Challenges ahead for Sadiq Khan in round three

After months of campaigning, voters have returned Sadiq Khan to the helm of London City Hall.

While the win was expected by many political commentators, the campaign served to highlight the array of issues the mayor finds in his in-tray as he begins his third term.

The Labour politician made 10 pledges but looking at his past experience, it will not be straightforward.

Here is just a snapshot of the issues the mayor will have to grapple with over the next four years.

During an interview with members of the public asking what was a key issue they wanted the next mayor to tackle, housing was often top of the list.

Experts seem to agree with Jon Tabbush, a senior researcher at the Centre for London, who described housing as the "biggest issue facing the city".

"London builds half the number of homes it actually needs," he told Politics London.

On average, 40,000 homes have been built per year since 2016. But these have missed housing targets set by the mayor himself - laid out in the London Plan - to build 52,000 homes a year, half of them affordable.

His office argues the plan’s targets are the result of a “technical exercise" that is “critically dependent on government policy to deliver”.

The team says the “only major powers” the mayor has had over housing are in fact the “devolved Affordable Homes Programme budgets”, which they say he has “met in full”.

And the London Plan’s 50% target for affordable homes is only a “strategic target”, they say, because it is a “longer-term target, dependent upon government policy, including funding”.

Meanwhile, a report by the London Assembly in November suggested home building in the capital had dropped off, with figures showing 700 affordable homes were started in the first half of last year.

However, his team says 25,000 affordable homes were actually started in 2022-23, "the last full year for which statistics are available" and called it "the highest level on record" and "higher than any mayor since the creation of the GLA [Greater London Authority]”.

Mr Khan's office adds that “average overall housing completions” during his time as mayor are 11,000 homes a year higher than under predecessor Boris Johnson.

The mayor has also promised to deliver 40,000 new council homes by 2030 - although a third term would only run until 2028. His office says council homebuilding has already increased “tenfold” during his tenure.

Also during the campaign, he pinned many of his plans, including going "even further" on housing, on the possible election of a "transformative" Labour government.

Mr Khan also pledged to end rough sleeping by 2030.

Recent figures released by Greater London Authority found the number of people sleeping on the streets had risen by 33% to more than 4,100 in the past year.

Crime was also among the most discussed isues on the campaign trail with knife violence, phone thefts and shoplifting receiving particular attention.

Knife crime increased in the capital by 20% in the year to December, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released last month.

There were 14,626 offences, the second highest total in the past eight years.

Last week, Rishi Sunak attacked the mayor on his record on crime, but Mr Khan blamed the rise on cuts to policing and youth services by the government.

Among his 10 pledges, the mayor said he would create "250,000 positive opportunities for young Londoners" to help steer them away from gangs and crime.

As part of this he has promised to recruit more youth workers.

He also promised to boost neighbourhood policing with 1,300 officers.

But with Mr Khan himself acknowledging a "massive hole" left in the Met Police's finances, it remains to be seen how much he can deliver to tackle these issues.

Mr Khan has also promised to rebuild Londoner's trust in the force in the wake of the Casey Review which found it to have issues with "institutional" racism, misogyny and homophobia.

Another body under the mayor's control that is under financial pressure is Transport for London (TfL).

It took a financial beating during the pandemic due to a near total drop-off in fares and the rise in remote working which still remains to some degree.

Despite the squeeze on finances, Mr Khan has pledged to freeze TfL fares (excluding travelcards) until 2025.

He has also brought in a trial of off-peak Friday fares to encourage more people to commute to the office.

While the moves will be welcomed by commuters, TfL has a number of major - and expensive - problems to grapple with.

Among them is an aging Central line on an emergency timetable due to not having enough functioning trains and the Elizabeth line facing repeated rail system failures on its west London tracks.

While the expanded Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez) looks here to stay, Mr Khan has been plagued by questions over a so-called "pay-per-mile" scheme which he has repeatedly said is not on the cards for his third term.

As part of his pledge for London to be net zero by 2030, Mr Khan is promising to fully decarbonise the bus fleet and introduce more electric vehicle charging points.

Other issues he needs to tackle in his burgeoning in-tray includes planning, economic development, environmental policy, and public safety.

Balancing the demands across all these areas with the resources at his disposal will likely be as tricky for Mr Khan in his third term as it was in his first two.

Plus he will also come up against the unforeseen challenges and emergencies that leading a city of nearly nine million people can bring.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk