Hey! London Mayor - What about us?

Challenge to London's new mayor: commit to a "bias for betterment"

One fundamental issue will define London's new style urban governance in the first decade of the 21st century. The new mayor and the Greater London Authority must inject a bias toward betterment in city planning, especially affecting low income and multi-racial inner city neighbourhoods, or risk repeating the grievous planning disasters of the past.

City follies
Evidence in London shows that Labour's stewardship of urban affairs, which the new London leaders will inherit, has not rolled back the disastrous urban programmes introduced by the previous Thatcher government. Minority disadvantage continues to worsen in renewal areas. Growing racial concentrations, US-style, exist in poorly maintained social housing estates. Distress wreaks havoc in fragile families and low income neighbourhoods.

New proposals by a government task force on urban regeneration led by Lord Rogers of Riverside are destined to exacerbate this state of affairs. This warning comes from bishops of the Church of England in a memorandum to a House of Commons committee. The implications for London are far-reaching.

Politics of inequality
Cities dominated by "cafes and loft conversions" threaten to push up house prices and displace residents in favour of higher-income groups, just as before, they were reported saying in The Independent 22 February.

The bishops noted the task force had "little to say about involving citizens" or about local consultation. Though the role of "cities as cultural powerhouses" was emphasised, there was little acknowledgement of the positive contribution ethnic minorities make to urban life and economy. The bishops urged decision makers to develop "a vision of an urban renaissance that offers possibility of inclusion, participation, identity and soul in our towns and cities".

London challenge
The new London leaders may find this commitment too uncomfortable or unprofitable to pursue in the face of opposition from powerful patricians and property developers. But, surely a bias toward betterment makes sense in a multi-cultural city striving to be an equitable world-class metropolis. Tackling long-neglected race and planning issues is crucial - not only for almost a quarter of the city's electorate from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, but for harmonious social relations - and must be given a prominent place in London's new political agenda.

Church contributions to understanding how urban renewal intersects with race, fiscal, employment, economic and environmental policies may be found in:

Faith in the City. The report of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Urban Priority Areas. Church House Publishing, 1985;

Not Just for the Poor: Christian Perspectives on the Welfare State. Report of the Social Policy Committee of the Board for Social Responsibility. Church House Publishing 1986;

David Sheppard, Bias to the Poor. Hodder and Stoughton, 1982.

See The Chronicle archives for articles on race and urban planning, and the London mayoral contest.

Labour
Frank Dobson M.P. at http://www.frank-dobson.org.uk/

Conservative
Steve Norris M.P. at http://www.norrisforlondon.com/

Liberal
Susan Kramer M.P. at http://www.susankramer.org/

Independent
Ken Livingstone M.P. at http://www.livingstoneforlondon.org.uk/pageone.htm