Westminster City Council

Very good.

Delighted to be joined by Councillor Paul Fisher, cabinet member for value for money and finance at Westminster City Council.

Paul, veteran of party conferences.

How are you finding this one so far?

Yeah.

You know, some manifesto commitments brought forward in the future.

Feels to me like the conservative message is very much about tomorrow, but you're dealing with stuff every day on the ground as, uh, you know, somebody who's heavily involved in leading a department in Westminster City Council.

Day-to-day decisions need to be made.

So we feel there's an early advantage here.

And also they've worked and developed this with Westminster City Council, who are seen by other borough councils as, as the sort of leading council to, um, watch what they're doing because they, you know, they don't want to all do it individually.

Um, watch what they're doing, and when they're happy with something and they sign up to something, a lot of other local authorities take that as the due diligence work as being done, and therefore it's a safe, um, bet for them to then sign up for the same, um, supplier or software or whatever it is that they're purchasing.

So the Westminster City contract is, is quite key, um, to this business.

That's the real difficulty.

So what you have here is you have two local authorities, Westminster City Council, Camden Council.

You've got a transport authority that is increasingly acting, uh, as a economic, uh, function in, in, in essence, unlocking m- more economic growth.

You've obviously got a strategic authority.

And, well, first of all, this is quite good news, actually.

Heaven Nightclub in London has been given special protected status by Westminster City Council.

This is going to help reduce the risk of it being redeveloped in the future.

The legendary queer venue, which originally opened its doors back in 1979...

Right, coming up on Cross Question, where I'm sure this subject will no doubt come up, uh, we will be joined in the studio by Hina Bokhari, Liberal Democrat Leader of the London Assembly.

Festus A- Akinbosoye, Conservative Member of Westminster City Council, former Police and Cr- Crime Commissioner, who's seeking his party's nomination for the 2028 London mayoral election.

And Matt Stadlen, political commentator and the host of the podcast 20 Questions With, he'll be joining us as well.

So get your questions in, 0345 6060973.

Joining me on the panel, uh, next to me on my left, making her debut, Hina Bokhari, Liberal Democrat Leader on the London Assembly.

Next to her, Matt Stadlen, political commentator, the host of the podcast 20 Questions With.

And to my right, Festus Akinbosoye, a Conservative Member of Westminster City Council and former Police and Crime Commissioner, who's seeking his party's nomination for the 2028 London mayoral election.

And you may notice a seat empty to our right.

No, exactly.

I have zero clout at Westminster City Council.

I can only guess who thought it up.

And I bet it's the type of person who barely goes to pubs.

What I would say is that not having a local plan will not stop us from achieving the ambition that we want.

We think the existing local plan policies from both the London Borough of Camden and Westminster City Council There's enough in there to allow us to work with it.

But also, I think that's obviously come out in the last few weeks is the draft on the plant.

And that's got some very interesting proposals that are covering up consultation on the West End and particularly around the importance of the West End as a commercial centre, which is completely aligned with the vision that we have set out.

So that doesn't mean, by the way, that we can't take what's happening, the lived experience, seriously.

And we are working very closely with the Met Police.

We're working very closely with the New West End Company, very closely with Westminster City Council and Camden at the moment to ensure that we as a system are all joined up and we're putting our collective resources into this.

We have seen a reduction in serving crime over the last year.

Um, so they're the two sort of areas that I really wanted to, to, you know, to showcase really in terms of, uh, of, of how strongly that these, uh, councils score.

Yeah, I suppose from my perspective, well done to City of Westminster Council as well.

You're doing a fantastic job.

Top of the pops of, I think, a hundred and eighty? Hundred-

Um, I went to Finland myself.

Um, I used to work for Westminster City Council before I came to The Passage, and we went on a fact-finding mission to Finland.

Yeah.

And I think there is some learning, but it's also quite difficult to apply that learning directly in the UK.