Labour's London wish list

Free nursery places for every London child and a new wave of speed cameras are set to form the centrepiece of Ken Livingstone's bid for a second term in office.

The Evening Standard has learned Labour's manifesto for the London Assembly election will guarantee a free nursery place to every under-five by the end of the decade. Mr Livingstone is expected to endorse the move in his personal manifesto.

Labour's plan will also promise a review of the impact of the congestion charge on small businesses, along with measures to reduce air pollution across the city.

A draft copy of the Labour document, seen by the Standard, sets out a series of initiatives that will form the London Assembly's programme for the next four years if Labour wins a majority of seats.

The manifesto pledges include: 20mph zones in residential areas; replacing road humps with speed cameras; challenging the "canteen culture" of racism, sexism and homophobia in the Met; finding ways to get more over-fifties back to work; and developing a "capital culture card" to provide cheap tickets and travel to shows and events.

The manifesto will be endorsed by Labour's candidates for seats on the London Assembly, and published later this month. The pledge of free nursery places follows a campaign by Mr Livingstone - who has fathered two children while in office - to provide more affordable childcare to help mothers get back to work.

The manifesto states: "Our aspiration is to have a free preschool childcare place for every London child by the end of the decade. By working with... schools, employers, the voluntary and independent sectors and individual child carers we believe that enough childcare places can be provided." Last year Mr Livingstone provided £3.1 million to fund 39 childcare projects across London, enough for about 1,700 new "affordable" childcare places. He also commissioned an opinion poll that found half of mothers not in full-time work - and a third in part-time work - said a lack of childcare prevented them from taking a job, while one in three women who were paying for childcare said it cost them more than £100 a week.

The Government currently offers free nursery places for every four-year-old whose parents want it, and there is a pledge to extend the offer to three-year-olds by September.

But Labour's manifesto for London sets out the more ambitious idea of a free place for every pre-school child by 2010. The massive undertaking would be achieved by working with schools, employers, the voluntary sector and childminders to expand radically the number of childcare places. Among Mr Livingstone's aims is the creation of a new London Childcare Fund to simplify the way the state and other agencies meet the cost of childcare. He wants to persuade the Government to offer companies more tax incentives to provide childcare and he would use his planning powers to increase its supply.

A source said Mr Livingstone and his aides had played a leading role in determining the document's contents, which have also been ratified by Downing Street. "Ken has had a lot of input into it already," the source said. "I think he will pull out the main policies for his own manifesto."

Crucially, the document backs away from a full endorsement of Mr Livingstone's plans to double the size of the congestion charge zone by 2006. Despite backing the principle of congestion charging for central London, it says any enlargement should only occur after "full public consultation".

It says: "We still believe that there is a need for a review of the impact of the congestion charge, looking at concessions, buffer zones and the impact on small businesses."

There are also plans to create a "low emission zone" to limit pollution from lorries and buses. A similar scheme is proposed for housing that is to be built by the Millennium Dome, with residents being denied parking permits if their cars fail emissions criteria.

The manifesto says a capital-wide scheme would save the health service and other agencies £100 million. It would depend on using government support to help firms convert their company car fleets from petrol to lower emission systems.