• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 20 January 2016

Steve O’Connell AM: Thank you, Chair. Mr Mayor, we need to strip the ideology out of this particular one. As a former council estate boy for the first 24 years of my life, I saw the benefits that Right to Buy gave to many people at that time as a leg-up and empowerment. That is the right thing to do.

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 16 December 2015

Steve O’Connell AM: Mr Mayor, back on the subject of protecting green spaces, thank you for your earlier comments. Your London Plan does have significant protections around back garden development. I would like to see it strengthened but, at the moment, it is strong. Mr Mayor, would you be instructing your planners to ensure that any submissions on draft changes to borough plans that specifically weaken the protection of back gardens are looked at and to object to those sorts of proposals?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 16 December 2015

Andrew Boff AM: Mr Mayor, thank you for referring to the substantial changes that have taken place or that were announced yesterday with regard to the provision of health in London. They are very welcome innovations. There is just one thing in the proposal. A London Health Board, it is said, will “provide political leadership, oversight and support for the London strategy”. Could you, as soon as possible, let us know what you understand by those words?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 16 December 2015

Tony Arbour AM (Deputy Chairman): You, in your answer on erosion of the Green Belt, spoke of developers if the Green Belt becomes available being reluctant to put effort and investment into looking at brownfield sites. Can exactly the same not be said of the Education Funding Agency, which identifies sites for schools on Metropolitan Open Land (MOL)? I have cited to you in the past what happens at the London Borough of Hounslow without asking that a sufficient assessment be made of whether or not brownfield sites are an alternative to easing development of MOL. Can I ask that...

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 16 December 2015

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM: You said this morning that a third runway is undeliverable and previously you have said that investing in it would be “investing in decline”, yet you have allowed City Hall to invest over £3.5 million in Heathrow third runway corporate bonds. Will you be instructing officers to withdraw from this investment?

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 16 December 2015

Nicky Gavron AM: Mayor, good morning. I am very pleased to hear your reassurances on protecting the Green Belt, but part of that announcement by the Government was tied into two other proposals, which are very worrying, one on employment land and one on affordable housing. Boris Johnson MP (Mayor of London): Sorry, one on? Nicky Gavron AM: Employment land. I will just explain it. It goes like this. In addition to wanting to release Green Belt land, the Government wants to release employment land for housing. This is hard on the heels of the expanded - and now made...

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 16 December 2015

Andrew Dismore AM: I am pleased to hear that you are supportive of the Green Belt. Does this mean that you will be responding to the Government’s proposal to relax the rules against building in the Green Belt and that you will be opposing that proposal?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 16 December 2015

Andrew Boff AM: Mr Mayor, do you believe in shortcutting public consultation when introducing TfL‑backed Quietways and Mini-Hollands or should there be full public consultation when introducing such schemes?

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 16 December 2015

Richard Tracey AM: Mr Mayor, are you aware that a couple of days ago the Port of London Authority (PLA) launched its vision for the next 20 years to 2035? It was right across the river here at Tower Pier that the launch took place. Apart from talking of all the success with river transport and so on, there was much discussion at the launch between the PLA and your officers about the potential along the sides of the river downstream of Tower Bridge for the creation of new workshops; obviously, there is Royal Docks, but other places where just...

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 16 December 2015

Steve O’Connell AM: Mr Mayor, you mentioned a turn-up-and-go service. I refer to the ‘turn-up-and-gone’ service, which was in meltdown yesterday on the second day of the new timetable around London Bridge with Southern and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). It was an absolute disgrace what happened yesterday morning. I went to East Croydon Station to see a complete array of ‘delayed’ signs but across the whole south there was awful service. It is the second day of a new timetable of the new franchise holder, GTR Southern. That is the first point to make. I met some of their leaders...