Shaping London’s economic future

Living in Greater London, I’m sick of seeing fields being concreted over with ugly blocks of flats and beautiful houses being pulled down to be replaced by the same.  The population is far too big and unsustainable and it just seems to be getting bigger daily.  I used to be able to get a doctor’s appointment within 24 hours of ringing the surgery.  Now I have to wait a week.  The traffic is ridiculous, the High Street is nothing but Barber shops, coffee shops and takeaway food outlets.  Croydon, where I have the misfortune to work, is an absolute dump with boarded up shops and so much crime.  I’ve seen people with knives during the day, let alone at night.  I work there and feel unsafe at all times.  I’ve seen people grabbing goods and walking out of shops laden with goods they haven’t paid for and no one  does anything.  The thieves know the police won’t do anything so they carry on.  Public transport is far too expensive and unreliable.  Go to other European countries where the trains are reliable, clean, not overcrowded and cheaper.  We want to leave the area as  soon as we can. I just know the fields and woods near our house will soon sprout a whole load of flats and I don’t want to see that, nor do I want to think about where the poor wildlife will go.   If we could, we’d leave the country as we really feel it has gone to the dogs.

Born and raised in London lived on a fairly nice road until 2020 when LTNs were implemented  and consequently roads  like ours have suffered from an  of  increase volume of traffic. LTNs created some priveleged quiet areas and others took the displaced traffic! Social injustice ! Community split 

Lived in London for over 40 years but the increased crime, lack of visible policing, horrendous traffic, expensive and unreliable transport system, constant roadworks and now 20 mph enforcements I feel like everywhere is grinding to a halt. For such a beautiful and cultural capital the Mayor and City Hall needs a large kick up the backside. You are ruining London. Invest in our transport system before clogging up our roads and get more police on the ground to make us feel safe. 

The top issues for me are unregulated building and rental market, which means it's the wild west for anyone trying to navigate either, the ever increasing population (which now hinders my ability to enjoy living in my city on a weekly basis as nothing is ever available or else overwhelmed by swarms of people), the ghastly traffic everywhere, which is desperately unsafe and grossly unsanitary, and the fact that I no longer feel safe, even in my own neighbourhood. The city has changed radically post-Covid, and not in pleasing ways. These seemingly small things chip away at the meagre joy you might have and make being here feel more like a punishment than a privilege. Add to this that it's more expense than ever to live here, and one begins to feel like the subject of a farce. 

Before high rise blocks went up, the locals all asked about the impact of current infrastructure. The local authority did not pay that any attention. High rises galore went up, and the local tube station is overwhelmed with people, the train station is still in need of upgrade and at weekends everywhere is crowded. It is awful. I feel I cannot breathe in one of the 2 local high streets. But I am sure the economy in that area is doing great for a few, and the mass of visitors. Those who move into the new tower blocks soon discover a local authority that does not respond or work very well. Luckily, the other high street has not yet fallen prey to a rapid increase of residents. And when it does, they are students. 

My future in London? Even though I have lived in London a long time, I have always had this dissatisfaction with it, because it can never compare to where I was born (Somerset/Avon). That being said, I would love to leave the country, not just London, as it has become too tiring facing such hard hearted people on a daily basis. Why are people so rude to each other? Why are people so self-centred? Why are people so stuck to their phones (walk, cycle and drive looking at phones)? So I can't envision my future here. 

My high street? Have easy access to 2. One has been gentrified to the nth-degree and I walk through but rarely stay in it. It has been made a place for consumers of alcohol and food. People in the area have to face people pissing (&worse), drug taking, and vomit on their doorsteps. Community has been lost. But there is a constant party for some. The other high street, I will spend a little more time in, the park has been opened up made safer, has a good mix of places to eat at a variety of price points. It does have a serious issue with open drug taking and homelessness. 

We have been encouraged to travel in healthier ways and that's fine. I avoid tube because it is so expensive; there seems to be so many different "daily caps" for so many different situations. I spent £30 on TfL travel alone one weekend. The Mayor has tinkered with buses and they are super unreliable now; frequency can be so bad you wonder if the bus you are waiting for is running, or they terminate early which seems to be happening more often. So use of TfL services is frustrating. So I have started to cycle for some journeys but with roads so potholes you get shaken about so much that your body feels like you just used a jackhammer. I can understand why people just drive, the alternative is not really working.  So right now, a job that I can walk to would be ideal. A good place to work is one I feel safe in and is not institutionally racist.

Speed up the traffic, it is losing our time and money. 
Reduce the crime in our society, such as robbery. Educate the people, if we are facing crime, what kind of self defence we can do. 
Provide bonus scheme if a normal people catch a robber.
Prohibit CBT licence drivers (L plate) to drive in london when peak hours, and central london. 

Work from Home is great if you are a parent with young children. It also cuts down the working day by having no journey times and saves money on both food and transport
However  there are problems caused by this such as empty offices dead sandwich bars pubs and restaurants 

But most importantly is the lack of face to face communication 

There needs to be a balance 

Maybe 3 days in the office and 2 at home ? 

London's young really need to be prioritized.  Investment in their mental wellbeing: City Hall, schools and local authorities working together with NHS CAMHS.  London's young would also benefit immensely from Britain reentering the Erasmus programme and with greater school exchanges with: the US, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, South Korea, India and other countries.  

The major limiting factor to almost all of our economic problems seems to be a massively overbearing planning burden blocking new housing, placating the NIMBYs who can’t stand high density housing. Reducing the rent cost everyone spends on housing/commercial space means individuals and businesses have more disposable income to invest in themselves. If I weren’t so worried about saving for a modest house to start a family, I would absolutely be pausing my career to do a PhD, which would ultimately make me far more productive. However, biological clocks exist and I don’t have time for 4 years of near poverty wages. 

Some policies I am in favour of:

Major overhaul of planning process: we should simplify rules to allow developers/private home improvers to almost never require a case worker. The rules should be clear and allow automatic permission for as much as possible.

 
Expand the rights of those who own flats to be able to extend their property. We need to incentivise high density living to meet the housing supply shortfall, yet leaseholders of flats have almost no power and are left at the whims of functionally unaccountable building management companies. I say this as a private renter who has a great landlord but an absolutely useless building management agency that has legal power to forbid the landlord from performing basic repairs, instead contracting out to the cheapest most ineffective agency they could find, leaving my flat actively leaking for eight months. 

6-story minimum for all but exceptional cases of new housing development. I want the density of Kensington all over London. This keeps commute times low, is far more carbon efficient, and allows businesses to thrive with the huge local consumer base. 

Finally, air conditioning should be standard in housing. We should invest in solar power to meet this need, but the productivity loss from lack of sleep is only going to worsen with climate change. We should prepare now. 

I don't think this survey provides meaningful information for those intending to make change to the London landscape, whether in terms of housing, transport, education, entertainment. In fact, it is very difficult to see just what information the survey is intended to elicit from respondents. If, as I suspect, it is about the Mayor's plans to enlarge the population of London, the survey does not address this matter directly. I think it will be disastrous for London, to grow beyond its present size. It will also be disastrous for London if the Mayor is allowed to continue with his plans to build 100s of tower blocks all in and around the city. If anything, London's daytime and nightime population needs to come down by about 2 million. The city is overcrowded, transport facilities are inadequate to meet the needs of residents and visitors, the water and sewage systems are already overloaded, the streets are clogged with cars (why do private cars need to come into central London at all!), skip lorries, concrete pump lorries, all sorts of vehicles connected with the building industry. London is short of doctors' surgeries, dentists, hospital beds, schools, libraries. We have lost our night sky. We are lacking green spaces. The Mayor should copy Paris, where building heights are strictly controlled and, gradually, 15-minute 'cities' are being created so people can do almost everything they want within a 15-minute walk. London is, slowly but surely, becoming unlivable. As for the idea of creating a 'hub' with Oxford and Cambridge, that is a ludicrous idea. 

Grow the solidarity economy in London!

Including but not limited to:

• organising the economy to meet our needs rather than generate profits for the rich
• cooperatives, owned and run by and for the community and the workers
• ecological and just creation / production / exchange / use / surplus allocation of goods and services
• shorter working hours
• equal pay and/or social waging
• end landlordism, right to permanent housing for all

Mental Health Support for Work

Unemployment ruins mental health. Economies need roles to be created and filled that support the mental health of would be workers and possible business starters, regardless of age. To engage with these people requires investment through the hardest part - the beginning- of any endeavour regarding work, business and finances.

Rules and attitudes tend to block progress; if you are sick, you’re discouraged from trying to start a business. But if you START feeling better you’re forced to enter the work market before you’re really ready, thus health relapses ensue. Causing  a loss to the economy and increasing tax burdens via the benefits resumption to those whose business or job fails.

Support is needed!

My local high street isn’t very local at all—I live in an neighbourhood that sees lots of people flocking to on the weekends (which is great for the economy). But the businesses on the high street cater to the visitors, not the residents:  4 gelato shops, 2 creperies, 1 chain bookstore, more designer labels than I can count. Not one of those things are local or independent—and not one of those things actually help me in my day-to-day. 

The traffic in my neighbourhood is also atrocious.  The wealthy residents are not fazed at all by the expensive cost of parking and drive 5 minutes from home to pick up their children from school, clogging the streets. Local busses can barely get down the road sometimes because of the parked cars and traffic. It makes going to businesses difficult and ruins the ambience and is horrible for the environment. 

The main issue with the economy in London is that even if you have a decent job, which would allow you to support a family and have a normal living condition and work life balance anywhere else, you never earn enough in London because transport and rent are unaffordable. Rent and home prices are out of control. Everyone excuses this with demand and supply, but it is clear that prices are artificially inflated. It is not possible that rents go up so much every year without regulation, even if you have lived in the same home for a long while. This shouldn’t be allowed by law. I would understand a small contribution for higher expenses, but rents that go up with fake inflation data that only benefit landlords is criminal.

The public transport is a total scam. I would understand the current prices if all the lines were like the Elizabeth line, but apart from the Elizabeth line, the prices of the tube and buses are unjustified. How is it possible that a monthly travel card costs the same as taking the transport by paying trip by trip, and in certain circumstances even more if you don’t travel every day? It’s a total scam. Everywhere in the world, a monthly subscription would reduce the cost to at least half the price, which would benefit residents, and tourists would still pay the full price because they don’t stay a month.

Not to mention the yearly subscription that has a ridiculous price, but it’s clear that this is a tax, literally robbery from a left wing administration that says it does things for the people. What a shame. And all this, you go out and it seems to be like living in a third world country due to the low standards of everything from cleaning conditions to safety, crime, and antisocial behavior. What a mess London is. Shame on you for administering so badly.

Improving the infrastructure of the economy through these innovative ideas

logistics software that finds the quickest routes, reorder from suppliers easily access all of them, and automate processes and repetitive work in bulk. Better designed automations in factories that require less attendance with a device using software connected to the machines to do work and check when things are going wrong.

remote IT diagnostics can stop people from being disrupted at work.

automation of administration tasks using machine learning and ai in bulk.

I feel there should be more fairness for those of us who live in the south east outer London boroughs where we face the prospect of having , very soon, to pay to cross the Thames at Blackwall and the new Silvertown tunnel with charges already for the Dartford crossing too. Why do those on the west side of London not have to pay for crossing the river? There are plenty of bridges for them which will also cost a lot to maintain.  Let's have more equality.