Sir Sadiq Khan's shocking announcement last week that he intends to concrete over London's precious greenbelt land represents nothing short of a total betrayal of our capital city and its residents. This environmental vandalism on an unprecedented scale threatens the very lungs of London, and reveals a Mayor more interested in following party orders than protecting our city's heritage.
"I am determined to oppose building on the Green Belt, which is now even more important than when it was created." That's what Sadiq Khan announced to London in 2016. How far he's come from telling us that the green belt is the lungs of our capital, and must be protected. Has he no shame?
Just months after repeating his firm commitments to my colleagues on the London Assembly about preserving our greenbelt, Khan has performed a dramatic U-turn that leaves Londoners questioning whom he truly serves. Labour's watered down housing targets are still too high for the Mayor to have a hope of reaching, and so now he's decided to opt for the nuclear option in order to reach them. Who does Khan answer to - Londoners, and the London Assembly, or his puppet masters in Downing Street?
Sadiq Khan's war on London's greenbelt exposes his true priorities - Susan Hall
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What Khan fails to acknowledge is that London's greenbelt isn't merely empty space awaiting development - it serves as critical ecological infrastructure, providing clean air, natural flood defences, and vital recreational spaces for millions of Londoners. These green spaces are not a luxury; they are essential to the health and wellbeing of our communities who rely on them and who have passed them down for generations.
The Mayor's plan would see bulldozers and concrete mixers descending upon treasured landscapes that generations of Londoners have fought to protect. Once these spaces are concreted over, they are lost forever. The unsightly and unsuitable developments being proposed will fundamentally alter the character of outer London boroughs while doing precious little to address the genuine housing needs of London families - who want good-sized affordable family homes rather than sprawling towers. Do you trust Angela Raynor and Sadiq Khan to deliver sensible housing when they come to concrete your local park?
Indeed, this greenbelt land grab appears to be little more than a desperate attempt to distract from Khan's abysmal record on affordable housing. Did you know the Conservative Government gave Khan almost £9bn over 8 years to build affordable housing, and yet at current housebuilding rates he won't reach his own targets until 2065? The solution to London's housing crisis does not lie in destroying our greenbelt, but in the Mayor of London pulling his finger out and getting on with actually delivering the affordable housing on brownfield sites that he has promised Londoners time and time again.
OPINION: Londoners deserve answers as the Mayor abandons his promise to protect our green spaces, says Susan Hall.
GB News
That's what this is about: distracting from his failures as a Mayor to tackle the housing crisis, and instead breaking every promise he has made since 2016 about the importance of our green spaces in order to achieve this.
Londoners deserve better than this environmental vandalism masked as "progress". We need a Mayor who understands that sustainable development means protecting our green spaces while building appropriate housing on suitable land. Instead, we have a Mayor willing to concrete over our natural heritage at the behest of his Westminster masters.
Our greenbelt is not Khan's to sacrifice on the altar of political expediency. This shameful betrayal must be opposed at every turn: for once our green spaces are lost, no amount of political spin will bring them back.
The battle for London's soul begins here. Our greenbelt must be protected from those who would so callously destroy it.
