Londoners are most concerned about rising expenses and crime in the capital but still believe its the best place to live, a new survey revealed on Wednesday.
Nearly 60 per cent of the city’s residents agreed with the statement that London is “the place I want to be at the moment”, according to the “Capital Values” report by Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft.
But, while Londoners think that public transport, green spaces, entertainment and arts and culture are improving in the capital, safety and spiralling costs are of growing concern.
The survey of more than 3,400 Londoners found that there were four areas in which people believed London is getting worse.
"The everyday cost of living and the availability of reasonably priced housing were at the very top of the list with 83 per cent and 76 per cent of respondents complaining about the areas.
Increasing crime and public safety (64%) and traffic congestion (52%) were the other two major worries.
The poll, ahead of the next year’s Mayoral election, showed that the more voters care about an issue, the lower they rate Sadiq Khan’s performance on it.
Londoners gave the incumbent Mayor good ratings for attracting international investment, investing in arts and speaking out against the government but his lower score came for their biggest Mayoral priority: tackling crime.
The poll is the latest to reveal Mr Khan is likely to comfortably beat his Conservative rival at the election next May.
Half of respondents said they would back the Labour mayor as he seeks a historic third term.
Tory rival Susan Hall was second on 23 per cent, followed by Lib Dem Rob Blackie on 10 per cent, Green Zoe Garbett on 7 per cent and Reform UK’s Howard Cox on 5 per cent.
The results also showed that London could be described as the "wokest" area in Britain, with 51 per cent of residents to 49 per cent saying that more needs to be done to tackle structural racism and white privilege.
Across the country as a whole people preferred the opposing statement – “too much attention is paid to things like race – it divides people unnecessarily” – by 61 per cent to 39 per cent.
Londoners see themselves as more comfortable with and tolerant of people from different cultures and backgrounds.
However, there was also a widespread feeling that day-to-day life in the city is less friendly than elsewhere in the UK, and that people are “increasingly tense and wary of personal contact”.
- Lord Ashcroft Polls interviewed 3,418 adults in London between October 23 and November 8, 2023 and 2,518 adults throughout Britain. Results were weighted to the 2019 general election and to be representative of all adults in London and Great Britain. Eight focus groups with voters from a wide range of social, economic and political backgrounds were held between November 1 and 9 in central London, Muswell Hill, Richmond and Bexleyheath.
