The re-elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced his initiatives to make the capital rise again as we slowly get out of this pandemic. He promised ‘a year of fun’ for London, along with a £6 million budget for cultural, hospitality and retail economies. Khan’s new mantra, ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’ was disclosed yesterday as part of the bigger ‘Let’s do London’ campaign, which will work to push people back to live concerts, restaurants, pubs, art galleries, cinemas, shops and more.

With the city exciting a long national lockdown, the Mayor explained: ‘Let’s Do London is the biggest tourism campaign our city has ever seen. The reason it’s so important is that the last 15 months have been incredibly tough for us. But I also recognise not just the intrinsic enjoyment we get from retail, culture and hospitality, but that one in five jobs in London are in those areas. We’ve got to make sure that we bounce back as quickly as possible to avoid mass unemployment, leading to a massive recession.’

Hence, Mayor Khan recognises the importance of culture and entertainment for London, and the urgency to bring them back in action: ‘So Let’s Do London is about bringing all the key players in London together: The Globe, the National Theatre, the Southbank, the V&A, the O2, great chefs, great artists like David Hockney, great live music venues, pubs, bars and restaurants. We want to make sure that this summer is the best summer we’ve ever seen’ He said to Time Out.

With the next stage of the roadmap out of lockdown going on on as planned from May 17th, ‘Let’s do London’ promises a rejuvenated sense of what the city does well: as Khan put it, ‘I think our city reopening will allow us to get our mojo back.’ More info on the ‘Let’s do London’ campaign can be found here.