What are you doing to make London an attractive place to live?

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): London is the greatest city in the world. I have lived in London my whole life. As much as it is a great city to visit, I know it is an even better city to live in. Like any major city, we have our challenges. My mission, as Mayor, has been to improve London for everyone who calls our city home. We have achieved a lot in the past six years. Londoners need decent homes they can afford and after decades of under‑delivery before I became Mayor, we are turning a corner in London. Almost 13,000 new City Hall‑funded council homes have been started since 2018 and we exceeded our affordable homes target yet again last year. Londoners need clear air and, thanks to bold policies, we have halved toxic air in central London, and we are going further to replicate this across more of our city. We have planted over 420,000 trees since I was first elected, creating new green lungs that not only clean our air but make London a better place to live.

Londoners need the skills to access good, well‑paid work and we helped 200,000 people access free skills training last year alone. I have put £44 million into my Academies Programme to help Londoners into good jobs. Londoners need to be able to get around safely and quickly. We launched the Night Tube and extended the Northern line. Next week we are opening the amazing new Elizabeth line, which will transform travel for millions of Londoners. Londoners need green spaces, good design and the protection of our heritage, all of which are enshrined in my London Plan. They need access to our ever‑expanding culture, such as East Bank, where we are opening up museums, theatres and other cultural spaces.

We have achieved a lot since I became Mayor, but while I talk London up, the Government not only talks us down but by failing to provide the support we need, threatens to put all the progress made at risk. Just giving three examples, Chair, we need a long‑term sustainable funding deal for TfL to prevent the transport network from going into managed decline; we need real action from Government on the cost of living crisis, including devolving power over rent control so that we can freeze rent over the next two years; and we need proper funding for our police, addressing the £159 million funding gap the Home Office itself acknowledges London is owed.

Susan Hall AM: Thank you, Mr Mayor. You will know Amir Khan, the very much loved Amir Khan, the former world champion boxer. Amir Khan recently said that he had planned on moving to the capital with his family, but since the robbery ‑ you will remember that shocking robbery where he was robbed at gunpoint ‑ he has changed his mind. What are you doing to make those considering London as their home feel safer? You did mention some good things that have happened, I will not deny that, but if you ask lots of people one of their number one things is they want to feel safe. I have heard people say, “I would rather be hungry than feel unsafe”. What are you going to do to make them feel safer?

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): Anybody who has spoken to a victim of crime, particularly a robbery, knows how distressing it is. It was incredibly distressing for Amir Khan and his wife. You have to accept that it was incredibly distressing for him. It is no consolation to him that violent crime has gone down and gun crime down by more than 30% since 2016. According to official crime figures, violent crime is going down. You are right, the perception is not going down. That is one of the reasons why trust and confidence is so important. You will have seen the metric which shows that Londoners’ trust and confidence in the MPS has been going down progressively over the last few years, which has an impact on how they feel about safety. One of the jobs that I will have with the new Commissioner [of Police of the Metropolis] is to address the issue of trust and confidence in police which has an impact on how they feel in London. It is one of the most important jobs we have to build trust and confidence in the police and their ability to keep us safe.

Susan Hall AM: I know you cherry-pick figures. Some figures go up, some figures go down, but some figures go up quite substantially. Now that the pandemic has passed, figures show that crime is going back up. In the financial year 2021/22 robbery was up 6.7%, theft from a person is up 89.2%, rape is up 23.85%, violence without injury is up 9.2%, and violence with injury is up 15.7%. There are other figures, but I will not go into them now. Do you think that makes anybody feels safe?

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): With respect, the one in danger of cherry-picking is you, because you are comparing pandemic year figures with figures now. The true comparator ‑‑

Susan Hall AM: So are you, and we pointed that out and you would not accept that. I am telling you now what the figures are and I am saying: if the figures are going up, if rape is up 23.85%, how on earth can people feel safe in London? You know that they do not.

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): The true comparator is either 2016, the year I became Mayor, or 2019, the year before the pandemic. As I have made clear in answer to the question, according to those comparators, crime has been going down, particularly the violent crimes. The former Chair of the Police and Crime Committee, who had to step down because of a police investigation, himself accepted earlier on during Mayor’s Question Time that the areas of crime that Londoners care about most, according to his words, were the violent crimes.  That was a priority that Londoners had. That was a priority of the police service and myself. Those areas which, according to the former Chair of the Police and Crime Committee, Londoners cared about ‑ knife crime, knife crime with injury, knife crime on those below the age of 25, gun crime, burglary and so forth ‑ all of those have been going down. All of those are going up across the rest of the county and all of those are going down in London. No complacency; we have to make even more progress in those violent crimes going down.

Susan Hall AM: I will read you the comments from the wonderful world champion, Amir Khan. He said, “Mayor Khan needs to pull his finger out and tackle the increasing levels of gun and knife crime. He’s making the city unliveable. You can’t drive anywhere”, we all know that is right, “traffic is horrendous”, just ask the black cabbies, “and there is no quality of life.” That comes from a world champion that we all love and admire, Amir Khan. Those points are correct, are they not? If that is how people perceive London to be, you, as the Mayor, need to address these issues. Thank you, Chair.

Dr Onkar Sahota AM (Chair): Was that a question to the Mayor?

Susan Hall AM: If he wants to answer Amir Khan, our very much loved former world champion boxer, yes, he can.

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): Chair, as I have already explained, anybody who is the victim of crime does not want their crime politicised in a cheap and pathetic way by Members of the Assembly. What they want to do is make sure that their issues are heard. I have heard loud and clear what Amir has said in relation to his experience of being robbed of his expensive watch at gunpoint. The police are investigating that particular crime. We have also heard, during the course of this morning, the focus of additional resources from City Hall, not from the Government, in relation to improving sanction detection. It is no complacency to Amir to know that violent crime is going down in London.

I am incredibly proud, by the way, of our policies to improve the quality of air in London. I know it is inconvenient to the Member that she cannot drive around like she used to because you have to pay if a vehicle is polluting or if she comes into the central London area. However, I do not apologise for trying to encourage more and more Londoners to walk, cycle, use public transport or use a cleaner vehicle. We have seen in central London a reduction of 50% in relation to the toxic air.

Susan Hall AM: Thank you, Mr Mayor. You know full well you are using our time.

Dr Onkar Sahota AM (Chair): A question has been asked and the Mayor has a right to answer the question.

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): There are 4,000 premature deaths a year because of the poor quality air. It is really important, and we are going to carry on trying to make progress in those areas. I will do what I can, working with the police and members of the community, to make progress in relation to reducing violent crime further and also to improve the toxic air in our city as well.

Susan Hall AM: Thank you, Mr Mayor, you are using up our time.