The elected president of five million Londoners

SIR – Tom Welsh (Comment, June 22) asks: “Is it time to scrap the Mayor of London”? He tries to play the institution, not the man, but his distaste for the current mayor’s policies and positions shines through.

London’s mayoralty has not been perfect, but it has seen as many successes as failures: London introduced a pioneering congestion charge, won and hosted a fabulous Olympic and Paralympic Games, and remains a magnet for overseas investment at a time when Britain’s reputation has taken a battering.

None of these successes can be attributed solely to London’s mayors, any more than rising crime levels and a persistent housing crisis can be blamed on them alone. But the three mayors have acted as a powerful voice for the capital and as agents of change.

The Prime Minister was a big champion of urban government when he was mayor, and the mayoralty remains popular with Londoners.

British cities remain very weak by international standards. But they play a vital role in our economy, and we all benefit when they have leaders with the powers to tackle transport, planning, skills, environmental and other problems.

It is true that our hugely centralised funding system has all too often reduced mayors elected by five million Londoners to the role of supplicants to central government. But the solution to this is through local control and reform of dysfunctional property taxes, rather than abandoning a “devolution experiment” that has only just started.

Richard Brown

Deputy Director, Centre for London London EC1