The temptation is to be hypocritical and prejudiced about “people who use drugs”, and we lump them into stereotypes (the great unwashed, criminals), forgetting that most of us use mood-altering substances in one form or another most days.It is also worth remembering that the medical profession is using heroin regularly for the treatment of people with acute conditions such as heart attacks, and for the chronic pain of terminal cancer.It is estimated that there are some 200,000 heroin users in this country at the present time Why are they using heroin? The reasons are multiple. People use heroin because it is very nice, it makes you feel good, it allows you to escape for a few hours from the awfulness of life. A life where there is often a story of huge social deprivation, of broken families, of abuse of various kinds, of rank poverty, of lack of freedom and education. But the tragedy is that the price of that few hours’ escape is even greater deprivation, disease and sometimes death.Listen to the stories of people who are addicted to heroin ­ and I have listened to hundreds. They are all roughly the same.”Why did you go on to heroin?”"Because it is nice, it makes me feel good, it gives me an escape from the awfulness of my life.”"Why do want to come off it?”"Because I can’t stand the life I am leading ­ waking up every morning with only two thoughts in my head. Where and when am I going to get my next fix? And how am I going to get the money to obtain that fix? Which shop am I going to target, which house shall I burgle, which old lady’s handbag shall I steal ­ or will it be Mum’s purse again?”It’s an endless round of crime, dependence on dealers and the next fix, with court cases, prison sentences, walking the streets, mixing with other people who are similarly hopeless, chucked in for good measure.So what’s the answer?We’ve got to change attitudes.

There but for the grace of God go either I or, if not me, then my children. Just lumping all drug users together and saying: “Bang them up! They’re all a load of criminals!” may be strictly accurate in a legal sense, but it is certainly not working in terms of preventing people from using the drug. A 2000-per-cent increase in the number of heroin users in the past 10 years is testimony to that.Given that there is a strong, but by no means exclusive, correlation between social deprivation and drug use, there has to be political change to tackle that deprivation. I am not a politician, but I know that, as with many other diseases, and I count drug dependence as a disease, get people out of poverty and the disease rate falls. I believe that we owe it to our young people to try new approaches. There is no doubt that the old ones don’t work, and that people are dying while we fiddle around at the edges.. There are those who complain that whenever a politician decides that he or she supports the concept of more tall buildings, they are doing so out of self-aggrandisement.

There are those who complain that whenever a politician decides that he or she supports the concept of more tall buildings, they are doing so out of self-aggrandisement. A politician who leaves behind a changed skyline, it is alleged, is one who does so for personal reasons, in order to make their mark after they have gone Some call this the Mitterand Complex Others call it Manhattan-envy. Personally, I want to change London’s skyline because the alternative ­ to leave things as they are ­ is no answer to the challenges London faces as a great world city.
I am compelled by law to produce a spatial development strategy, which my officers have mercifully renamed the London Plan. As part of the London Plan’s preparation, I want to initiate a debate on the future of the capital’s skyline.

To remain a competitive location for business we need to substantially increase the development potential of the scarce land available in London. The alternative is to continue to build outwards on green space or just to do nothing. Neither is acceptable.When I visited Mayor Giuliani in New York earlier this year I also took time to meet business leaders in Lower Manhattan. It was a surreal experience to meet in a restaurant at the top of the World Trade Centre but not be able to see a thing outside because of the fog. But what I brought away was the fact that the price of office space in London is now a serious obstacle to foreign investment. Furthermore, business leaders here are concerned at the prohibitive cost of housing in London, which drives up staff costs and makes relocation more difficult.I have been straightforward with business.

I want more affordable housing and good quality architecture; they want more office space and preferably cheaper office space This is definitely a basis to move forward. I propose to try to tackle these problems, both for new office space and housing, by allowing much higher densities of development. This does not mean that we should compromise the future by failing to ensure that buildings of today are more sustainable, better designed and use energy efficient construction and operating methods.The best quality high buildings can maximise density on scarce development land. They can offer suitable single-site locations for large businesses that wish to relocate here, which would otherwise look elsewhere in Europe. They can provide stunning architectural statements, enhancing views from all over London. They offer opportunities for mixed-uses in one building, such as office, retail and residential, which helps make the city more vibrant.