Green party pledge to cut cost of living

Sian Berry promised to boost affordable housing and reduce utility bills and transport costs for Londoners.

She also pledged to bring in a minimum wage of £7.20 an hour - almost £2 an hour more than the state pays - for public sector workers.

Other radical proposals included closing City Airport and scrapping plans for a Thames Gateway bridge.

Ms Berry, 33, said: "London is the second most expensive city in the world and while billions are made in the City ordinary Londoners often struggle to pay for the basics - housing, energy and transport.

"Those who think you can get people to change their ways without making the alternatives cheaper and easier are living in a fool's paradise. You can't have one without the other - a green London is an affordable London."

The former engineer said her policies would cut 40 per cent of domestic carbon emissions and 20 per cent from transport. Every home that needed it would get free insulation and there would be solar panels on 100,000 roofs by 2015.

"We need to cut carbon emissions in all areas of our lives and my plans show that, done right, fighting climate change saves, not costs, money," she said.

Ms Berry pledged to reduce off-peak bus and Tube fares by diverting millions-earmarked for the new bridge across the Thames to public transport and to increase the affordable housing requirement for new developments to 60 per cent.

She also backed the Evening Standard's Save Small Shops campaign, saying local communities should support their local high streets against multinationals.

"I'd make sure all new large developments made half their floor space available for small businesses," she said, adding: "We need to defend our high streets, not let them be abandoned or swallowed up."