• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM: Given the significant increase in child abuse cases, are you satisfied that your budget has allocated the correct level of funding to resource the Child Abuse Investigation Teams?

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Nicky Gavron AM: We have a housing crisis and in the face of that, Mr Mayor, you have set up a new target of 42,000 homes per annum starting from April, but the last record we have of house building we have in this city - as Mr Copley has just said - was for 2013/14 17,720, so there is a massive gap. Now Labour has a -- Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Those are affordable homes. Nicky Gavron AM: No, they are all homes. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): No, they are not. Nicky Gavron AM: You are not...

• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Tom Copley AM: Mr Mayor, there are many things I could ask you about in regard to the housing section of your budget, but I want to focus on the private rented sector (PRS), if I may? As you know, many of the more than 900,000 households that rent in the PRS, the conditions for many of them are not good. The PRS has the lowest compliance with the Decent Homes Standard of any tenure. Complaints against landlords are up 47% since 2008. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): You say complaints against landlords? Tom Copley AM: Rents are up 21%...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Jennette Arnold OBE AM (Deputy Chairman): Good morning, Mr Mayor. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Good morning, Jennette. Jennette Arnold OBE AM (Deputy Chairman): Oh “good morning, Jennette”, OK. If that is an opening to call you “Boris” I shall resist. Can we start by where we agree? By “we” I mean the Labour group in terms of your involvement with education and work around young people. We certainly agree and support your involvement in education and the work around young people, and many of the recommendations that came out of the Education Commission. What we disagree with you about...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Murad Qureshi AM: Mr Mayor, 2014 was a terrible year for air quality in the Capital. With your watered down Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and new evidence emerging all the time about how bad the public health impact is, will your budget be another year which we have wasted in trying to tackle the silent killer?

• Question by: Onkar Sahota
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Dr Onkar Sahota AM: Mr Mayor, forgive me if I have overlooked this section in your budget. How much have you set aside to reduce the health inequalities in London? I could not make it out from your budget.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Jenny Jones AM: Mr Mayor, I wondered if you have had a chance to look at my proposal for a solar photovoltaic delivery unit for London, because it would do a lot of things that you are talking about. It is investment, and you talk about sustainability. It would save the GLA group some money because, at the moment, it is eight years’ payback on photovoltaics and it is falling. It would save schools money and something like 90% of the schools in London are missing out. Of course it would be, I think, a nice little memorial for you...

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Fiona Twycross AM: I want to talk a bit more on your failure for a group that you mentioned several times in your opening remarks but are singularly failing to support, which is the poorest and most vulnerable Londoners. Because of your failure to address poverty in London effectively, particularly in-work poverty, I have a bit of a problem taking your budget seriously because the truth is it is more illusion and spin from the Mayor who talks a good talk and writes a good press release but the fact is that you are still overseeing an annual increase in...

• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Stephen Knight AM: Mr Mayor, you previously described the shortage of affordable housing in our city as “the gravest crisis facing our city”, and -- Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Yes, and I think I said that this morning too. Stephen Knight AM: I think we would all agree with that and, of course, if something is the gravest crisis then it requires us to find bold solutions to that crisis, and I think you have previously said that would London needs is a stream of revenue against which it can borrow to start addressing the shortage of affordable housing...

• Question by: Gareth Bacon MP
• Meeting date: 28 January 2015

Gareth Bacon AM: Yes, thank you very much, Chairman. Mr Mayor, in your opening remarks you talked about housing delivery being vital and also various programmes designed to attract more small builders into the market. The Conservatives agree with you, I am sure you are relieved to know. Your administration has also indicated a desire to make better use of public land. With that in mind, I am sure you are familiar with the excellent report that my colleague Steve O’Connell wrote and sent to you some time ago, which is about the creation of a self‑build fund and this...