Mayor of London election: Shaun Bailey pledges City Hall infrastructure bank as part of Covid recovery
Tory mayor of London candidate Shaun Bailey has pledged to create a new taxpayer-funded and City Hall-owned infrastructure bank for transport projects if elected next month.
Bailey’s plan would aim to “attract private sector finance into large scale, costly infrastructure projects” in order to get projects like Crossrail 2 and the Bakerloo extension funded.
The manifesto read: “This is a tried and tested formula, proven successful by models like Germany’s KfW, and is a model that will be replicated nationally by the [Treasury’s new] National Infrastructure Bank.”
Bailey’s other transport policies included pledges to scrap the planned Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) extension, a rollout of driverless trains and a plan to bring in corporate sponsorship for Tube stations to raise revenue.
The mayoral candidate released his manifesto this morning in the lead up to the 6 May election, with Bailey focussing heavily on crime rates in the capital.
He vowed to cut crime in 100 days, hire 8,000 new police officers with new government funding and increase stop and search by the Metropolitan Police.
“Everyone except Sadiq Khan knows that rising crime is the biggest challenge facing London,” Bailey said.
“And while he says it will take 10 years to fix, we can’t afford to wait even 10 months.
“That’s why I will use my first 100 days as mayor to visibly make a difference to crime on our streets.”
Bailey will face off against incumbent London mayor Sadiq Khan, Green Party candidate Sian Berry and Lib Dem candidate Luisa Porrit in next month’s election.
The latest polling puts Khan in front on 51 per cent of the vote, with a lead of more than 20 points over Bailey.