Responding to Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget, Richard Brown, Deputy Director at Centre for London said:

“This budget provides welcome reassurance to small businesses concerned about Coronavirus, as well as long term investment in enterprise and innovation, and positive signals on housing funding.

“With a new West Yorkshire Mayor and Transport for London-style funding settlements for eight Metro Mayors it is good to see devolution being levelled up to the London level across the country.

“But the government should be wary of holding the capital’s funding and governance model up as the ideal end state. London needs help too and it does not have the powers and financial freedoms it needs to tackle its big issues – from housing costs pushing workers into poverty, to transport infrastructure in desperate need of upgrades.

“This big-spending budget will require a stable economy to sustain it – and London remains central to that equation. Committing to Crossrail 2 should be top of the government’s transport priorities, as suggested by the National Infrastructure Commission, and it is a sad omission from this budget.

“The Prime Minister himself once said that “providing London with fiscal freedoms does not come at the detriment of other regions” but can help to generate more jobs and growth across the country.

“This government should commit to fiscal devolution to help unlock growth across the country.”