Mayor slashes GLA environmental jobs by half

The GLA confirmed that 35 jobs would be lost, and told BSD that the move would lead to a “smaller, more focused GLA”.

Green Party assembly member Darren Johnson said that the decision called into question the Mayor’s environmental strategy, an issue Boris Johnson described as top of his agenda during his campaign for election last year.

“I don’t dispute the need for efficiency measures,” said Darren Johnson, “but you need this kind of expertise to make the right decisions on environmental policy. There are other areas that could have been cut instead. Slashing posts like these is a false economy.

“The environment in London was central to Boris’ campaign so it is extremely disappointing to see this amount of expertise lost.”

Greenpeace UK’s policy director also slammed the Mayor’s decision. The environmental group's representative told BSD that the only cuts the Mayor “needs to be making are in carbon emissions, not in the resources available to deliver these reductions.”

He remarked: "What London needs is a world-class team leading the way for cities across the world, not short-sighted cutbacks.”

A spokesperson for the GLA said that its “success at tackling environmental issues is not measured by the size of the team at City Hall.”

Mayor Johnson has vowed to make London “greener, cheaper and cleaner at the same time”.