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Mayoral candidates: Ken Livingstone (Labour Party)

April 05 2008
The UK‘s best known newt-fancier believes the only way to end the housing shortage is to build more homes and disagrees with move-ons The Pavement's printers were stalled for Ken Livingstone, but we were not the only people waiting to speak to him.

In a bright church hall in Enfield the plates of chocolate digestives were ignored as the press jostled with members of the public for their five minutes with the Mayor. But before the half a dozen old ladies, their cheeks flushed pink in the April breeze, could be heard Mr Livingstone moved his beige mac and satchel off an armchair and invited The Pavement to speak to him first.

"Thanks for coming all this way to see me," he smiled, and for a moment, we were charmed sufficiently to forget we had been waiting for this interview for weeks. Perhaps this action reflected the fact that the Mayor of London has placed the provision of housing high on his election agenda. And as a man whose political career began in the housing offices for Camden Council, Mr Livingstone has big opinions on this topic.

"When I think back to the 1960s and 70s, there was limited homelessness in this city," he began. "At this time Labour had invested massively in housing, and it reached a climax in Camden when we had 2000 new lets each year. People could look at six or seven properties and choose where they really wanted to be housed." But when the Conservative government came to power in 1979 Mr Livingstone believes stable housing in London took a serious turn. "Thatcher's decision to more or less stop London councils from building any more homes has affected everyone."

Mr Livingstone's answer to the current problem is simple; "The only way to end the housing shortage is to build more homes." The British government have pledged £4bn to the national affordable housing scheme for 2008 to 2011 and the Mayor intends to use London's portion of this money to build 50,000 affordable homes in the capital.

"We have not seen anything like this kind of investment since 1979, today there is real money for a major housing problem," he enthused. But his plan for housing in London is not homeless-centric. He believes that in order to help those who have fallen off the property ladder you need to help everybody else up a few rungs. There are 150,000 families living in over-crowded conditions in the city and around 60,000 families in temporary accommodation. If re-elected Mr Livingstone has pledged that 50 per cent of new builds will be cheaper to buy or rent. "Boris Johnson said he would abolish the 50 per cent rule, and if this is allowed to happen very few homes in London will be affordable," he warned. "It is not just the homeless who need somewhere to live, but if we cannot help other groups they will be pushed even further down the ladder."

With this in mind, The Pavement was curious to know whether Mr Livingstone thought that the Homeless Link pledge to end homelessness in the capital by 2012 was an achievable target. He did not hesitate: "I think it is a realistic pledge. There is a real range of options for homeless people now, some could go straight into smaller flats where as others need to go into sheltered accommodation to deal with their needs."

Although he did not voice his opinion at last year's Council meeting to discuss Conservative proposals to abolish soup runs he hinted at his dislike to these kind of measures: "Councils like Westminster, who have taken to moving people on should not be allowed to do that," he said frankly. "We need to work with these people, to get them into training and slowly ease them off the streets." When asked how he would do this he lowered his eyes. "We would have to use the miniscule amount left out of that £4bn to make sure they are supported."

Mr Livingstone is an advocate of multicultural London and he was aware of another controversy affecting the homeless community in the city; the influx of migrant workers who find themselves on the streets. He told The Pavement how he had visited Brian Haw's peace camp recently, and met six Polish workers who could not find anywhere to sleep, and he believed that services should be in place to support them too. "When you look at social problems in a city like this you should not think on a borough by borough basis, you need to look to different communities and tackle their specific needs," he explained, and pulling the interview full circle he added: "We want to create housing to suit all."

Our time was up. Mr Livingstone would be ushered to the next member of the press before being thrown to the mercy of the old ladies' questions. He is a Londoner who understands the housing issue inside out, and who clearly has confidence in his plan to tackle it. But we will have to wait until 1st May to see whether his plan will be implemented.
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