracts to sign up to achieving this standard too. * Promote co-operative business models and trade union recognition to employers, empowering workers to press for more equal pay. * Help deal with the fact that many workers can’t afford the increased cost of Employment Tribunals by addressing cuts in funding to advice agencies. * Ensure that the GLA monitors employ- ment practices and to what extent workers’ rights are being enforced or eroded by any central Government changes in the law and services. * Constructively engage with unions representing all employees of agencies of the GLA and contractors, including transport workers, the fire service, cleaners and support staff of all kinds. Greens support the right of workers to organise and collectively bargain with employers. * Work with unions and voluntary organi- sations to fund and create an online hub for providing information on workers’ rights and where they can get advice and help. ## PROMOTE A LONDON FOR ALL AGES London must hear the voices of everyone, from its youngest to its oldest citizens, and make sure a fulfilling life is accessible to all. ### WE WILL: * Establish a London Youth Assembly drawn from Young Mayors and Youth MPs across London to scrutinise the work of the GLA. * Appoint a representative in City Hall with the task of monitoring and co-or- dinating the effects of all the Mayor’s policies on older people. * Recognise the expertise and energy of older people by encouraging employers to offer more part-time and flexible work as an alternative to full-time work or sudden retirement. * Improve access to digital services for older people including access to broad- band at home and via mobile devices. This is even more important as local authorities move more of their services online. Work to improve familiarity with online services can also provide valuable intergenerational contacts. * Ensure that the principles of lifetime neighbourhoods and a demen- tia-friendly city are included in new planning rules for streets and homes. * Support a dementia-friendly city through training and information for front-line staff in all GLA group agencies and promote this training to borough councils and private companies that deal with the public. ## STAND UP FOR LGBT+ LONDONERS London has long been seen as a beacon of tolerance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, questioning, asexual people and those of all sexualities and gender identies (LGBT+). LGBT+ Londoners have some here to live their lives in many cases because it is known as somewhere they will be accepted for who they are. London must not regress from this positive reputation: indeed we should strive to do even better. ### WE WILL: * Create a LGBT+ community space to serve as a much needed hub for people, particularly young people and an older generation marginalised by commercial venues, seeking information and support in being confident in their sexuality or gender identity. * Build London’s first AIDS memorial to ensure the lives lost are not forgotten. * Help communities and local authorities to designate LGBT venues as assets See more of our policies for equality in our dedicated BAME and LGBT+ manifestos, and our plans to review policing in Chapter 7. of community value and support the Londonwide designation of our emerging heritage through the new London Plan. We will also support London’s boroughs and neighbourhood forums in applying other planning protections to prevent their closure. * Work with local authorities to ensure they are sensitive to the needs of trans people, starting with ensuring GLA and council documentation allows for gender neutral honorifics (Mx). ## PROTECT LONDON’S DIVERSITY London’s future lies in ensuring it continues to develop as a diverse city comfortable in its multicoloured, multicultural skin and as a truly international city. Greens will protect all our communities and allow them to thrive. ### We will: * Promote understanding between people of different faiths and none, for example, through supporting local-level interfaith forums, and encourage open working and collaboration between faith groups, the police, schools, voluntary groups and community organisations. * Make recruitment to all City Hall and contractor jobs anonymous to avoid race and gender bias. Anonymised applications are an important step in levelling the playing field for candidates of all backgrounds. We will ensure City Hall encourages and incentivises other organisations to follow suit. * Expand the categories of ethnic data used for monitoring and policy development to help recognise ‘hidden’ communities. * Review the implementation of the Prevent legislation that links violent and nonviolent extremism and work with groups and communities to find better ways to develop a positive counter- narrative. * Reaffirm and highlight the contribution that refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants make to London and do more to ensure people are able to be fully included in their local community and economy. * Improve the lives of gypsies and travel- lers in London and promote their right to equal treatment at a strategic level by, for example, identifying suitable land for gypsy and traveller sites, addressing the discrimination they face from many employers and apprenticeship providers and including gypsy and traveller health in the Mayor’s health inequality strategy. ## ENABLE ALL OUR CITIZENS Many of the most damaging changes being made to how people with disabilities are supported are being made by the Govern- ment at a national level. But we can help in London by building a better city where more people can participate without being confronted by artificial barriers. Greens are committed to the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ and to involving disabled people’s representa- tives more closely in policy-making at the highest level across all areas of the Mayor’s work, including working with the police to tackle disability hate crime. ### We will: * Recognise the social model of disability and ensure that all people are able to benefit from jobs, homes, skills and all the other opportunities we can provide. * Commit funds to the London Access Forum and to making public transport and more underground stations acces- sible for more people more quickly. * Appoint a disability equality policy adviser and a new forum for London Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisa- tions to feed into policy development, particularly housing, crime and trans- port. ## FIGHTING FOR A LIVING WAGE The living wage campaign goes back hundreds of years, but it was only in 2000 that Citizens UK (then The East London Communities Organisation - TELCO) revived it in London. They persuaded candidates for Mayor, including Darren Johnson and Ken Livingstone, to sign up to the idea in May 2004. Following that election, Ken Livingstone came to the Green Assembly Members to strike a deal over his budget. Without their votes, his budgets could be defeated. In their first ever deal, Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones made sure that the Living Wage Unit was set up by including it in their demands to Mayor Livingstone. The first ever official London Living Wage was published in 2005, and the Mayor agreed to roll it out to all contracts at the Greater London Authority, Transport for London, the London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police Service. Green councillors have helped secure similar commitments from councils including Lewisham, Southwark, Camden and Lambeth, and Greens on the London Assembly worked with living wage campaigners to win a commitment to a Living Wage Olympics in 2012, and hold the delivery authorities to their word. Jenny Jones AM has also supported many other workers’ campaigns, including the outsourced cleaners at John Lewis and the hotel workers union. * Develop an advice and advocacy strategy for London and ensure the London Health Inequalities Strategy and London Health Improvement Board addresses health inequalities experienced by deaf and disabled people. * Ensure that apprenticeships and other initiatives for skills and employment are tailored to help people with disabilities achieve their potential and that the Access To Work scheme is promoted to employers. * Ensure all service providers working on behalf of the GLA demonstrate a track record of providing accessible and inclusive services and employing people with disabilities. Read more about *our plans to improve housing accessibility in Chapter 1 and transport access in Chapter 2.* ## OUR CITY'S ENVIRONMENT London is an environment like no other: a home to eight million people along with a huge number of animals and plants. Our green spaces – parks and commons, rivers and gardens, roadside trees and canals – help reconnect Londoners with nature and with themselves. They provide a welcome breathing space for people to relax, play and exercise as well as vital habitats for wildlife. Our environment policies will lead the way in preserving and protecting our city, making it a better place for people and wildlife and a more secure environment for the future. ### GREENS ON THE LONDON ASSEMBLY HAVE ALREADY: * Secured funding for the All London Green Grid, with its significant role in sustainable flood prevention as well as supporting wildlife and nature corridors across the city. * Led the pressure that resulted in new planning protections for front gardens. ### GREENS IN CITY HALL WILL: **SUPPORT AND IMPROVE OUR GREEN SPACES** The campaign to make London a National Park City is an opportunity to bring a range of policies under a single banner and build a stronger strategy for improving the quality and use of our green spaces. We fully support this initiative, which will also help to forge better links between the many Londoners already working to improve their local areas. appointment in City Hall to raise the profile of planning for green and blue infrastruc- ture, linking up green space and protected sites right through London. This will include making links beyond the M25, working with Highways England to build green bridges over the motorway and mitigate the way it divides London from the surrounding countryside. ### WE WILL: * Increase green space and vegetation in London so it covers more than half the city by 2025 and plant two million trees. * Ensure the All London Green Grid has enough funding to develop and help make sure all Londoners are within easy reach of parks, play areas and green spaces. * Preserve London’s Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land protections in the next London Plan. It is also important that the planning principle of *See Chapters 2 and 3 for how we’ll solve London’s air pollution crisis and make transport greener.* providing new homes on brownfield and town centre land first is maintained. * Help boroughs to identify local opportunities to enhance ‘green’ and ‘blue’ infrastructure such as wildlife corridors, including planting trees and protecting natural flood plains, while making it a planning requirement for developers to include these opportunities. * Support local communities in designating the open spaces and places for nature they value as Assets of Community Value, which gives them the right to bid when an asset comes up for sale. * Promote access to nature with schemes such as the VisitWoods website. * Give green spaces and gardens on housing estates the same level of protection as private back gardens and help social landlords to make the most of them for playing, growing food and biodiversity through schemes such as Neighbourhoods Green. * Ensure no development leads to the net loss of permeable land or water storage capacity. * Use planning rules to make sure new buildings support wildlife by including space for nesting and breeding by birds, bats, insects and other species. ## IMPROVING AND PROTEING GREEN SPACE London is a green city, but many of our open spaces are under threat. Green Assembly Members Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones have helped dozens of communities protect their parks and open spaces. Darren Johnson AM with local residents helping to protect Crystal Palace Park. In one case – Crystal Palace Park – they’ve been involved for the full 16 years, helping residents see off threats from a multiplex cinema, inappropriate housing, a free school and a hotel/conference complex. In 2006 they struck a budget deal with the Mayor to set up the Green Grid, a project to improve and connect up neglected green spaces from the inner city to the countryside throughout London. This brought together government agencies and conservation groups to create 11 detailed frameworks which are now part of London’s planning policy. They also helped bring in funds to get projects off the ground, including places like the Lea Valley, the Walthamstow Wetlands and Ravensbourne Valley. * Improve streetscapes and water permeability by using transport funding and planning policies to create ‘pocket parks’ in place of car parking and at places where streets are closed to through traffic. * Integrate Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems and tree planting into all suitable Transport for London projects. * Restore and re-wild at least 50 kilometres of rivers and expand other sustainable urban drainage systems to provide London with better protection from flooding. ## KEEP PUBLIC SPACES PUBLIC As more of London is redeveloped, public spaces must be governed in the most democratic way possible. Too many of our new public spaces are being controlled by corporate rules and councils placing ‘public space protection orders’ (PSPOs) across wide areas, banning activities such as busking and rough sleeping and making many non-criminal acts subject to court proceedings. ### WE WILL: * Introduce policies in the new London Plan that mean new publicly accessible spaces must be governed by local authority bylaws. This will not prevent developers arguing for restrictions on activities to protect residents and businesses from problems, but will mean that rules must be created transparently and accountably. • Resist the introduction of PSPOs that are not fully justified and highly specific to real problems. We see no reason to introduce fines and court action for activities such as rough sleeping and begging. Protect animals • Campaign for the repeal of national legislation allowing PSPOs to be introduced by local authorities and for the introduction of a ‘right to roam’ similar to new laws in Scotland. • Ensure that all purchasing across the GLA group conforms to strict animal welfare rules, including non-animal-tested cleaning products and free range meat and eggs. Create a zero waste city We will: • Become self-sufficient in waste processing by 2030. • Block new landfill or mass-burn incineration. We will work with Sutton and Croydon Councils to prevent the proposed mass-burn incinerator in Beddington from going ahead, and explore alternatives. • Build more and smaller waste facilities to minimise the impact on any one local community and to avoid locking in a demand for waste that removes incentives to reduce its creation. • Ensure the waste hierarchy is applied so that recycling facilities don’t take waste that can be reused and waste facilities that generate energy don’t take waste that can be recycled. • Work for powers for the Mayor to roll out a consistent set of recycling services across London boroughs, and push boroughs to work on common standards and information, so that every home has a simple service for recyclables and food waste collected every week. • Lobby the Government to tighten up packaging regulations to remove single use plastic bottles and materials that can’t be recycled from our shelves, and to require manufacturers to use a certain percentage of recycled and biodegradable content in packaging. 32 London Green Party Manifesto 2016 We will: • Ensure the Metropolitan Police Wildlife Crime Unit is adequately and securely resourced. • Use procurement decisions to encourage the use of less meat and dairy in catering. • Work with tenants and the housing sector to ensure that housing providers have positive pets policies that encourage responsible pet ownership and enforce against those that act irresponsibly. Landlords should be required to recognise the needs of pet owners in rented accommodation and allow them to keep their pets. • Work with the Government, charities and providers of veterinary services to improve access to veterinary care for pet owners on low incomes, promote dog and cat neutering and microchipping and crack down on irresponsible pet shops and back-street breeders. See our separate Manifesto for Animals for more on how we’ll support wildlife in London and protect animals. ## TURNING AROUND SLOW PROGRESS ON SOLAR Despite getting more sun than most other parts of the UK, London has the worst record on solar power of any mainland region. Even cities in Scotland and the north east of England have more solar panels per home than the capital. Jenny Jones AM has worked with the solar industry and campaigners to turn this disappointing track record around. Jenny says: “When I started working on solar power, the officers in City Hall just couldn’t see the potential and Boris Johnson had no idea how poorly London was doing. We’re still a long way behind, but the energy team are now reassessing the potential for solar power and taking on board my suggestions for improving things. “I developed a business case for a unit in City Hall to unleash a solar revolution in the capital. Later, I commissioned research into setting up a public energy company to go much further. “Sian has pledged to set this up and, as Mayor, could guarantee a sunny future for renewables in London.” ## ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change will have a huge impact on our city, its people, the environment and our economy. As a truly great world city, London must play its full part in limiting global temperature rises. But London is falling behind in its efforts. Only one in 195 homes across London uses its roof space to generate solar power, whilst other regions have much more. In the North East of England one in 30 homes has solar panels. High energy costs are a major problem for people, businesses and institutions. Transport for London estimates that its electricity bill will rise by £50 million within five years. And we are way behind on tackling fuel poverty and properly insulating our older homes. We can change that. Greens in City Hall will be the biggest champions of running our city completely on renewable energy by 2050 and ensuring that no-one struggles to pay for their energy needs. London can be a leader again amongst capital cities worldwide in the mission to stop climate change and create a more secure future for us all. ### GREENS IN CITY HALL WILL: **SECURE AN AFFORDABLE ENERGY SUPPLY FOR LONDONERS** We will create a London not-for-profit energy company, under Transport for London’s wing. ## GREENS ON THE LONDON ASSEMBLY HAVE ALREADY: * Persuaded the Mayor to start refurbishment programmes for homes and offices and protected its funding since 2011. * Exposed the lack of solar power on public estates and worked with the industry to develop a City Hall workstream to promote solar power. * Set up a team in City Hall to check planning applications and make sure renewable energy is maximised. ### THE COMPANY WILL: * Provide an alternative to the ‘big 6’ energy suppliers, reducing energy costs and fuel poverty * Ensure Crossrail is powered by 100% clean renewable energy and go on to work with community groups, the public sector and businesses to install and support renewable energy generators across the capital * Support and help fund energy-saving measures for homes and businesses, such as insulation, smart meters and other related technology. ### WE WILL: * Expand the RE:FIT workplace refurbishment programme to cover small and medium-sized businesses and work with the business community to widen its reach. * Develop district energy anchors to help housing estates, hospitals, prisons, universities and regeneration projects on public land share their energy needs and work with neighbouring businesses to plug into these new energy networks. * Maximise the opportunity for creating energy from food waste, including sending all public-sector food waste and parks waste to anaerobic digesters and funding pilot projects for newer compost and waste technologies. * Use the Mayor’s planning powers to veto developments that miss major energy opportunities and give more support to boroughs negotiating with developers. * Introduce new planning rules to require suitable new roof space to use solar technology, guaranteeing the purchase of the energy via the new public energy company to ensure viability. ### CUT FUEL POVERTY Nearly ten percent of London households are still in fuel poverty and around 2,500 more people die each winter because they are unable to heat their homes properly. People on low incomes often pay higher tariffs for fuel because they are on pre-payment meters and cannot pay by direct debit. Poorly insulated, energy-inefficient homes also result in higher bills, with renters and the poorest unable to invest in insulation that would bring down costs. ### WE WILL: * Use our new not-for-profit energy company to offer a range of tariffs suitable for those in fuel poverty and never force anyone who is struggling to pay onto a pre-payment meter. * Introduce London’s own Green Deal, part-funded by our energy company, creating an ongoing rolling fund from household energy savings. * Use the new London Plan and the wealth of evidence that energy efficient new buildings will have benefits for the whole city, to require excellent energy efficiency standards for new homes despite the withdrawal of the ## IMPROVING THE MAYOR’S GREEN POLICIES When Green Assembly Members first struck a budget deal with Ken Livingstone, his climate change budget was a measly £300,000 per year. Within years, Greens increased that to £26 million, creating a range of programmes that made London a world leader in the fight to stop climate change. Darren Johnson says: “We persuaded Ken to set-up a Green Homes concierge service, giving Londoners practical advice on how to insulate and upgrade their homes. I later led an Assembly investigation into why London was lagging behind the rest of the country on home insulation. “We visited Kirklees, where a Green councillor had launched the council to the top of the UK league table. We were able to persuade Ken, and then Boris Johnson, to set-up a similar policy in London which has since insulated more than 100,000 homes. “We saw, under Boris Johnson, why Greens will always be needed. When the cuts started, the axe loomed over the climate change programmes. I led a successful lobbying effort, winning support from all political parties and eventually the Mayor to save them.” Government’s own Code for Sustainable Homes standard. * Support and maintain the new boiler scrappage scheme from the GLA, which will help towards reducing air pollution as well as fuel poverty. ## SAVE ENERGY IN THE CITY HALL ESTATE ### WE WILL: * Cut the GLA group’s building energy usage by ten per cent in the first year of office, and upgrade all buildings to be ‘A’ rated wherever possible by 2020. * Become a zero carbon public service by 2020. GIVING LONDON A VOICE City Hall is London’s voice and shouldn’t be remote from the people. By bringing the collective creativity and energy of London’s people into more decisions we can achieve a better city than by listening to lobbyists and vested interests. There is too much power in the hands of the Mayor, and London’s elected Assembly Members are largely limited to scrutinising policies, whilst decisions are made by unelected Deputy Mayors and institutions that don’t reflect our population. A Green Mayor will open up London’s governance, putting more community representatives on the boards that control our city, ensuring that the Mayor’s decisions are made in collaboration with London’s communities, and making data and decisions more open and transparent. ## GREENS IN CITY HALL WILL: ### BRING POWER CLOSER TO THE GRASSROOTS ### WE WILL: * Promote and engage more with Neighbourhood Forums and new Parish Councils, giving local communities a bigger say over how the Mayor’s powers protect and develop their local areas. * Introduce participatory budgeting for up to 20 per cent of the GLA budget by 2020, helping boroughs, Neighbourhood Forums and resident groups make spending plans, which are then consulted upon before budgets are set. ## GREENS ON THE LONDON ASSEMBLY HAVE ALREADY: * Led major investigations into community involvement in planning policy. * Worked closely with local groups to make our roads safer for cycling, securing funding and support for community housing projects and stopping a number of damaging projects in their tracks. * Pushed hard for open data and other information to be released. * Ensure better governance of the police and fire services, with a consensus approach rather than the current party political approach. We will make sure the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the new arrangements for the London Fire Brigade take their lead more often from Assembly committees. * Reform the boards of organisations running London to involve a wider range of citizen representatives, not just those from expert bodies and industry. * Work more collaboratively with the voluntary and community sector, particularly with minority, ethnic and disabled communities. A Green Mayor will meet with community organisations as often as they do with business groups. * Campaign for the abolition of the City of London Corporation, and to give its residents the same democratic rights as those in any other London borough. ## OPEN UP LONDON’S GOVERNANCE ### WE WILL: * Open to the public all formal meetings that discuss major investment decisions and clamp down on the unnecessary use of ‘reserved’ papers for non-confidential items. * Sign up to the Code of Practice for Official Statistics to restore trust in the Mayor’s use of statistics and data. * Ensure the information and models underpinning all strategies and key decisions are published in the London Datastore, with live tables and data wherever appropriate. * Work with public, private, charity and community partners to share and update data, for example with citizen science projects to maintain records of pollution and other environmental data, and with cycling and mapping communities to develop cycling routes. * Establish an annual competition to foster creative approaches to collaboration. * Require all future technology projects across the GLA group to use open standards and encourage the use of open source software as much as possible to aid enterprise and innovation. ## BRING MORE LONDONERS INTO CITY HALL ### WE WILL: * Ensure Assembly scrutiny led by Green Party committee chairs more fully involves relevant community and business groups, including setting the scope of investigations. * Open up more sessions to open-mic formats in order to hear from as wide a range of citizens as possible rather than just a single community representative. ## BRINGING LONDONERS’ IDEAS INTO CITY HALL Green Assembly Members, Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones have always worked closely with community and local business groups. Londoners know more about their problems, their local areas, their fantastic ideas, than politicians ever can. They are also denied a voice by a culture that values officials and industry professionals more than academics, campaigners and community groups. So Greens have always tried to bring Londoners into City Hall and make sure they are listened to. Darren says: “When I led an Assembly investigation into estate regeneration, I worked with the London Tenants Federation and the Just Space Network to give a platform to the many residents groups who wanted to speak about their own experiences. In a packed room, they gave invaluable testimony that raised issues the professionals would never have mentioned. “Londoners are too often patronised as not having the skills, knowledge or judgement to contribute to the government of our city. But I believe their full participation is vital.” * Find new ways to involve community and business groups in scrutiny, for example by tracking the implementation of regeneration projects. * Continue to collaborate with a wide range of campaigners and experts in developing individual Assembly Members’ scrutiny work ## CAMPAIGN FOR MORE ASSEMBLY POWERS Greens are strong advocates for strengthening the role of the London Assembly to hold the Mayor to account better on behalf of Londoners and for more checks and balances in our governance. ### WE WILL: * Press for a change from a two-thirds Assembly majority vote being needed to veto or amend mayoral strategies or the budget, to a simple majority. * Propose that the London Assembly should have the legal power, like Parliament, to summon any witnesses who are responsible for policies and services that affect the lives of Londoners to appear before them. ### WORK TO KEEP BRITAIN IN THE EU Greens have a strong, positive case for the benefits of the UK’s membership of the European Union and its support for environmental protection, high standards of business and better workers’ rights. London has hundreds of thousands of EU citizens making a huge contribution to our city and we will work to make sure London votes to stay in the EU in the forthcoming referendum. ### FORGE STRONGER LINKS WITH OTHER CITIES Many of the policies we want mean working with mayors and local government across the UK to put the case for more devolved powers and policies that help the millions of citizens living in our urban areas. A Green Mayor would be a campaigning Mayor, forging coalitions of cities across the country to win better national policies. We will also improve links with city mayors in other countries, playing a leading role again in the C40 coalition working to reduce the climate impact of cities and once again signing London up to the Mayors for Peace initiative, which works to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons. ## DARREN JOHNSON AM: WHY WE NEED MORE DEVOLUTION FOR LONDON Greens have always been supporters of devolution and have consistently pushed for more powers to come from central Government to City Hall. I led the London Assembly’s Devolution Working Group, which has made the case to MPs and Government that Londoners should have more of a say over the capital’s finances, policy-making and the services they receive. The move to devolve Business Rates is welcome but at the moment 93% of the taxes collected in London are controlled by national government. Greens want other taxation policies like council tax banding and stamp duty to be fully devolved to London, as well as powers to determine new taxes like a Land Value Tax, eco-taxes and a Tourist Tax on hotel visitors. We support current moves to devolve functions on skills and training to City Hall and the London suburban rail franchises to Transport for London. But, just as in Scotland and Wales, the Mayor and London Assembly need a direct say over the NHS, education and the criminal justice system in London as well as many aspects of environmental policy, such as flood protection and energy. In spite of sixteen years of devolving powers, too many vital decisions affecting London are still made by Whitehall. VOTE GREEN PARTY ON THE ORANGE BALLOT PAPER There are two elections on 5th May, one for the Mayor of London and another for the London Assembly, which puts forward ideas and makes sure the Mayor is doing their job. Part of the London Assembly election is proportional and every Green Party vote helps to elect Green Assembly Members. Last time your votes elected two Green Assembly Members. The most certain way to elect more Greens is to make Sian Berry your first choice for Mayor and then vote Green on the orange ballot paper. **JOIN THE GREEN PARTY HERE:** **JOIN.GREENPARTY.ORG.UK** Sian Berry speaks at an event to highlight the growth of private public spaces in London, including the More London area around City Hall, which is governed by private corporate rules that restrict protests and even control whether elected London Assembly Members can hold interviews with the press. Sian Berry, Green candidate for Mayor, with some of the Green Party’s 24 candidates for the London Assembly ## FIND OUT MORE ABOUT YOUR GREEN CANDIDATES FOR MAYOR AND THE LONDON ASSEMBLY: WWW.SIANBERRY.LONDON LONDON.GREENPARTY.ORG.UK Photo credits: Pages 2-3, 25 and back cover Chris King, page 7 West Kensington and Gibbs Green Community Homes, page 29 David Jones on Flickr (cc-by-nc), pages 36-37 Nick Hooper. Promoted by John Street on behalf of Sian Berry & London Green Party candidates, all at Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, EC2A 4LT. Printed by Pinnacle Images Ltd, 69-85 Tabernacle Street, London EC2A 4BD.