Slash the cost of TfL perks and City Hall politics to help frontline workers, homeowners and taxpayers
Posted by GLA Conservatives in News
· 2015/16: Use £20.81m savings for self-build homes fund, panic buttons for Tube workers and further council tax cuts
Money raised from cutting the cost of City Hall politics and scrapping free travel passes for flatmates of TfL staff should be used to help council taxpayers, frontline workers and aspiring home-owners, according to GLA Conservative Gareth Bacon.
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Half-trillion pound Thames City would create new Southern Powerhouse
· Partner London and South-East to create “Thames City” and form third biggest urban economy in the world
· New region would collaborate to build 40 new “garden suburbs” on disused brownfield sites
· Crossrail 2, 3, 4… could be funded and built with new tax powers
London and the South East should join forces to build one of the world’s largest economies and lead Britain’s future growth, according to a new report by GLA Conservative Andrew Boff.
“Southern Powerhouse: True devolution for London and South East” urges the Government to devolve tax powers to a new Thames City political body representing the shared goals of Greater London, Essex, Kent, Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire.
Funding for homeless veterans reaches £1m
GLA Conservative Gareth Bacon has secured a further £250k cash for homeless veterans in London for 2015/16.
In addition, the Mayor has offered £200k to homeless charities for the renovation of a hostel in Stepney.
The campaign led by the GLA Conservative budget spokesman, Gareth Bacon, brings the total amount of secured funding to £1m over the past three years:
Gunfire detectors in ‘soft targets’ could slash armed response times and save lives
National pilot of kit in 50 undisclosed, high-footfall national sites would cost less than 1pc of annual anti-terror budget
‘Soft’ terror targets such as hospitals, museums, train stations and shopping malls should be kitted out with gunfire alarms, according to GLA Conservative Roger Evans.
Currently trialled in the US, the smoke alarm sized detectors use heat and sound to detect gunfire, automatically alert police, and enable armed officers to track and follow gunmen within a building.¹
Estimated to cost between £13k and £65k², depending on building size and layout, the kit could cut response times and save lives in a shooting incident.
Currently, the Met police expects armed officers to respond to incidents in about 12 minutes, whilst armed response took 14 minutes to arrive during the 2013 Woolwich terrorist attack.³
Cut needless drunk A&E admissions to ease winter pressures
We need to urgently reduce needless admissions if we are to relieve the current pressure on London’s A&E departments. Getting too drunk is no excuse for wasting our health resources, especially when each A&E visit costs the taxpayer over £200. We should remove drunks from our A&Es in London by using specially built sobering facilities, such as Alcohol Recovery Centres and Booze Buses, as suggested in the recent report On the Wagon. Recovery centres provide a place for the intoxicated to sober-up, and booze buses help treat drunken patients on-the-go, both allowing these patients to avoid emergency departments altogether, if they have no other medical complications. With 7% of all emergency callouts being alcohol related this practical measure could lift the massive burden on A&Es and save over £40 million every year. It’s common sense.
- RT @BobBlackman: At @CommonsLeader @andrealeadsom Qs in @HouseofCommons raised the excellent report by @Councillorsuzie on the terrible pro…
- WATCH: @shaunbaileyuk proposes motion calling for body-worn cameras to be in operation when tasers are deployed. Sa… https://t.co/uE1PBbwhQi
- WATCH: Met Commissioner Cressida Dick tells @garethbaconam the force has referred the leak of information that led… https://t.co/3evEJZ5uLJ