• 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...

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Joanne McCartney AM: Tony [Tony Arbour AM] has asked the question that is next on the order paper as well, which is mine, and so if I can go straight into my supplementary, it would be helpful. Mr Mayor, your Deputy Mayor has previously said that he thought the Home Secretary is not giving sufficient to London’s policing. You said that you did get a little bit more, but the Commissioner [Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe QPM, Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis] actually has said, “We were pleased that we received some help, but we did ask for far more”. He...

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Kit Malthouse AM MP: Thank you. I just wanted to return to the procurement of these electric buses. Am I right in thinking that the first ones that arrive will be entirely manufactured in China?

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Richard Tracey AM: Thank you, Madam. Mr Mayor, of course we have also been moving forward with the hydrogen buses and taxis, I believe, for some time with our colleague, Kit Malthouse [Kit Malthouse AM MP], very much promoting that. We have surely already a number of electric courier vans operating around London.

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Steve O’Connell AM: Thank you very much, Chair. Mr Mayor, I admire very much Len’s [Len Duvall AM] very elegant attempts to disguise the policy U-turn of the Labour Party. I am pleased very much that my Labour comrades in Croydon are still very much supporting Gatwick and are opposing Heathrow. Mr Mayor, this is a good debate, but we must acknowledge that after Davies’ [Sir Howard Davies, Chair, Airports Commission] decision, anything around Heathrow is going to collapse into a quicksand of conditions, objections and challenges. It is just not going to happen and will be pushed back many...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 July 2015

Roger Evans AM: Thank you, Chair. That was a proper point of information that we just had there. Boris, can I take this opportunity on behalf of my constituents in Havering and Redbridge to thank you for your opposition to the expansion of London City Airport? Can I seek your assurance that you will continue to be opposed to the expansion of the airport ‑‑

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

Andrew Boff AM: Mr Mayor, I do understand the fine judgement there is when you have calls for a ban during peak hours but I do think it is fair to make yourself familiar with the statistics. I am indebted to the London Cycling Campaign for giving me the stats for this. This is data compiled over the last five years. In the two hours between 7.00am and 9.00am, 38% of the fatalities have occurred between those two hours. I do not want to be sensationalist about this. I just want us to look at the data and look at...