What is Susan Hall’s manifesto for the London mayoral election? | X8Y054R | 2024-05-01 11:08:01
What is Susan Hall's manifesto for the London mayoral election? | X8Y054R | 2024-05-01 11:08:01
The London Mayoral elections are due to take place on May 2.
Londoners will get their chance to vote for who they would like be the Mayor of London for the next four years.
Among the 13 candidates in the running are incumbent mayor Sadiq Khan and his top rival, Conservative Susan Hall.
Hall aims to block the Labour politician from bagging an unprecedented third term in the top role, but what will she do if she is successful?
Follow Metro.co.uk's local elections 2024 live blog for the latest updates.
What are Susan Hall's policies?
Susan Hall launched her full manifesto for Mayor of London a few days after Sadiq Khan revealed his.
It went into more detail about the list of five main priorities that have been on her campaign website since last year.
They give an indication of the most important issues she wants to tackle if she's elected next month.
Here is a summary of her plan's key points.
Ulez
On her website and across social media, Susan Hall has made it clear that scrapping Sadiq Khan's controversial expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) is one of her top priorities.
Under the scheme, drivers in vehicles that don't meet certain emissions standards are charged £12.50 a day when they travel in any of London's 32 boroughs.
It was first introduced by Boris Johnson and applied to an area around the centre of the capital, but Khan extended it to cover the entirety of Greater London in August last year.
Hall has pledged to reverse that decision on her first day in office.
To replace it, she wants to set up a 'High Pollution Hotspots fund' worth £50 million, which would 'tackle air pollution where it is'.
The website does not give details about what this money would go towards, but in an interview with the Telegraph last year Hall said this may involve widening roads to remove 'pinch points' and installing air filtration technology.
</div> She also regularly raises concerns about apparent plans for a 'pay-per-mile' system that Labour wants to bring in. However, Sadiq Khan has denied at every opportunity that there are any plans to introduce such a scheme.
Crime
Susan Hall has said she will 'get a grip on crime' as mayor, arguing that the capital does not feel safe after eight years with Sadiq Khan in charge.
She says she will bring back 'borough-based policing' by investing £200 million in bringing crime down and putting two extra bases in every borough, while making sure no more police stations are closed.
Earlier this month, she pledged to put an extra 1,500 officers on London's streets if she's elected – slightly more than the 1,300 promised by Khan.
She also wants to increase stop and search but 'do so in a responsible way', giving all frontline police access to handheld knife detection wands, which would – she claims – make their searches faster and less invasive.
A £7 million pot would be created so every London school that wants to install a 'knife arch' (ie, an airport-style walk-through metal detector) can do so.
Hall has said she would set up specialised units within the Metropolitan Police for tackling burglaries, robberies and thefts, while also recruiting a women's commissioner to improve women's safety in the city.
Her '24 Hour London Strategy' would, she says, help keep late-night revellers safe too.
Housing
Susan Hall has accused her opponent Sadiq Khan of not building enough houses in the capital – and of not building the right sort of houses.
Her website originally said her housing plan would 'focus on beautiful, green, community-oriented places that are high density but not high rise'.
However, her manifesto says: 'High-rise developments will be limited to appropriate areas that do not disrupt existing communities.'
She has also argued for the development of homes on public brownfield sites, saying she would 'unblock the barriers' preventing that from happening.
To that end, she also promises to relaunch the London Land Commission, originally announced by then-Chancellor George Osborne in 2015.
It would work to identify brownfield sites where more family homes could be built.
Environment
While she's keen to see housing pop up in London's brownfield sites, Susan Hall has said she will 'fiercely protect' the city's green belt from overdevelopment.
More bus routes need to make the switch to electric vehicles, she says, and for ordinary electric vehicle (EV) drivers she pledges to boost the number of car charging points.
She also says she would work to ensure Transport for London (TfL) becomes carbon neutral.
Hall's website says: 'Renewable energy is the future, so that we can become a zero-carbon city. Under my Mayoralty, I will ensure TfL leads the way.'
Driving and Transport
Low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) would be scrapped 'where Londoners want them gone', according to the Susan Hall's manifesto, while 20mph limit would be lifted 'where safe to do so'.
Several of the Tory's plans for London involve the Underground network.
She has said she would like to deploy more CCTV cameras on the Tube in an effort to improve women's safety.
Under her proposals, there would be a boost in funding for TfL infrastructure, including upgrades to the much-maligned Central Line as quickly as can be managed.
Hall also wants to expand the Night Tube to incorporate more lines each weekend – the Hammersmith and City line would be added 'as soon as possible', and the District, Circle and Metropolitan lines 'when feasible'.
Khan immediately echoed that promise after it was announced earlier this week.
What is Susan Hall's background?
Susan Hall describes herself as a 'Harrow girl done good', having started off stripping down car engines while working in the garage owned by her dad.
She went on to marry a hairdresser, and later opened a salon named Enhance in the Wealdstone district of her home borough.
At one point, the business employed 20 people – a fact that seems to be included every time the salon is mentioned online.
Hall was first elected to public office in 2006, when she became a member of Harrow borough council.
In 2013, she became the council's leader, a role she held until the following year.
Her next step up the ladder came in 2017, when she replaced a certain Kemi Badenoch as a London-wide Assembly Member.
She became deputy leader of the assembly's Conservative group in 2018, and the following year became leader – a role she held until May last year.
Across her time at City Hall, she has become known for her regular attacks on Sadiq Khan.
In a post on the website ConservativeHome last May, she said she had become the 'world expert' on Khan's weaknesses: 'His tense body language when he is taken off script, the way he lambasts his team for mistakes and saps their morale, and the deep-rooted insecurity that dictates his every decision.'
Hall has got into trouble over her activity on social media site X, formerly Twitter, in the past.
She replied to a 2019 tweet by Katie Hopkins that called Khan 'our nipple height mayor of Londonistan', saying: 'Thank you Katie!' – apparently endorsing a term for the capital used to suggest that Muslims are taking over.
In subsequent interviews, she said she did not remember sending the tweet and she was not aware of the implications of the term 'Londonistan'.
Who is running for Mayor of London 2024?
There are 13 candidates standing in the election on May 2.
Below is the full list of candidates and the parties they represent as they will appear on the ballot when you go to vote:
- Femy Amin, Animal Welfare Party
- Count Binface, Count Binface for Mayor of London
- Rob Blackie, Liberal Democrats
- Natalie Campbell, Independent
- Howard Cox, Reform UK
- Amy Gallagher, Social Democratic Party
- Zoe Garbutt, Green Party
- Tarun Ghulati, Independent
- Susan Hall, Conservative Party
- Sadiq Khan, Labour Party
- Andreas Michli, Independent
- Brian Rose, London Real Party
- Nick Scanlon, Britain First
How do I vote for the Mayor of London 2024?
To be eligible to vote in the London mayoral election 2024, you must live in London, be registered to vote, and be over the age of 18.
The deadline to register to vote in the London Mayor was April 16 at 11.59pm.
For more information, visit the London Elects website.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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