Latest news with #BusinessLDN
BBC News
4 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
London's housing crisis 'should be priority in Spending Review'
Investing in housing, transport and people should be the top priorities for the capital, business leaders have said ahead of next week's government Spending Dickie, chief executive of Business LDN, an organisation that represents a number of employers in the city, said Transport for London (TfL) needed a long-term financial settlement so it could "plan with confidence".He also said the housing crisis needed to be addressed, which in turn would help reduce lack of affordable homes in the city was "not just a social issue", he said, but was holding back the economy. Mr Dickie said London currently had the highest unemployment rate in the country, and Londoners should be given the skills they need to get into work."It means investing in people and in the jobs of the future. Perhaps most importantly, we need investment into housing."Housing is not just a social crisis in London, it's also holding back the economy. It's harder for businesses to keep and then retain their staff."The sheer cost of getting a house - whether renting or trying to get on the housing ladder - makes it hard for businesses to attract and retain the talent they need."He said "a bit more imagination, a bit more innovation" was needed. "There are multiple impacts - the most obvious is the cost and how it makes it harder to attract and retain talent, but also the stress that employees face from uncertain or precarious rental arrangements." Rental prices in London are still rising, according to Matt Hutchinson, from the flat-share site SpareRoom."We never see sustained decreases taking rents down to affordable levels," he said."While there are more people searching for somewhere to live than rooms available, rents will keep heading north – along with renters."He said a March 2025 survey indicated 28% of renters were spending more than half their take-home pay on rent, while 80% were spending more than 30%. He added that workers were moving out of the capital to the "relative affordability" of the suburbs."It might be fine for knowledge workers who can do their jobs from their laptops, but for service workers and those who work shifts and antisocial hours, and who need to be close to their places of work, this is a huge problem." One of those people who felt forced to leave is Jason Phillips, who lived in Crouch End for a decade before moving to Stevenage in 60-year-old said his London home had been sold by the owner and he looked for a new place to rent for more than a year, viewing about 40 said property agencies told him everyone attending their viewings "was in a bidding war and that the only way to win was either to offer more than the advertised rent or to offer to be tied into multi-year contracts. "One agent suggested both was the best tactic."Mr Phillips said a two-bed flat in Crouch End on the market for £1,800 a month eventually went to a tenant willing to pay £2,500 a month on a 30-month rental now lives in a three-bedroom house with a monthly rent of £2,075. Ian McDermott, CEO of the Peabody housing association and the chair of the G15 - a group of housing associations in London - said rent certainty was the most important issue that should be addressed in the Spending said the government should consider housing to be core infrastructure for the country, and that housing should be viewed "not as debt but as an asset"."The situation is utterly dire - one in 21 children in London will go to sleep tonight in temporary accommodation."The scale of the of the temporary housing is astronomical and threatens the financial viability of councils across London."
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New fundraising powers for Sadiq Khan could unlock billions for Tube extensions, report claims
Billions of pounds to help pay for extensions to London's Tube network could be unlocked if the Government granted Sir Sadiq Khan new fundraising powers, a major business group has argued. In a new report, BusinessLDN has called on ministers to allow the mayor to raise money for projects like the Bakerloo line extension to south-east London or Docklands Light Railway (DLR) extension to Thamesmead, essentially by 'borrowing against' the schemes' future economic benefits. The group points out that improvements to transport in different parts of London - such as the opening of the Elizabeth line in 2022 - have increased the value of homes in those places and made them more attractive for businesses. Their report argues that the Government should therefore allow Transport for London (TfL), under the leadership of the mayor, to borrow money to pay for Tube and railway extensions - on the understanding that the funding will later be paid back using the local tax windfall resulting from those projects. To gather up that windfall, the mayor would need to be empowered to collect a proportion of locally-paid residential taxes, like Stamp Duty Land Tax, as well as the extra business rates generated in the area. This funding mechanism is a type of 'land value capture' known as 'tax increment financing'. A version of it - focused on business rates - was used to partly-fund the Northern line extension to Battersea Power Station. According to modelling in BusinessLDN's report, the mechanism could be used to raise more than £4.5bn over 25 years to help cover the costs of three key projects. For the Bakerloo line extension, the report says that up to £2.2bn could be raised, and about £1.5bn for the DLR extension. The report adds that a further £1bn could be raised for the West London Orbital scheme, which is a proposed London Overground line running from Hounslow up to Hendon. John Dickie, BusinessLDN's chief executive, said: 'Investment in transport is critical to boosting productivity and growth across London and the UK. 'Against a backdrop of stretched public finances, the Government needs to consider innovative approaches to get shovels in the ground. Letting local government borrow against the future tax revenues that investment will generate, to fund that investment in the first place, is a common-sense way of supporting growth. 'This model has the potential to be applied across the UK, including London where it could help to get key projects – such as extensions to the DLR and Bakerloo lines as well as the Overground network – off the drawing board and unlock new homes, create skilled jobs and spur growth.' A TfL spokesperson said: 'We welcome this report by BusinessLDN which identifies a number of potential ways in which innovative funding mechanisms could help unlock a range of public transport improvements across London. 'While these may need further development and discussion with various Government bodies, it helpfully demonstrates that by identifying wider funding opportunities, key transport schemes which would deliver growth and opportunities across the city could be funded more easily and support the wider UK economy.' The Government was approached for comment.
BBC News
29-01-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Heathrow: Campaigners and business disagree on third runway
"Three-quarters of the village would be demolished. It wouldn't be a viable community. Pubs, the shops will go because there aren't enough customers. "The bus won't come up on the main road because there's a runway in the way. It's a lose, lose, lose all round."Justine Bayley lives in Harmondsworth, a village in Hillingdon in west London, which would be partially demolished to make way for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. She told BBC London the expansion plan isn't "realistic" when the mayor of London has pledged to reduce pollution and noise."Sadiq Khan has been working very hard to improve both in London. We're actually part of London here and we'd like to see the improvements as well," she says."By putting lots more planes in the air and lots more cars delivering people to the airport, they all produce noise, they produce pollution."Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has hinted that the government will support a third runway at Heathrow Airport, saying "sustainable aviation and economic growth go hand in hand".She is expected to confirm whether the government will back the expansion of Heathrow in a speech on Justine, who is part of campaign group Stop Heathrow Expansion, is against a third runway, others in London are in business groups say a third runway is vital to stimulate the economy and create new jobs. John Dickie from BusinessLDN said the expansion of the airport was about competitiveness and said: "Other cities in Europe and indeed globally are stealing a march on us."They're improving that connectivity, they're improving the number of cities they can connect directly and that makes it a competitive advantage for them and a competitive disadvantage for us, but it's more than just that."Anyone who's flown from Heathrow recently will know that the airport is absolutely full."If the government does give the green light to a third runway, there are issues to consider around the cost, the environmental impact and the time it would take to build. It's likely there would be a complex planning process that follows. It's also likely that environmental campaigners would challenge the Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has said he would support a legal challenge if the government does giving its backing to the project.
