And Finally Business News Live Business

Boris Johnson launches investigation into saving London’s night time economy

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 16 March 2016

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced the launch of a Night Time Commission, whose first job will be to run a six month investigation into what can be done to protect London’s night time economy. Build a time machine and stop Boris Johnson from becoming Mayor of London, maybe? Though I’m not sure that’s particularly practical.

“There is no doubt that the night time economy is hugely important to our prosperity and the life of our city, but there is insufficient oversight for the way it is managed and problems are mitigated”, said Johnson in a statement. “It is brilliantly successful, but night time activities can be seen as causes of noise and nuisance, whilst businesses complain that rising property values, the need for housing, licensing requirements and other red tape are damaging their operations, even leading to closures. If we are to compete against other world cities [it] is vital that we develop policies to reconcile the competing needs and concerns”.

Small music venues in the capital have been particularly affected in recent years, of course. The new Crossrail network saw the demolition of several popular central London music spaces, while property developers running rampant in a bid to make the city as soulless as possible saw off many of the rest.

There has been lots of chatter about all this of late, in no small part led by the Music Venue Trust. Indeed, this new Commission is the result of that report published last October, which was the result of the task force put together the previous January, which was the result of Music Venue Trust lobbying the previous year. Let’s just hope the new Commission’s main proposal isn’t a symposium to form a think tank to set out a strategic agenda.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson continues his campaign for clowns with funny hair to have their own sovereign state.