Shaun Bailey: Mayor’s £70m Good Growth Fund created only 109 jobs since 2017
Conservative Mayor candidate Shaun Bailey said today that only 1.8 per cent of the six thousand jobs promised by Sadiq Khan in 2017 have since then been delivered.
Bailey produced a report today titled ‘Jumpstart: Supporting London’s Economic Recovery’ that highlighted the contentious issue of Sadiq Khan’s economic policies as set out in the Good Growth Fund four years ago. He has labeled the Mayor’s approach as ”ineffective, unknown and damaging.”
The Mayor’s Good Growth Fund has a budget of around £70m and was launched in 2017 in order to get Londoners more involved in their local communities while creating jobs.
“In the face of the biggest economic crisis in London’s history, Sadiq Khan has gone missing. He has no recovery plan. His job schemes aren’t delivering. And his transport policies are suffocating our city’s struggling economy,” Bailey said today.
He urged Khan to consider a number of recommendations urgently, namely to commission TfL to investigate the expansion of existing travel incentive schemes and the introduction of new schemes to attract people to visit central London.
Additionally, Bailey called on Khan to review all of his employment and job-creation schemes to see if any can be fast-tracked to aid London’s economic recovery. At the same time, he insisted the mayor should reverse his Congestion Charge increase and reduce the operating hours.
Response
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London dismissed the findings as “complete nonsense.”
“The Mayor’s Good Growth Fund has so far helped create nearly 1000 jobs in the capital,” he told City PM
The spokesperson went on to state that “across all rounds” of the Good Growth Fund, so far 932 jobs have been created through supported projects.
“Sadiq is working directly with businesses on a bold roadmap for the full and safe re-opening of the economy and last week he committed an extra £5m to support getting central London open again, including a new drive to encourage visitors to return,” he concluded.