Mayor and GLA to leave City Hall for east London
The home of London’s Mayor and the Greater London Authority is to move from City Hall near Tower Bridge to the Crystal building in east London.
The Crystal was formerly the home of a short lived Siemen’s exhibition centre and is located beside the northern cable car terminal.
The new location will be near a northern portal of the controversial Silvertown Tunnel, though supporter Sadiq Khan will be gone by the time it opens in 2025.
It’s also quite close a three tier lorry park:
Another major change in the area is a 5,000-home development from the GLA/Keystone including a new DLR station.
It’s estimated the move will save £61 million over five years. City Hall has been leased since opening from Kuwaiti company St Martin’s Property Group. It currently costs more than £11m a year.
The City Hall lease has a break clause in 2021 which is being enacted. Around 1,000 employees of the GLA were told this morning. Some staff are to lose their jobs with redundancies coming soon and staff having to re-interview for a reduced number of roles.
Lets hope he cycles there from his home….
I was just thinking what he has done since he arrived that one could describe as positive for Londoners….
I also wonder what he has done Internationally that has enhanced the image of London in the World…..either for tourism or business
One thing straight away off the bat:
Hopper fare and no charge for changing buses within 1 hour. Saved me a fair but when skint especially when going to QE hospital. Also meant I didn’t have to wait for a specific bus in rain but can change at a more suitable stop and not pay more. This also brought London into line with many other international cities.
Shaun Bailey states “it’s just for tourists”. Utterly bizarre.
I’ve criticised Khan a fair bit for a number of issues but let’s not pretend nothing good is done.
The Hopper fare does save money i agree and will benefit many people on local journeys in particular,
However, travelling to Central London by bus we are now forced to change buses mid journey in the cold wet and at night to complete journeys we were able to once do on one bus before Khan’s cuts to Central London bus services.
Which affects Key workers and many other low paid workers working in hospitality etc in Central London and adds time to journeys waiting for the next bus to arrive when changing buses,
So I guess it is swings and roundabout situation to be fair.
The Central London bus service cuts have affected South East London considerably with routes 53 171 172 cut back from the Central London and many other routes seeing cuts to there frequencies.
A good frequent and reliable public transport infrastructure is vital to the success of any City With London being no exception.
Khan is now threatening to make cuts to the Police and Fire Brigade budgets which are both vital to Londoners. He now needs to take some responsibility himself for the financial
crisis at the Greater London Authority and TFL.
The large cut made to TFL’s budget by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was made while Boris Johnson was still Mayor of London in 2015.
Khan has known what is budgets have been since he became more Mayor Of London in 2016, .
.
@Graham: Mayor Khan has sort to avoid burdening Londoners with excessive fare rises, but perhaps you would welcome a £3.00 per journey bus fare, £5 for a tube ride and the scrapping of all concessions.
Let’s hear your brilliant plan to balance the books at City Hall.
** New Mayor of London in 2016 **
@anonymous201481 I would keep concessions.for the the elderly and disabled people and allow them to use their freedom passes 24 hours a day.
I would also keep free fares for school children up until they leave secondary school only.
As we need to protect the most vulnerable groups in society.
But efficiency savings need to be looked in to at City Hall to see where any other savings can be made. This is what other employers have to do when in financial crisis and the Greater London Authority should be no different,
What would these ‘efficiency savings’ look like? Would they be enough to fill the massive black hole in City Hall finances?
That makes perfect sense Graham.
Probably not anonymous201481 to be totally honest.
But people including all political parties need to understand there is no magic money tree and sometimes some very harsh and difficult decisions have to be made which will be unpopular with both their staff and the public.
The last thing I want to see is anyone losing their job but sadly think this may become unavoidable at both the Greater London Authority and TFL with a reduction in back of house staff, In order to protect and maintain front line services and public transport which are vital to any City and to support our most vulnerable people in our society.
Sadly Covid-19 and fare evasion on TFL services have both had a major impact on TFL revenue this year.
I would like to see tougher action taken on fare evasion in particular which has cost TFL millions in unpaid fares year on year. Fare evasion is a on going problem and this is unacceptable and not fair on law abiding passengers who pay their fares using oyster cards. travel cards or have a freedom pass.
The government is shaking the magic money tree to deal with the effects of covid-19. TfL have been cutting staff and further rounds are due. My brother-in-law works in office provisions and has managed to dodge the bullet so far, but time may be running out.
Fare evasion is a problem, not helped by all the ‘Boris’ buses and lack of regular ticket inspection.