Section 1: Powers and Responsibilities of the Mayor
May 2016
London Elections
A Toolkit for London Deaf and
Disabled People’s Organisations
Contents
Introduction
Section 1: Powers and responsibilities of the Mayor
Section 2: Questions and answers from the main mayoral candidates
Section 3: Voting in the London elections
Registering to Vote
Ways to Vote
How to Vote
Polling station access for Disabled voters
Section 4: Full list of candidates
Introduction
On May 5 2016 Londoners will get a chance to have their say in electing the next Mayor of London and Greater London Assembly members.
It is important that Disabled people take part in the London elections and use their votes.
There are 1.2 million Disabled people in London, making up over 14% of the population[1], yet we remain one of the most marginalised and excluded groups in society.
Too often politicians and policy-makers overlook our needs and the issues that matter most to us.
In the current climate when, for the first time in the history of social policy, things are getting worse for Disabled people[2], it is more important than ever that our voices are heard.
The incomes of Disabled Londoners fell by 29% over the five years from 2007/8 to 2012/13 – double the equivalent figure for non-Disabled Londoners. Meanwhile Disabled Londoners experience inequality in every area of our lives such as housing, education and transport.
The Mayor of London and Greater London Assembly have significant powers that can address disadvantage and enable Disabled Londoners to participate as active citizens in the life of the capital city.
The London elections are a good opportunity to get our issues on the agenda and over the past few months Inclusion London has been busy doing just that.
In partnership with Transport for All and the Alliance for Inclusive Education we launched our ‘Disabled People’s Challenge to the next Mayor of London’, setting out our combined asks for the next Mayor and Assembly.
We met with the four main mayoral candidates to go through the key issues most important to Disabled Londoners: Caroline Pidgeon (LibDem), Sadiq Khan (Labour), Sian Berry (Green Party), Zac Goldsmith (Conservative).
Their answers to six written questions we sent them are included in Section 2 to enable comparison.
We also ran election workshops for London DDPOs and worked in partnership with London election initiatives run by Bite the Ballot and Good London to build a shared vision for London across different communities.
This toolkit has been developed to provide key information about the London elections for Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs). Please share the information with your members and encourage them to use their votes on 5 May.
SECTION 1
Powers and responsibilities of the Mayor
Overview
The Mayor has a range of direct powers and responsibilities which impact on Deaf and Disabled people in London.
The Mayor has specific powers and duties and a general responsibility to promote economic, social and environmental improvement in London.
The Mayor must consult with Londoners, and in all cases the Mayor must promote equality of opportunity.
The Mayor has a duty to set out plans and policies for London covering transport, planning and development, housing, economic development and regeneration, culture, health inequalities, and a range of environmental issues.
The Mayor sets the annual budget for the Greater London Authority and the wider GLA group, which includes the Metropolitan Police Service, Transport for London, London Development Agency and London Fire Brigade.
Transport
The Mayor is Chair of Transport for London, appoints the Transport for London Board and sets the Mayor’s Transport Strategy.
The Mayor has ultimate responsibility for London’s buses, Dial-A-Ride, Tube and Transport for London rail, and some of London’s streets.
Rail, the Freedom Pass, Taxicard and most streets fall outside the Mayor’s direct control.
Health
The Mayor has a statutory duty to reduce health inequalities. The Mayor is Chair of the London Health Improvement Board and sets the London Health Inequalities Strategy.
Development – housing and economy
The Mayor provides an overall framework for the development of London, through the London Plan. The plan contains targets for housing, transport, community facilities and the environment. The Mayor also has a leadership role through his/her powers over planning decisions.
The Mayor sets the London Housing Strategy and a range of related sub strategies under it.
The Mayor sets the London Development Strategy and related work such as the London Debt Strategy group.
Education
The Mayor of London has no statutory powers over education.
BUT
An enterprising mayor can use his / her powers for economic generation to develop an education and apprenticeships strategy – making the direct link between learning and business and paid work.
Policing and Crime
The Metropolitan Police Authority has been replaced with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC).
The Metropolitan Police Service is directly accountable to the Mayor.
The Mayor produces a Police and Crime Plan setting out MOPAC’s Police and Crime objectives.
Equalities
The Mayor has a duty to promote equality.
The Mayor sets out the Equal Life Chances for All equality framework and produces an annual Equality Report.
Sport
The Mayor continues to promote inclusive physical activity and sport through the five year strategy 'Inclusive and Active 2', which has been adopted by over 115 organisations across London and beyond.
Adoption of the strategy remains a pre-requisite for any organisation funded through the Mayor's Sports Participation Fund.
Any project funded through the Mayor's Sports Legacy Programme is required to engage at least 10% disabled participants.
Outside the London mayoral remit
The Mayor and the Greater London Assembly do not have responsibility for:
- council housing,
- schools,
- social services,
- hospitals,
- street cleaning,
- parking permits,
- social security/welfare benefits.
These services are all provided by London councils, government, or other organisations.
SECTION 2
Questions and answers from the main mayoral candidates
Inclusion London, Transport for All and the Alliance for Inclusive Education met with the four main mayoral candidates. We had positive discussions with all candidates about our manifesto asks and there were no major areas of disagreement from any of them. They have all agreed to meet with us and our members within the first 100 days if they get elected.
We also posed them six key questions related to the asks in our ‘Disabled People’s Challenge to the next Mayor of London’. Their answers are set out below.
To see their full manifestos go to:
Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem)
Sadiq Khan (Labour)
Sian Berry (Green Party)
(includes easy read version)
Zac Goldsmith (Conservative)
1.What will you do to ensure that Disabled Londoners and our user-led organisations are fully involved in City Hall work that affects us?
Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem)
I would like to see a return to far more consultation groups led by user-led organisations for a range of London services.In relation to transport in particular I sometimes think the London Assembly Transport Committee has been better in consulting with disabled people than Transport for London.That simply needs to change.
Other changes also need to take place. For example, I think the Mayor of London should directly meet regularly with user-led organisations of disabled people.Sadly that has not been the priority of the current Mayor, as can be seen by his published diary.
Sadiq Khan (Labour)
I’m determined to be a Mayor for all Londoners, and that includes the 1.2 million Londoners with disabilities. Nobody in London should be denied the opportunity to make the most of what the city has to offer – in work, travel and leisure. If I become Mayor, and in order to deliver on this, I’ll make sure that there is genuine engagement between the Mayor and people with disabilities on all matters that affect disabled Londoners. This won’t be tokenistic, but meaningful discussion on the issues that really matter to disabled Londoners.
Sian Berry (Green Party)
I believe in “nothing about us without us”. This isn’t just about involvement, it is about leadership. City Hall work that affects disabled people needs to be led by disabled people, so I would bring them into City Hall. This is part of my vision for London, to give London back to Londoners.
As Mayor I will appoint a disability equality policy adviser and a new forum for London Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations to feed into policy development, particularly housing, crime and transport. With this forum I will also develop an advice and advocacy strategy for London and ensure the London Health Inequalities Strategy and London Health Improvement Board addresses health inequalities experienced by deaf and disabled people.
Zac Goldsmith (Conservative)
At least 1 in 10 Londoners identify as disabled – and that figure is likely to be significantly under-reported, particularly as all of us get older – and yet transport, housing and even jobs and training are still not designed to be fully inclusive. I think that is because there have historically and wrongly been so few disabled people in public life, and therefore decision makers have not had the advice they needed, at the heart of Government, to get this right.
As Mayor of London, I will appoint an Ability and Inclusion Advisor in City Hall to ensure no decision about you is made without you – from accessible transport through to employment and skills training.
2.What will you do to tackle the growing disability inequality gap in London?
Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem)
If you look at some of the changes to disability benefits, or the increase in hate crime statistics against disabled people, I freely accept that the inequality gap is increasing.
The Mayor is also the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service (although so far has passed on the responsibility). I believe there is no excuse for the Mayor not setting an effective strategy to tackle disability hate crime across London.
The Mayor also has an important role in setting London’s economic direction and ensuring more jobs, apprenticeships and internships are opened up to disabled people. I believe organisations such as Transport for London need to examine their recruitment policies and ensure their record on employing disabled people is greatly improved.
Finally, when it comes to transport access the buck really does stop with the Mayor of London, as the Mayor is chair of Transport for London. I am firmly committed to increasing the number of Tube stations with step free access (including the greater use of mobile ramps on platforms); putting to an end sudden lift closures due to a lack of trained staff and ensuring access to many train services is improved through TfL taking over the running of many commuter train services.
Sadiq Khan (Labour)
It’s unacceptable that disabled Londoners aren’t sharing in the city’s prosperity. As Mayor, I’ll do all I can to help disabled Londoners into work and promote better pay and conditions in the workplace. I’ll set up a team dedicated to economic fairness, promoting the London Living Wage, root out bad and unacceptable employment practices and work with employers to deliver more opportunities for people with disabilities, including apprenticeships suitable for disabled Londoners.
Sian Berry (Green Party)
Many of the most damaging changes being made to how disabled people are supported are being made by the Government at a national level. But we can help in London by building a better city where more people can participate and flourish without being confronted by artificial barriers that make inequality worse.
I want to involve Disabled People’s Organisations in this, identifying the barriers and addressing them, for example looking at the interlinking social and economic factors that impact on participation in sport and other social activities.
All GLA commissioners and contractors must fulfil equality act duties, and they must be able to demonstrate a proven track record when it comes to equality and inclusive practice. At the forefront of my housing policy is to provide truly affordable social housing, so there can be low cost tenancies for Disabled Londoners, and I am committed to 10% of new homes being wheelchair accessible. But we do also need an assessment of accessible and adapted housing across the capital, to influence planning and provision that is directed at need.
Ultimately, inequality starts in education. So, with the new deputy mayor for education I would create, I would bring together London’s boroughs and schools to identify the barriers to inclusion. Although the Mayor’s powers are limited in this area, we can help at a strategic level and must do all we can to end the segregated education system, whether it be on the grounds of religion, class or disability. This immediately disadvantages disabled children, who can be excluded from mainstream society, and its opportunities, from the beginning of their lives. I would also ensure that the London curriculum is fully inclusive and accessible.
Zac Goldsmith (Conservative)
It is essential that disabled Londoners have access to the same life-chances as all Londoners. That means several things.
Top of the list is support from local councils to lead an independent life – that means spending more money on social care but also integrating care at home and care in the hospital into one genuinely integrated service, with the disabled person at the centre making all the decisions rather than being shunted from pillar to post.
Second we need more accessible homes – I will continue to enforce rules requiring that 10% of all new homes are wheelchair accessible, and will ensure we retrofit as many old homes as possible.
Third we need accessible transport to get around. So I will continue TfL’s investment programme which will make sure 95 per cent of bus stops are accessible by the end of this year, and that by 2018 over half of TfL’s stations will have step-free access.
But I want to go further which is why I have committed to reviewing the current programme with a view to making it much more ambitious.
And finally, it is essential disabled people get access to inclusive skills and training and accessible work-places.
3.What will you do to improve the way Disability Hate Crime is tackled?
Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem)
We know that the number of recorded victims of disability hate crime is rapidly increasing. Yet at the same time it remains one of the most unreported crimes in the capital. In the first two months of 2016 there were 102 victims of disability hate crime in London. In contrast in the whole of 2013 there were 110 reported victims of disability hate crime – that is a staggering increase.
How much the increase is due to under reporting in the past, and how much is due to a real increase is obviously not clear cut, but what is crystal clear is that the level of disability hate crime is an immense problem which needs to be forcefully challenged.
To tackle disability hate crime there needs to be improvements in the way it is reported and far better training of police officers, especially due to new forms of hate crime such as cyber bullying. The way the Met actually investigates the crime also needs to improve.
I am also aware that a lot of hate crime takes place on public transport so I think in addition to the police, all TfL staff need to be aware of how to tackle this crime. Just as TfL and many train companies take legal action against abusive behaviour towards their own staff I believe we should use their resources (staff, CCTV footage etc) to help tackle disability hate crime facing people as they travel around London.
Sadly, at this stage I do not claim to have all the answers to tackle disability hate crime. Indeed having read many reports on this issue I am aware that many organisations are able to highlight the issue, but less able to come forward with practical solutions. What I can promise is to adopt an effective strategy, which must involve the voices of disabled people being fully heard during the preparation of the strategy. I believe this is vital to ensure policies are put in place that are robust and effective.
Sadiq Khan (Labour)
London is famed the world over for its diversity and its tolerance so the rise in hate crime of all kinds is a badge of shame for the city. I’m determined to stamp out hate crime which is why I’ll insist the Met Police have a zero tolerance approach, and are given the resources they need to deal with it.