Mayor: London can benefit from recession

Boris Johnson suggests that we should look for ways of exploiting the downturn and try to see the "opportunity behind the disaster".

"If London plays to its fundamental strengths, it can come through this recession stronger than before," he says. The upbeat message comes after his New Year address in which he said the recession would not last forever and that the capital is capable of "toughing it out".

Many Londoners are struggling with the grim reality of falling house prices, redundancies, the slump in the pound and falling shares.

But the Mayor set out examples of where the recession could actually benefit the capital, including:

●The fall in house prices would mean London's £5billion housing budget, which will help homeowners avoid recession by taking temporary equity stakes in their property, would go further.

●Tourism and exports would be boosted by the fall of the pound with London representing greater value for money for foreign visitors and investors.

●The brightest graduates, especially scientists, who might otherwise have gone to work in the City, could look for work in the public sector, particularly teaching.

●Workers with more time on their hands because of the downturn could help tackle knife and gun crime among young people by volunteering.

Mr Johnson promised not to act like a "slack-jawed victim of some tsunami" in the face of the downturn and to move on from blaming Gordon Brown for the country's economic woes.

He said London's financial services sector, which has so far felt the brunt of the credit crunch, would recover.

The Mayor said the capital also had cultural, higher education, manufacturing and medical research sectors which would help see it through. He said he would "step up" the pace of investment in transport infrastructure - including the Tube upgrade, the East London line and DLR extensions and Crossrail - to boost the capital's economy longer-term.

"Recession or not, this will be remembered as a new Victorian Age, when we made capital investments that not only helped to deliver thousands of jobs in the downturn, but which boosted competitiveness for generations to come," he said.

He also warned against neglecting the environment during the downturn, saying London should become a world leader in carbon trading and developing new technologies.