London Assembly Liberal Democrats

• Number of incidents of tube delays caused by overcrowding has doubled in the last two years
• Tube passengers lost 280,355 hours in 2015 due to tube overcrowding - in 2013 tube overcrowding resulted in 130,813 lost customer hours
• Jubilee Line is the worst London Underground Line for tube delays caused by overcrowding

The Mayor's decision to extend funding for the work of the charities RedThread and Oasis Youth, which support young victims of knife crime, has been warmly welcomed by Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, who personally urged the Mayor to support these organisations last December. The need to support such organisations was a key recommendation in Caroline's report on tackling knife crime in London, which was published last November.

In a letter sent to Caroline this week the Mayor has stated that MOPAC (Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime) has now secured funding to maintain the vital services provided by RedThread and their youth workers in London's four Major Trauma Centres for the next three years. Another positive development is that MOPAC will also be funding Oasis Youth enabling them to extend their services and place youth workers in Middlesex Hospital until the end of 2016/17.

These youth workers provide vital support for young victims of knife crime and other violent offences and help to end the tragic cycle of violence we see too often on our streets.

The Mayor also accepted another long standing recommendation by Caroline Pidgeon to ensure that MOPAC adopt the 'Cardiff Model' across all A&E's in London. The 'Cardiff Model' is an approach to sharing and using anonymised data on violent offences obtained through A&E admissions to inform and develop crime reduction policies by the police and local authorities. In areas where the Cardiff Model has been implemented there has been a 42% reduction in A&E admissions due to violent crime.

Welcoming the Mayor's announcement Caroline Pidgeon said:

"This announcement is incredibly welcome.

"Sensible and much needed policies to help young victims of knife crime are now being given the support they so desperately needed.

"Finally every A&E department across London will share anonymised data to help reduce violent crime across the capital."

• New report recommends a smarter, more flexible system of congestion charging that reflects the level of congestion when a person enters the zone
• Introduction of an additional diesel levy on the Congestion Charge could be a 'game changer' in tackling London's appalling air pollution
• Huge potential to encourage a higher take up of the Congestion Charge Autopay system by removing the charge for registering and developing a free, easy to use App

Building more affordable homes must be the top priority of the Mayor's budget is the central message of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group amendment to the Mayor's draft budget for the next year.

Their amendment to the Mayor's budget, which will be considered later today (Wednesday 27^th January) , sets out ambitious plans to dramatically increase housing investment in London by converting the current Olympic precept, which is typically £20 a year for most householders, into a new 'housing precept'.

The Mayor's obsession with the New Routemaster is forcing Transport for London to purchase more of the expensive buses for the sole reason of keeping the production line running at Wrightbus it has been revealed today.

Transport for London's Finance and Policy Committee is set to purchase 30 more New Routemaster buses so as to "enable Wrightbus to maintain the operation of one of the two current production lines" confirming that there is no market for the New Routemaster buses outside of London.

Caroline Pidgeon AM, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on Transport for London's withdrawal of controversial plans to close Caledonian tube station for eight months to replace the two lifts said:

"This U-turn by TfL is a great victory for people power. I congratulate Nigel Scott and the organisers of this excellent campaign and everyone who got behind it.

Over a third of hospitals in London are still failing to take part in a scheme which has been proven to dramatically reduce knife crime. The admission that many hospitals are still not sharing anonymous data collected from knife victims was made last week by Stephen Greenhalgh, the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime.