The Chancellor has confirmed in Budget 2015 his Long Term Economic Plan for London to ensure that the nation’s capital continues to play a significant role in a truly national recovery.

The new measures will help build on a six-point plan announced by the Chancellor and the Mayor of London last month in a speech made at the Tate Modern which put jobs, transport, housing and culture at its heart.

The plan aims to:

•     secure London’s strong economic future by setting the ambition to outpace the growth of New York, adding £6.4bn to the London economy by 2030
•     create over half a million extra jobs in London by 2020
•     Solve London’s acute housing problem, the number one challenge facing the city, by building over 400,000 new homes
•     deliver £10bn of new investment in London’s transport over the next Parliament
•     make London a centre of the world’s creative and commercial life, with new investment in science, finance, technology and culture
•     give more power to Londoners to control their city’s future, with new powers for the Mayor of London

As important next steps in the plan to build prosperity for the capital, the Chancellor announced a number of new measures such as funding to identify public sector land for development, £30m to support research at the new Francis Crick Institute and stronger powers for the Mayor over planning and skills, while outlining his Budget for 2015.

Other plans include:

•     further help to tackle London’s housing supply challenges by agreeing funding for the London Land Commission to allow it to identify public sector land for development. Government will give £1 million to theLLC to create a database of brownfield and public sector land
•     £30m for medical research at the new Francis Crick Institute, reinvested from the sale of Medical Research Council assets, match funded by Cancer Research UK and the Wellcome Trust
•     stronger powers will be devolved to the Mayor of London, including over planning and skills. This will allow the Mayor to accelerate the provision of new homes by reducing planning delays

As the Chancellor has set out clearly, the only way for the UK’s recovery to be truly sustainable is for it to be truly national. While the challenge is significant, so is the prize ahead. By pursuing this plan, the Chancellor aims to achieve real outcomes for people in London who by the end of 2014 had already seen employment grow twice as quickly since 2010 as it did over the five years previous to that.