City Hall to move to London’s East End, Sadiq Khan confirms

3 November 2020, 10:01 | Updated: 3 November 2020, 11:16

Sadiq Khan says City Hall will move to London's East End. Picture: PA

By Patrick Grafton-Green

London’s City Hall will leave its current home and relocate to the capital’s East End, Mayor Sadiq Khan has confirmed.

The home of London government will move to The Crystal in the Royal Docks, a building already owned by the Greater London Assembly (GLA).

Quitting City Hall, on the south bank of the Thames near Tower Bridge, is expected to save £61million over five years and £126m over ten.

The Mayor says the savings will help protect front-line public services including the police, London Fire Brigade, and key transport services, and allow more investment in the capital's economic recovery.

He insisted the Government is not providing adequate funding to local and regional government in London, including the costs of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The GLA Group is facing a £500m financial black hole this year and next after an unprecedented loss, attributed to Covid-19, of business rates and council tax income. Losses are expected to continue for a number of years to come.

Moving City Hall to its home is also expected to support huge regeneration project in east London.

Mr Khan said he believes that the move will be central to the regeneration of Royal Docks, which is set to lead to 25,000 new homes and the creation of 60,000 new jobs within the next 20 years, supported by the arrival of the Elizabeth line.

The Mayor of London said: “My first priority will always be to protect funding for front-line services for Londoners.

“Given our huge budget shortfall, and without the support we should be getting from the Government, I simply cannot justify remaining at our current expensive office when I could be investing that money into public transport, the Met Police and the London Fire Brigade.

“The alternative to considering this move would be to cut the front-line services Londoners rely on. We all need to pull together to help London through this pandemic, and this is one direct change I can make to help protect Londoners from the damaging effects of the Government’s mishandling of this pandemic.”