Greens launch mayoral campaign

The Green Party has launched its London mayoral campaign with a pledge to "slash the cost" of living in the city.

Party candidate Sian Berry kickstarted her contest outside City Hall promising to make affordability "at the heart" of her manifesto.

The party's pledges include increasing affordable housing, raising wages in the public sector to £7.20 an hour and reducing transport costs.

Ms Berry won 45% of Green Party members' vote in March to be candidate.

The 33-year-old from Kentish Town, north London, began her drive under the slogan, "A Green London is an Affordable London".

Green Party pledges

• Free insulation to every home that needs it
• Cuts to all bus fares and off-peak tube fares
• Increase the affordable housing requirement in the London Plan to 60%
• All public employers to pay a living wage of at least £7.20 and robust pressure to be put on private employers to match this
• Affordable business premises for local businesses in all new large retail developments

"The likes of Gordon Brown who think that you can get people to change their ways without making the alternatives cheaper and easier are living in a fool's paradise, she said.

"And so are people who think social justice and poverty are not 'green issues'. You can't have one without the other."

Public sector employers would be made to pay their workers a minimum of £7.20 an hour, while pressure would also be put on private firms to follow suit, she said.

Ms Berry also announced she would use planning powers to force developers to include affordable housing for rent in all new developments and increase the target for affordable housing to 60%.

Fares on public transport also form a cornerstone of her manifesto as she pledged to reduce all bus and off-peak tube fares.

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