Over on the MayorWatch website, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member, Mike Tuffrey, gives his take on Boris Johnson’s first budget under the coalition government. Mike believes that the Mayor’s budget “fails to grasp the opportunities offered by the coalition’s localism agenda and continues to rely on financial reserves to defer difficult, but necessary, decisions”.

Here’s an excerpt:

Three years into his mayoralty, this is Boris Johnson’s first budget since the change of government. Regrettably it fails to rise to the challenge of the new national reality.

In so doing, it exposes the direction that Boris Johnson intends to travel up to election day: using reserves to put off difficult decisions – as I’ve previously argued – and failing to make the fundamental reforms needed.

Everyone knows we are very firmly in an age of austerity, thanks to the huge budget deficit and tripling of national debt under the 13 years of Gordon Brown and Ed Balls. But central government is not just imposing a tough spending squeeze; it’s also giving new ‘localism’ opportunities to London, freedoms we can use to benefit Londoners.

In contrast to the Mayor, the Liberal Democrat alternative protects frontline services now and plans ahead for the future.

You can read more about the Liberal Democrats’ alternative budget proposals, and a more detailed critique of Boris Johnson’s failure in “not exploiting the new opportunities that have opened up from the localism agenda” here.