• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Andrew Dismore AM: Thank you, Chair. Can you tell me why there was no consultation with residents whose homes back on to the Northern line about the additional noise problems that emanate overnight?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Andrew Boff AM: Mr Mayor, do you think the confidentiality of viability assessments should come to an end?

• Question by: Victoria Borwick
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Victoria Borwick AM MP: Thank you. Mr Mayor, just to take us back briefly to that other point, I am sure you were as delighted as I was that this Government undertook to honour Simon Stevens’ [Chief Executive Officer, NHS England] request for £8 billion in funding and to ring-fence the NHS funding. Just to put any clarification on the previous comments that were made, we have had an assurance that the NHS funding would continue and that Simon Stevens’ request will be met in full.

• Question by: Gareth Bacon MP
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Jennette Arnold OBE AM (Chair): We are going to get back to that subject because there is a question on the order paper. The next question is going to be recorded in the name of Assembly Member Bacon but I understand that Assembly Member Boff is asking it. Andrew Boff AM (on behalf of Gareth Bacon AM): Thank you for your indulgence, Chair. Just imagine this delivered in a Bexley accent and you will be fine. The Government is now accepting bids for enterprise zones. Will the Mayor make the case for more enterprise zones in the capital?

• Question by: Onkar Sahota
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Dr Onkar Sahota AM: Mr Mayor, it was good that you started off this morning talking about public health issues in London. My question is related to the Chancellor’s Budget statement in which he announced £13 billion of departmental savings, of which £200 million will be cut from local authorities and their ability to deliver a public health service. He has cut £200 million from public health budgets. Do you think this cut will help to deliver your Health Inequalities Strategy or hinder it?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Andrew Boff AM: Do you get a sense, Mr Mayor, that the Labour Party is having problems navigating around the great big tank that has been parked on its lawn? Boris Johnson MP (Mayor of London): I really have to say that we have heard this morning from the Labour Party a quiet insurrection against its own leader, who is being ruthlessly stabbed in the back by Members of the London Assembly who refused to endorse or support her. They refuse to support Harriet Harman in her analysis of the changes to the benefit regime. It is quite amazing. Look...

• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Tom Copley AM: Thank you, Chair. Mr Mayor, I wanted to ask you about the impact of the Budget on housing in London, particularly on the ability of the GLA to deliver its affordable housing programmes. Could you tell me first of all if you support the Chancellor’s decision to cut social rents by 1% a year for the next four years?

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Fiona Twycross AM: Thank you. I am delighted that you think a National Living Wage is an idea whose time has come, but we have to be honest that this is not a genuine Living Wage. In November last year, GLA Economics suggested in the paperwork around the new rate for the Living Wage that without the tax credits the rate for London would be around £11.65 and so we can already see that it is well short of what the Government is proposing. I want to go back and just ask you a little bit more about the comments...

• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Stephen Knight AM: Thank you, Chair. Mr Mayor, I was going to ask you about the Chancellor’s announcements around the Vehicle Excise Duty. Given that you have been lobbying for reform to the Vehicle Excise Duty to ensure that it reflects not only carbon emissions but also pollution emissions from vehicles, are you as disappointed as I am that the Chancellor has effectively ignored those calls and missed the opportunity to use the Vehicle Excise Duty regime to encourage cleaner vehicles?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Jenny Jones AM: Thank you, Chair. Mr Mayor, I want to agree with you that Osborne [Rt Hon George Osbourne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer] has muddied the waters by calling his Minimum Wage the ‘Living Wage’. You should go and have a strong word with him about that. There is a strong argument for the London weighting, do you not think, on this? The London weighting is on things like a higher pay-to-stay threshold for better-off social housing tenants, higher student loans and so on. Is that something you are going to make a case about? You say it...