• Support inward investment campaigns, working with agencies such as the London First Centre, the City of London and the London Chamber of Commerce to bring overseas companies to London
• Establish a strategic London-Wide Innovation Partnership bringing together Central Government resources with London Development Agency funds and private sector money to provide venture capital invest in growth businesses
• Developing partnerships between schools and businesses
• Ensuring a cultural strategy that builds on London’s position as world cultural centre and ensure that London stays at the forefront of the emerging digital entertainment industry
• Promoting partnerships between London’s universities, colleges, medical schools and research centres with the business and financial services sectors to use their research and inventiveness to create new jobs in London
• Setting specific targets for the reduction of poverty as criteria for evaluating regeneration bids

Jobs and prosperity for London

For more than two centuries London has been one of the world’s most successful cities. It still is, and provided we do the right things now, it will be in the future.

With a population of over 7 million London is far bigger than any other city in Britain and bigger than any other city in western Europe.

London has an unrivalled combination of functions:

• a global financial centre
• a major cultural and sporting centre
• a concentration of academic research and medical excellence
• the transport centre, not just of Britain but of Europe,
• a major communications hub
• the home of major service industries, the law and other professions
• a centre of manufacturing and above all a centre of trade.

London has 12% of the UK population but accounts for approximately 15% of UK GDP.

But London’s apparent prosperity disguises problems of severe poverty. The cost of living in London is higher than in the rest of the UK, significantly reducing the benefit of higher salaries. The 1998 Index of Deprivation shows that London has 13 of the 20 most deprived districts in the country. And unemployment rates have remained above the national average during the 1990s: of the 20 constituencies with the worst unemployment in the UK 10 are in inner London.

My vision for the city is to accommodate sustainable growth, maintaining a diverse and balanced economy while bringing real benefit to London’s many deprived and excluded communities.

One of the greatest challenges for the Mayor is to create tackle poverty and inequality.

All of London - north and south, east and west, inner and outer - must share fairly in rising national prosperity.

As Mayor I will ensure that all the powers and the energies of the GLA are focused on matching the government's assault on worklessness with a war on poverty in London.

One voice for regeneration in London

London has some of the most deprived wards in the country. But it has not always managed to get its fair share because instead of one voice speaking up for London there has been a range of voices not always arguing for the same priorities and sometimes competing against each other for resources.

The Mayor can end that fruitless competition:

• giving London one voice for negotiations with government departments and with Europe in getting help to where it is most needed

• insisting on joined-up government to ensure that government departments do not stand in the way of London's interests

But the Mayor’s job goes beyond matters of policy, administration and governance.

The Mayor is an ambassador for London in the international community — and a champion for London with central government.

In an increasingly competitive global market, London needs a Mayor who will work tirelessly to promote its interests in the world.

The Mayor must:

• support inward investment campaigns, working with agencies such as the London First Centre, the City of London and the London Chamber of Commerce to bring overseas companies to London.

• work with all partners to ensure that we keep in London the companies which decide to locate here

• work to attract major international events, such as the World Cup or the Olympic Games — to get the same benefits as Barcelona obtained by hosting the ’92 Olympics as a catalyst for regeneration.

A knowledge economy

As we enter a new century London’s distinctive capabilities are not raw, materials, land or cheap labour. They must be our knowledge, skills and creativity.

One of the Mayor’s aims must be to improve learning and skills training in London. They are fundamental to both London’s future success and to tackling unemployment and deprivation.

London is increasingly a knowledge-based economy: already almost a third of London’s workforce are graduates. As the importance of information based industries increases, and it generates more jobs, we must aim to extend access to IT to all Londoners. London should be the most wired city in the world.

London already has the components for innovation led economic growth:

• it has 40 Universities and Colleges, 60 FE Colleges and 100’s of research and science institutions
• its Universities carry out a third of publicly funded research in the UK

London’s economy benefits from this but not as much as it should do. Our universities, colleges and medical schools can do so much more to further London’s business innovation. We should emulate the success of creative centres, science parks and clusters elsewhere in the world - creating centres of global expertise in one of the industries of the future. The Mayor should set up a pan-London innovation partnership between business and universities, which will sponsor annual innovation awards.

We need to:

• establish a strategic London-Wide Innovation Partnership
• bring together Central Government resources with London Development Agency funds and private sector money to provide venture capital invest in growth businesses
• galvanise the Learning and Skills Councils with London colleges and trainers to improve the skills of Londoners, to enable them to access the jobs on offer
• support the development of innovation centres and clusters across London to provide premises for growth businesses, ensuring appropriate premises within London and retaining existing businesses
• support a London-wide advisory service for new business start-ups
• provide information and analysis on business development trends and opportunities.

Building on London’s strengths

Education

It is one of London' strengths that there are, in many areas, good links between local schools and local businesses that bring benefits to both and we must build on them and spread best practice.

The Mayor should encourage the idea of such partnerships, which are already being fostered in some parts of London and through education action zones and specialist schools - and promote excellence in London’s schools, by:

• introducing annual mayor’s awards
• extending information technology facilities and
• developing partnerships between schools and businesses
• supporting the Excellence in Cities partnerships to improve school standards

More of our young people should have the ambition and encouragement to set out in business.

Inner London finds it difficult to recruit – and particularly to retain – sufficient teachers. By working with the private, public and housing association sectors to support low cost housing associations, we will make it easier for the capital to find and keep the teachers they need.

Increasingly, the Internet is becoming a more important educational tool. One of my key pledges is to work with the industry to enable four in five London households to have access to the Internet, supporting the work of the National Grid for Learning in schools.

Creative Industries

London is recognised as one of the most important centres of arts and culture in the world. The city benefits culturally from its wealth of theatres, museums, galleries and other arts centres.

And increasingly the cultural and creative industries are central to London’s success and will be particularly vital in the next decade, where they offer real prospects for new jobs.

The quality of culture offered in London makes it the gateway to the UK for tourists and is important in sustaining London as a competitive commercial centre. The creative economy in London is a powerful generator of jobs: growing twice as fast as the rest of the economy.

The Mayor’s cultural strategy will seek to build on this cultural strength and ensure that London stays at the forefront of the emerging digital entertainment industry.

Tackling inequalities and social exclusion

Despite its many advantages, London could be much better. One of our major priorities will be to tackle the grotesque inequalities and discrimination which deny so many Londoners the chance to fulfil their potential.

Let nobody doubt how profound these inequalities are – with deprivation and despair all too often cheek by jowl with people doing really well. Male unemployment in some parts of London remains at over 20 per cent.

While the New Deal is helping to cut unemployment in the capital, jobless rates in some wards are ten times as high as in others. Black and Asian youngsters are still twice as likely to be jobless.

To tackle economic and social exclusion, there must be programmes targeted at areas of special need and at specific groups such as the homeless, or disaffected young people. We must get people off the streets and into work, so they can enjoy a better quality of life and contribute positively to the city in which they live.

To this end, we must target more regeneration funds to meet the needs of London’s most deprived communities. Tackling the weaknesses in London’s economic development will mean creating new linkages between these contrasting areas - providing pathways to prosperity for those who are currently disadvantaged.

We will ensure that regeneration projects are designed as catalysts, to kick-start investment in key locations, such as at the Elephant and Castle and Paddington. And we will promote local labour and training initiatives, to equip local unemployed people to secure jobs in new development — as has already happened at the Dome, in Greenwich and the Tate in Southwark.

The Mayor must use the powers of the London Development Agency (LDA) to target regeneration on the eradication of poverty and unemployment by setting specific targets for the reduction of poverty as criteria for evaluating regeneration bids.