London Survey shows increase in satisfaction with Mayor's performance
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Satisfaction with Ken Livingstone's performance as Mayor of London has risen, with a significant increase in the number of Londoners expressing this as their view. The finding comes from the Annual MORI London Survey, commissioned by the GLA and released today, which finds satisfaction with the Mayor's performance has increased by 5 percentage points since the previous survey carried out in 2000.
Speaking about the survey findings the Mayor of London said:
"The survey indicates two things. First, Londoners are increasingly concerned about rising crime levels, frustration with traffic congestion and the high cost of housing and accommodation. Secondly, the proportion of Londoners who are satisfied with my performance has increased. This shows that my overall approach is being endorsed by the public but that more resources are now needed to turn the city around - this is precisely the direction I am taking with my proposed budget for 2002-03."
"Having a mayor makes a difference. Where I have real powers, the city is witnessing change. In one year I have reversed a generation of decline on the bus network, with lower fares, more conductors, more vehicles and tougher bus lane enforcement. As a result London now accounts for the entire increase in bus usage in the country, with a 6 per cent increase in bus ridership, a 16 per cent increase in ridership at night and more people using the service than at any time in the last 26 years."
"Similarly, my single real power over policing is to set the Met's budget. Increasing the visibility and number of police on the streets is central to my approach. This is why I used my budget-setting power last year to pay for 1050 new front-line officers - this is now bearing fruit and Hendon police training centre now has 1000 new recruits for the first time ever."
"By comparison, on the tube, which has still not been devolved to me, services and satisfaction are at an all-time low. The mechanism for solving London's problems is to devolve more powers to the mayor and to ensure that I have the resources to make real change."
"Over the next few weeks the London Assembly will debate my budget for 2002-03. I am proposing the biggest increase in investment in public transport since the abolition of the GLC and another 1000 police on London's streets. This poll shows that the public has little understanding of what the London Assembly does - the Assembly can change this perception by getting behind policies to get London moving. Unless the Assembly votes to give me the resources I have asked for to improve public transport and increase the number of police still further, the public will remain of the view that not enough is being done to make their city a better place to live."
"As eighty-five percent of Londoners acknowledge in this survey, London isn't perfect but we enjoy living here. As Mayor of London it is my job to continue to make vital improvements which will make London an enjoyable place to live full-stop."
The London survey is an annual exercise enabling the Mayor and the GLA to monitor trends in London as well as gauge public opinion and attitudes on issues relevant to life in the capital. The survey includes key questions which were repeated from last year's survey as well as new topical questions.
Writing in the Evening Standard today, commentator Peter Kellner said of the mayor's satisfaction rating: "most politicians would sell their grandmother for such a rating."
Technical details
- Copies of the MORI Executive Summary are available from the GLA press office (see contact details above right)
- MORI interviewed 1,458 Londoners, in home, between 31 Oct-14 Dec 2001. Data are weighted to the known profile of the Greater London area.
