Co-leader will take part in mayoral election in capital for second time in a row

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Green party co-leader Siân Berry is to stand again as its candidate in the 2020 London mayoral election.

Berry, a London assembly member and councillor, took over the joint leadership alongside Jonathan Bartley in September. She was the Greens’ candidate at the 2016 mayoral election, finishing third behind Labour’s Sadiq Khan and Zac Goldsmith of the Conservatives.

She also stood for the post in 2008, coming fourth in the poll that first made Boris Johnson the London mayor.

Khan, the current mayor, is standing again and is the clear favourite. His Conservative opponent this time is Shaun Bailey, who since being selected by the party has faced criticism over a series of previous comments he made about women and Muslims.

Berry will put the city’s housing crisis at the centre of her campaign. In an address when she was named as the candidate, she announced plans for what the Greens are calling a “people’s land bank”, which would allow communities to bring empty buildings and land back into use.

She said the Greens were the “only party Londoners can trust to deliver on their promises” regarding housing, pointing to the party’s campaigns in the capital against councils demolishing social housing estates.

“The Green party has a proud history of getting results for London. When we make Londoners a promise, we deliver, and have made real changes even when we are not mayor,” she said.

“In 2016, we promised to give power to residents whose homes faced demolition, and we delivered on that promise. Now we pledge to give Londoners a say on land use in their city.”

The land bank would “empower communities to find land and buildings currently going to waste and choose how to bring it back into use”, Berry said.

She added: “Across the capital, empty buildings like office blocks and car parks are left unused, while Londoners struggle to pay the rent or wait for years to get social housing. That isn’t right, and we have to start planning now for how we bring these underused spaces and empty land back into use.”

In 2016, Berry won 5.8% of first-round votes under the supplementary vote system. Khan and Goldsmith went through to the final round of voting, where the Labour candidate won comfortably.

She is also the Greens’ top choice on their list for London assembly members, who are elected under the additional member system, a form of proportional representation.

In 2016, the Greens won two of the 25 seats, filled by Berry and Caroline Russell. Russell is also second on the list for the 2020 election.