David Fell addressed London Civic Forum's listening event this month on the London economy. He highlighted some of the key challenges facing the Mayoral candidates, notably:

• the need to move away from an acute and narrow dependence on financial services
• the need to become dramatically more efficient in our use of resources
• the need to reduce the obscene gulf between the incomes of the city's wealthiest and its poorest citizens.

David drew upon his contributions to the Public Enquiry into the London Plan and the discussions about London's economy that have been taking place here at London Remade.

On his or her own, the Mayor has relatively little influence over London's economy but:

• The Mayor has a range of indirect effects, through policy machinery such as the London Plan and institutions such as Transport for London
• The Mayor has some direct capability, via the LDA-style budgets that are now under Mayoral control and through procurement policy
• The Mayor can ‘set the tone’ through speeches, dialogue with government, relationships with partners, etc. Most of the Mayor's ability to affect the economy will come through partnership with others - and the Mayor is in a unique position to catalyse rapid and significant change.

A serious, sustained move to a ‘green economy’ in London would require:

• Indirect - re-directing the London Plan so as to accelerate the development of a resilient, green economy by requiring that all new developments meet stringent sustainability criteria; by fostering the development of ‘green nodes’ at business and industrial parks across the capital; by providing preferential treatment for social enterprises; by switching the focus of transport policy to ‘accessibility’ and devoting significant resources to promoting walking and cycling.
• Direct - adopting a sectoral approach to investment, focusing on activities that are most likely both to create accessible employment and resource efficiency, such as the food sector, the care sector and the re-use economy; by working through voluntary agreements and other mechanisms to adopt and enforce stringent sustainable procurement targets for schools, hospitals, local authorities and other public bodies based in London; and introducing variable domestic and business rates depending upon environmental performance.
• Setting the tone - the Mayor should consistently refer to ‘collaboration’ with other European cities rather than ‘competition’; should support and encourage careful rather than conspicuous consumption; should associate with leading figures that exemplify more sustainable approaches (individuals that earn less than they might, or who shun ostentatiousness); should praise the small and the slow and the local rather than the high and the brash and the global; should name and shame organisations that pay their senior executives excessive salaries; and so on.

‘The mess we’re in‘ has been developing over a long period of time, and there are no quick fixes. Most important, now, is to avoid a return to ’business as usual'; and to set the ground for a transition to a genuine 21st century economy over the next ten years.

At the end of 2011 a statement of genuine leadership on the economic crisis came from Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for the Environment. In an article in the Guardian newspaper he says that the overuse and waste of valuable resources is threatening to produce a fresh economic crisis. He says: “It‘s very difficult to imagine [lifting Europe out of recession] without growth, and very difficult to imagine growth without competitiveness, and very difficult to be competitive without resource efficiency.” Unless consumers and businesses take action to use resources more efficiently - from energy and water to food and waste, and raw materials such as precious metals - then their increasing scarcity, rising prices and today’s wasteful methods of using them will drive up costs yet further and reduce Europe's standard of living, Potocnik warned.

ESA, the voice of the waste and resource management sector, has published a report arguing that £ for £, investment in waste infrastructure creates more jobs and saves more carbon emissions than investment in wind farms. The report also quantifies the economic impact of waste infrastructure investment needed to reach the UK's targets for waste management enshrined in EU law: £7.5bn to £20bn (depending on mix of waste technologies deployed); a permanent £2bn increase in GDP; 20,000 construction jobs supported during construction and 25,000 permanent jobs created in the facilities. The report is at ESA.

A fascinating report from the UN on food production shows that we must increase production significantly to meet the demands of an increasing and more affluent world population. The report illustrates that a first step is to reduce food loss. There are limited natural resources (land, water, energy, fertilizer), and where cost-effective solutions are to be found to produce enough safe and nutritious food for all, reducing food losses is a priority. In the rich world we waste more than sub-Saharan Africa produces!

In Japan the energy supply was comfortably meeting demand despite 2/3 of its nuclear reactors being switched off - through a massive energy efficiency drive. We could do this. This is surely one of the biggest economic events of the decade.

Read Business Group London First's strategy for growth in London.

Resource Recovery Forum examined the latest thinking in getting more efficient use of resources at a conference on 23 November 2011. Their report is here.

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