The Race for London Mayor
The 2016 London Mayoral election will be held on 5th May to elect the new Mayor of London, the London assembly election will take place on the same day.
The are twelve candidates presently contesting to become London mayor and succeed Boris Johnson, the two candidates at the head of the contest according to the polls is Zak Goldsmith (Cons) and Sadiq Khan (Labour), it is Sadiq Khan who is favourite to win and will if the polls are correct become the first muslim mayor of London.
Khan reportedly accepts that the antisemitism row engulfing his party could harm his chance of pulling off an historic victory by becoming the first Muslim mayor of London, he admits admits that tens of thousands of Jewish voters in the capital may turn against him following the highly inflamatory comments about Zionism and Hitler made by the last Labour mayor, Ken Livingstone. It was not only Livingstone that came under the spotlight over the weekend following his outburst for which he has been suspended from the party, the labour party past and present was disected by the press, on the Andrew Marr show Diane Abbott did her best to defend her party and the link with the extremely offensive remarks made by Livingstone.
London renters are high on the list of priorities according to Khan’s own housing agenda, he is expected to introduce a ‘London Living Rent’ option for new affordable housing, he will establish a London-wide not-for-profit letting agency. The Mayor’s office will crack down on rogue landlords and publish a regular list of the best and worst landlords in the capital and he will also campaign with Londoners for the power to freeze rents. Will such intervention in the market place work to the benefit of the renter? that is very much up for debate, more intervention into an already highly controlled private rental sector may be the last straw for landlords, it could have an adverse effect on rental availability if private landlords withdrew from the capital.
Zak Goldsmith plans on housing are: doubling home building to 50,000 a year by 2020 and ensuring development is in keeping with the local area, giving Londoners the first chance to buy new homes built in London, ensuring a significant proportion of all new homes are only for rent and not for sale.
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