After the G20: a message from the Mayor for London

At the G20, there was great use of terms like ‘trillion’, ‘stimulus’ and ‘tax-haven’. There were grand speeches and everyone seemed pretty pleased with themselves. The casual observer might have left with a vague feeling that it was a success, without really knowing why.

That is because the grand communiques have little relation to what people are facing right now. What everyone really wants to know is; how does this help us?

Well, here’s one thing I hope will. Yesterday, Londoners on Job Seeker’s Allowance and the new Employment and Support Allowance were able to start benefiting from half price travel on the buses. I introduced this policy to help people who have recently lost their jobs bounce back quickly, by being able to travel cheaply to interviews, access libraries and job centres.

Up to 150,000 Londoners will be eligible for this scheme. And unlike the policy of my predecessor, this won’t be funded by Venezuelan oil.

It’s part of a range of measures to help Londoners through the recession, such as paying our invoices quicker, providing advice to small businesses and (most important of all) freezing our share of the council tax.