• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 24 October 2012

Roger Evans (AM): I too spent a pleasant lunch some years ago being lobbied on this matter by Dave Wetzel [President of the Labour Land Campaign]. Professor Tony Travers (Chair, London Finance Commission): It is always fun. Roger Evans (AM): Yes, and he made the point that Jenny [Jones] does that it would encourage better use of land in London. Does that not mean that if you are using a piece of land for residential purposes it will encourage you to put a block of flats on it, the higher the better, rather than just ordinary houses?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 24 October 2012

Goodness me. I think this is a very worthwhile debate although it may seem a bit arid to some observers and we need to make sure we do not get too academic about it. Would you agree with me that around the world probably the single greatest source of income for city governments tends to be, in one shape or form, from properties? You have said a couple of times now that property taxes are so visible and so potent that virtually all political parties play 'chicken' with each other. Well, the opposite of 'chicken'; they are scared to look...

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 24 October 2012

Tony, you have already spelt out some of the complexities of trying to bring something like this in and you have discussed whether it would simply be London or whether it would apply to the rest of the country, but surely one of the other enormous unfairnesses of it would be at what level and percentage it came in and indeed who qualified. Liberal Democrat politicians have been talking about a mansion tax applying over £1 million or £2 million, which seems very unfair, but surely the really serious unfairness of this would be if young people trying to get...

• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 24 October 2012

Stephen Knight (AM): To pick you up on the point you have just made around the high property values in London, compared, I believe with most other developed countries, we have very few property and wealth taxes in this country; we predominantly focus on income and sales taxes. I just wondered to what extent you think the high cost of housing in London is partly driven by the fact that it is a tax free growth area for people, by which I mean it is a tax free investment and therefore that has partly driven the speculation that has driven...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 24 October 2012

Murad Qureshi (AM): I just want to briefly go back to land valuation taxation if you don't mind, given Roger's [Roger Evans AM] comments. I hear what you are saying about local planning concerns that have to be addressed by local authorities, I hear what you say about anything being proposed having to be national and not just London, but you would accept that it would discourage land banking and a fair amount of empty sites? Forget empty properties, there are major sites lying empty. Would it not encourage those being moved on at least and the promotion of jobs...

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 12 September 2012

Just a short one for Mr Dobson to follow up on Babcocks. Obviously, I have seen the paper going to Monday's Committee, and what strikes me is the problem that was caused in that first three months was the unholy haste in which the contract was signed and brought into effect. I would have thought that in a contract as important as this that there would have been a longer lead in time to make sure that those earlier problems could have been at least ameliorated compared to what happened. It seems to me that the real issue here was...

• Question by: Gareth Bacon MP
• Meeting date: 12 September 2012

I want to return to the question of Babcocks and the contract with them. Jenny Jones' original question asked whether or not it was wise to privatise core parts of the Fire Brigade, with the implication that there have been problems with various contracts and that might suggest that it is not. This can be answered either by the Commissioner or the Chairman. I have a few factual questions, so whoever has got the detail will be fine. Firstly, can you advise when the contract was actually signed with Babcocks?

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 12 September 2012

Obviously we cannot hold you responsible for the AssetCo problems, but I think your immediate predecessor has a lot to answer for. I think he got too close to the management and was somewhat seduced by their hospitality. I am more concerned about the future of the AssetCo contract, or perhaps we could now call it Premier Fire Serve Limited contract, because I think they have changed the name. You have mentioned in correspondence to me that there were serious concerns about performance and financial stability of AssetCo, but surely now those concerns must translate to the new company unless...

• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 12 September 2012

Mr Cleverly, you said earlier in response to one of the supplementary questions that one of your priorities in terms of maintaining fire cover was average response times and maintaining them as 'excellent'. I just wonder if you could clarify what you meant by that? Do you, for instance, mean that you would not countenance any reduction at all in average response times?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2012

Fortuitously, Madam Chairman, my question is about response times, so it may be that the Chairman is able to clarify his position here, because we would not want him to be misreported in the electronic media emanating from this meeting, would we. We recall the production of the very first London Safety Plan, which I think was overseen by Valerie Shawcross when she was Chair of the Brigade. That demonstrated that response times were poor in some parts of London, including Havering, and actually led to an improvement in the resources in those boroughs. The question that I have for...