Presented annually at the New London Awards 2023, the New Londoner of the Year Award celebrates those who have, during their careers, had a significant impact in shaping New London and making a positive contribution to the city. 

Our New Londoner of the Year 2023 is Peter Hendy, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill. The Award is in recognition of his significant contributions to London’s built environment, in particular his lifetime dedication to developing London’s public transport and impactful leadership at Transport for London and Network Rail.

The Award was presented to Peter at the New London Awards Ceremony on 15 November. Below, find Peter's acceptance speech.

"Being 'New Londoner of the Year' at the age I am sounds a contradiction, doesn't it?! But anyhow I'm very grateful to the NLA and to the judges. I've spent my career, or at least the latter part of it at TfL and Network Rail, making the case for public transport connectivity, which creates growth, jobs, housing, social cohesion and sustainability. Connectivity makes places and better connectivity makes better places. That's the powerful case for investment in transport and is the basis of the success of modern London from the 1830's onwards. 

"So I hope I've played my part in that; and also in making transport work better. My main obsession in my 9 and a half years as Commissioner of TfL was to deliver good performance - I started at LT in the 70s, where the service was ravaged by missing buses and trains and that unreliability drove people away. And you won't get away with talking about all the good things transport does if a good part of your audience has had a difficult journey to come and hear you. We got there with TfL; the big railway needs structural reform which this Govt have talked about and the next one will have to do, otherwise the huge investments politicians are ever keener to talk about won't deliver their true value.

"But just for now, I doubt any of you can argue against my connectivity proposition and because of that I'm close to your world, if not in it, in making our city a better place to be and in which to develop a better future.

"I also am lucky enough to have a hand in shaping a bit of it myself - at the QEOP - where better transport connectivity enabled the best Olympics of our lifetime and now where the LLDC will have largely finished the brilliant redevelopment of a significant area of our city in less than 20 years.

"Just three more things. One is, nice though this award is, don't be fooled in thinking it's just for me. I had a brilliant team at TfL, and I and my successors (who have less money but are still doing their best) relied and rely on their hard work and expertise, as do I with the great people at Network Rail and at LLDC. This has to be for all of them as well as me.

"Secondly, an advertisement. At least some of this audience must have been on the bus trips Peter Murray and I do. If you haven't, you should. You'll learn a lot about development in London, and also hand over significant amounts of cash for our charities, particularly Peter's Temple Bar Trust. And you get to be driven around London in an old Routemaster by a peer of the realm!

"Very lastly, I'm not quite done yet - at the LLDC we have to finish East Bank, and the railway needs urgent reform, and I'm also working on Victoria, Waterloo, now unfortunately Euston too, Stratford and Clapham Junction, all of which are big enough stations to be better places than they are, and to make the areas around them better too. They won't be completed in my tenure at NR, but I'm following the wise advice that if you're given a big organisation, your job is to look after it, make it a success, and leave it for others better than you found it. 

"I hope I did that at TfL and I'm trying to do that at NR and LLDC. And when I do step down, then I can properly sit in the House of Lords and remind those in Government that ought to be their mantra too, as it clearly is with all of us here with what we do for this great city."