The Scoop

Will Boris Johnson leave anything behind for the next Mayor?

Adam Bienkov | Monday 28 February, 2011 10:56

Boris Johnson was interviewed by Tim Donovan on the London edition of the Politics Show yesterday.

Boris boasted that he will have overseen a record number of affordable homes by 2012.

Donovan responded by pointing to figures showing affordable home-building crashing to zero by 2012 as a result of government cuts.

Donovan also pointed out that Boris’s police budget is totally unsustainable, relying on £70m of reserves built up in police and fire budgets over the previous ten years.

Once that money runs out (after the election) police numbers will fall and housebuilding will grind to a halt.

In fact Boris will create exactly the kind of “black hole” that he accused Ken Livingstone of creating in TfL’s budget before the 2008 election.

As Donovan said to Boris: “this is money that you can’t use again.”

And it’s not just money that will run out after Boris’s first term but ideas as well. I mean what major new transport projects conceived by Boris are set to go ahead over the next five years?

We’ll have a few extra bikes and a few new buses with a hole in the back, but where are the big ideas for London going into the next few years and decades?

Of course there’s still time for Boris to spell out those big ideas, but even if he does they would be too far down the pipeline to be seen under a second Boris term.

Because the sad truth about Boris as Mayor, is that rather than be the triumph or disaster many predicted, he has actually been something of a non-event.

By doing as little as humanly possible, Boris has been able to take credit for past investments whilst adding little or nothing to future plans.

And while that may be enough for his re-election, it will leave little for future Mayors and future Londoners to be getting on with.

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