Boris talks a lot about climate change, but will he spend the money?

by Darren Johnson AM
October 17, 2010 at 12:15 pm

The Mayor’s latest draft of his Climate Change Mitigation and Energy Strategy was published last Friday without so much as a whisper in the press.

This worthy wishlist sets out how London could cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2025, creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process.

But there are snags:

1. Both the Mayoral and Government responsibilities are divided into “committed actions” (in policy) and “other actions” (where they have no plans). Of the emissions reductions, 62% come from largely unfunded “committed actions” whilst 38% of the emissions reductions come from as-yet unannounced policies. In other words, we still don’t have the slightest idea how over one third of the reductions will be achieved, and the ambitious plans set out in the strategy are only a bare minimum.

2. The Mayor claims he has “committed over £100 million over four years … of which £71 million is from the LDA”. But his record isn’t very rosy: in 2008/09 he pledged to spend £18m on climate change but only managed £5m. In 2009/10 he raised his game, promising £26m of projects and delivering a little over £10m.

If I generously assume he won’t cut budgets any further, I can only find a £60m spend from the London Development Agency over his full four year term.

3. The strategy puts the bill for London at £40bn of investment, including £14bn to deliver the Mayor’s contribution. The Mayor has tried to suggest that this will mostly come from private finance, but he still needs substantial public funding.

To take three examples:

Insulating homes – the Mayor needs £134m of public funding to pay for councils to roll the excellent RE:NEW scheme out, including £55m over the next two years. The money pays for experts going door to door, street by street and for extra subsidies to make the insulation free. These costs cannot be recovered from energy bill savings, and without the funding the project can’t go ahead.
Electric vehicle infrastructure and subsidy – the plans for electric cars rely on the Government scaling up its electric car grant for consumers from £230m to £800m, but in August the Government announced it was only guaranteeing an initial investment of £40m. The Mayor is also relying on at least £22.6m of public investment to install charging points around the city, pivotal to his plans to get 100,000 electric vehicles onto London’s roads.
Better transport – the strategy isn’t up to scratch on encouraging people out of their cars and onto their feet, bikes and buses. But even the modest (and declining) bus subsidy and investment in cycling (excluding the high-profile hire bikes) are likely to be prime targets for “savings”.

I will be the first to congratulate the Government, Mayor and London’s councils if this strategy is left intact following the Comprehensive Spending Review.

But if the cuts bite deep, Londoners can have little hope of serious action to upgrade our homes, cut traffic and capture the potential for a low carbon economy.

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About the author
This is a guest post. Darren Johnson is chair of the London Assembly and deputy chair of the Business Management and Administration Committee. He represents the Green Party.
· Other posts by Darren Johnson AM
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