Zac Goldsmith launched his business manifesto today with a promise to create a chief digital officer at City Hall to help solve some of London’s biggest challenges. ‘Man and the plan’
‘Man and the plan’
David Cameron has urged Londoners not to elect Labour’s Sadiq Khan as their next mayor, stated that they will become “lab rats” for party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s economic experiments.
Addressing a rally of Conservative activists, Mr Cameron sought to frame the election as an early verdict on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party as well as a choice between Mr Goldsmith and Mr Khan.
He said “Sadiq Khan nominated Jeremy Corbyn to be leader of the Labour party and he doesn’t regret it. Never mind the fact he (Mr Corbyn) wants to give the Falklands back to Argentina or he thinks that nuclear submarines should patrol the Atlantic without any missiles.
“Ahead of the rally, the Conservatives launched a poster campaign depicting Mr Goldsmith as “your man in City Hall”.
The Conservative Party mayor candidate said he would set up a New York-style “office of data analytics”, which would look at statistics from across the City Hall empire to address crime, housing, transport and quality-of -life issues.
He would also launch an annual £1 million Mayor’s Tech Challenge to encourage businesses to come up with innovative ideas. Suggestions included a rental app which cuts out estate agents, saving landlords and tenants hundreds of pounds in fees, as well as releasing data to help construction companies cut freight traffic.
One of the Mr Goldsmith’s wide-ranging plans for London businesses will include setting up a new Business Advisory Group, with members nominated by the business community.
Mr Zac Goldsmith said he would also use TFL’s 560km network of railway routes, tunnels and bridges to rapidly deliver superfast broadband. He would insist the Government responds on Heathrow expansion in the summer as promised, would increase funding for promoting London and boost the capital’s image himself, including abroad.
Start-ups would be helped by cutting red tape, with affordable office space in all new developments, and putting adult skills funding into key areas like engineering, science and financial services, with firms able to import talent from overseas if needed. Mr Goldsmith says he will lobby to ensure 30 hours of promised free childcare reflects the cost of nurseries in London.