Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. Mayer Kin, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining. It's at the Bloomberg City Lab
Speaker 1: event in Madrid. What message have you right here to
Speaker 1: share with your fellow mayoras.
Speaker 2: Well, firstly, the Bloomberg City of app is fizzing with
Speaker 2: the ideas. You've got more than one hundred those from
Speaker 2: the NGO, those from the private sector. And the theme
Speaker 2: of my speech here today and the event I took
Speaker 2: place in was to discuss AI. We've announced that a
Speaker 2: Bloomberg philanthropiees a new Mayor's AI Forum ten cities across
Speaker 2: the globe, five continents. We represent one hundred million people,
Speaker 2: and we'll be working with the big tech companies, the
Speaker 2: AI companies, national legislatures, businesses to ensure AI works for us.
Speaker 2: The way I describe is there are three groups of people.
Speaker 2: AI evangelists who just think there's amazing, there are no
Speaker 2: nothing to worry about, all roastings and glasses. AI alarmists
Speaker 2: just doom and gloom. AIS bad as a boogeyman, be
Speaker 2: afraid of it or what I am, which is an
Speaker 2: AI realist, understand there are huge advantages, huge possibilities, but
Speaker 2: also recognize there are some disadvantages, there are some perils
Speaker 2: we've got to navigate our way through. But the great
Speaker 2: news is cities are going to work together under the
Speaker 2: ostriches of you know, this Mayor's AI Forum to make
Speaker 2: sure it works for us.
Speaker 1: Turning to the topic of climate change, we've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of governments kind of backsliding on their climate change promises.
Speaker 1: Where do you think things stand when it comes to
Speaker 1: the climate change? Is this something that you feel you
Speaker 1: absolutely still are committed to combating.
Speaker 2: But as good us to this bad views lor President
Speaker 2: Trump in his second term is very similar to President
Speaker 2: Trump as he was in his first term. He walked
Speaker 2: away from the Pirates Agreement, very unilateralist, doesn't accept man
Speaker 2: made changes happening, almost punishing those of us taking action
Speaker 2: to address the climate emergency. That's the bad use. The
Speaker 2: great news is you've got some great mayres in America,
Speaker 2: great governors in America really stepping up into the breach
Speaker 2: across the globe. The c forty group of meys ninety
Speaker 2: six meres from New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix to Lisbon, London, Freetown,
Speaker 2: Daka Cape Town working together to turn this crisis of
Speaker 2: climate change into an opportunity. What I mean, can we
Speaker 2: use this as a way of creating new green jobs.
Speaker 2: Who's going to make the solar panels, the wind turbines,
Speaker 2: who's going to plant the trees, Who's going to install
Speaker 2: the electric vehicle charging points? Who will make the electric vehicles?
Speaker 2: How do we, you know, turn the crisis of air
Speaker 2: pollution into cleaner making sure that you know people across
Speaker 2: the globe are breathing cleaner. Are giving an amazing stat
Speaker 2: which is across the globe more people died because of
Speaker 2: air prematurely than tobacco. In London, we've reversed it with
Speaker 2: the world's largest clean air zone with the largest number
Speaker 2: of electric taxis in Europe, and great cities across the globe,
Speaker 2: including America. Great states in America are also being bold.
Speaker 1: When we think about issues that a lot of cities
Speaker 1: are facing. Housing is clearly an issue that is across
Speaker 1: the board for large cities. It's something that you've been
Speaker 1: trying to tackle. Some of your critics said that you
Speaker 1: haven't delivered on some of the promises that you've made.
Speaker 1: How would you rate how you're doing and what do
Speaker 1: you think I've been some of the biggest obstacles to
Speaker 1: building more housing. Obviously everyone wants more housing, but what
Speaker 1: have been some of the obstacles.
Speaker 2: With I think in London and other great cities we
Speaker 2: face the house in Christ's why. Because people want to
Speaker 2: live in our cities. That is a good thing. There
Speaker 2: are some cities, by the way, don't want to embarrass
Speaker 2: them by naming them. For people are leaving the cities
Speaker 2: that is a bad thing. So the pulse of our
Speaker 2: city is good. People want to move there. You're going
Speaker 2: to plan for that growth. So the great news is,
Speaker 2: up until the pandemic, we had completed more homes than
Speaker 2: the nineteen thirties, and we had built more municipal homes
Speaker 2: than in times the nineteen seventies. The challenge we've had
Speaker 2: is a perfect storm, the pandemic, the consequence of Brexit.
Speaker 2: Construction inflation stills gone on by fifty percent, concrete gone
Speaker 2: up by forty four percent. We've had an awful fire
Speaker 2: in London where a tour building grenfell. Seventy two people
Speaker 2: lost their lives. We've brought new regulations to address that.
Speaker 2: That's increased the cost of housing. But also we had
Speaker 2: the previous government had awful economic policies which want interest
Speaker 2: rates went up. The great news is working with the
Speaker 2: Labor government, the new government, we're addressing this issue and
Speaker 2: I'm really confident we will have over the course of
Speaker 2: the next year and the next few years record numbers
Speaker 2: of houses built. In the short term. This government is
Speaker 2: supporting us to bring in legislation to improve the quality
Speaker 2: of accommodation, to give us more security of tenure, and
Speaker 2: I'm really confident in that London will lead the way
Speaker 2: when it comes to good, genuinely affordable, good quality housing.
Speaker 1: You said it would be folly for the Labor Party
Speaker 1: to get rid of the current Prime minister, But how
Speaker 1: do you see him surviving when you look at what's
Speaker 1: playing out just even today in London.
Speaker 2: But when you speak as I do on a daily
Speaker 2: basis to chief executives, to people won't to invest anywhere
Speaker 2: they can to agent investors. One of the things they're
Speaker 2: crying out for when it comes to where to invest
Speaker 2: is certainty, is stability, is calm. We have that in
Speaker 2: the UK with Prime Minister Kirs Starmer. We have a
Speaker 2: five year parliament. We're approaching the middle of that parliament
Speaker 2: and you have hiccups and the rhythm of government is
Speaker 2: you're not going to say popular the entire five years.
Speaker 2: I remember joined President Obama's midterm in his first term,
Speaker 2: the Shillakin he received in the mid terms, and so
Speaker 2: it's similar to that when those watching from America. I'm
Speaker 2: confident though, that Ker's got the right values, the right policies,
Speaker 2: the right team to take us through this temporary bad weather.
Speaker 2: He's facing to lead us in the next half of
Speaker 2: this parliament and we'll start seeing some of the fruit
Speaker 2: of the seats planted in the first two years.
Speaker 1: There will be a test of everyone, including the Labor
Speaker 1: Labor Party in the local elections next week. How do
Speaker 1: you think some of these things that are happening within
Speaker 1: the party are going to play out in the election?
Speaker 2: So I've made the seventh elections are almost like a
Speaker 2: midterm election. So historically when there's been a Labor government
Speaker 2: in the midterms, the council elections and Labor does less well.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping that doesn't happen this time because we've got
Speaker 2: some great labor councils delivering housing, delivering youth services, supporting communities,
Speaker 2: invested in their parks, invested in their libraries, and start
Speaker 2: to wait and see, but it's going to be a
Speaker 2: tough election Labor. I think that's christ in and that's
Speaker 2: one of the things I'm hoping my colleagues in Parliament
Speaker 2: have cool, calm heads and realize we've got five years
Speaker 2: to deliver in terms of the national government. The peroration
Speaker 2: the peak is towards the end of that five years,
Speaker 2: and we don't want panic if we do badly and
Speaker 2: May the seventh and I'm hoping the polls aren't as
Speaker 2: accurate as they've been in the past.
Speaker 1: How concerned are you about losing seats in particular to
Speaker 1: the Greens, and how what's the message that Labor can
Speaker 1: give to voters in the week that we have to
Speaker 1: go into.
Speaker 2: I think the evidence from the last two years of
Speaker 2: this Labor government, the last ten years of my administration
Speaker 2: as the mayor is we other people on the side
Speaker 2: of ordinary Londoners and those across the country to address
Speaker 2: the cost living crisis. We're bringing in, you know, generational
Speaker 2: change when it comes to rights for renters, rights for workers.
Speaker 2: We've supported those with young children in terms of free childcare.
Speaker 2: I've brought in nutritious free school mills for those at
Speaker 2: primary school below the age of eleven. So over the
Speaker 2: next couple of weeks, my job and the job of Oy,
Speaker 2: the labor of holdings and activists to remind people in
Speaker 2: London and across the country the change a labor government,
Speaker 2: working with a labor mayor and labor councilors have made.
Speaker 2: I understand why people have been able to protest. Whether
Speaker 2: it's green or whether it's on the right. Reform process
Speaker 2: doesn't improve people's life, public service, the right values, the
Speaker 2: right policies does. You could have changed that is good
Speaker 2: and changed that is bad. Finding for one of these
Speaker 2: other parties it will need to change, I would say
Speaker 2: bad change.
Speaker 1: Did you ever think you would see a party leading
Speaker 1: nationally in the pause in the UK that is advocating
Speaker 1: for maths deportations.
Speaker 2: Well, that's what the labor government is advocating, that's what
Speaker 2: the main opposition.
Speaker 1: Reforms correct polls currently.
Speaker 2: You know, I've just spent time with a Prime Minister,
Speaker 2: Sanchez of Spain, an example of a progressive national leader
Speaker 2: educating people in this country about the benefits of lawful migration,
Speaker 2: the benefits that migrants make, healthy migrants make, and our
Speaker 2: job has progressive is to explain to people why they're
Speaker 2: having challenges with lack of decent healthcare, lack of decent housing,
Speaker 2: lack of business education. It's not because of immigration, it's
Speaker 2: because successive governments haven't delivered. I think there are two
Speaker 2: type of politicians, those that play on people's fears and
Speaker 2: those that address fares. And I think Reform like President Trump,
Speaker 2: play on people's fears. What they've done is they've brought
Speaker 2: into the mainstream views that were on the periphery. What
Speaker 2: President Trump has done is he's enabled these views on
Speaker 2: the periphery to become mainstream views. And the Reform Party
Speaker 2: in the UK, led by Naja frag are what I
Speaker 2: call the poor man's version of a President Trump.
Speaker 1: And Maga. I read somewhere that you speak regularly with
Speaker 1: the New York mayor. What do you talk about?
Speaker 2: And listen, I think you know Zora's doing a great
Speaker 2: job as the new mayor of New York. This guy
Speaker 2: is charismatic, he is young, he is good looking, so
Speaker 2: of course I hate him.
Speaker 1: Mayor, Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2: It's a pleasure