• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

Thank you, Chair. Just following on from Val [Shawcross] on the training programmes, the LDA have withdrawn the funding from King's Cross Construction Training Centre, and Camden Council has been forced to step in. Are you aware that the funding that Camden has been able to provide is less than that which was originally provided by the LDA? Secondly, how is possible to justify such cuts in skills training in an area of such acute economic deprivation, and given that King's Cross is a strategic site, why should it be just the people of Camden who fund the training centre...

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

OK, a couple of quick questions first. Can I just clarify, any money that is left over at the end of the year, can you carry that forward or does that go back to the Government?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

We have heard a lot this morning about plans to protect jobs and businesses in London from people in the Chamber, but can you tell me, have you got a view at the LDA about the Mayor's decision to suspend Phase 3 of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ)? Do you feel that has been helpful?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

Mr McGrath, since the start of the Mayor's Economic Recovery Plan, unemployment nationally, we learned this morning, has increased by 0.5%, the largest amount for a dozen years, and now sits at 2 million. In London, unemployment has reduced by 0.1%. Could you let me know what advice you will be giving to the Government so that the rest of the country can benefit from Boris Johnson's jobs?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

If I can just pick that up. I think Len [Duvall] mentioned earlier that there is an underspend this year at the LDA. Is that not the case? £25 million has been suggested in the paperwork, I think.

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

Peter, the auditing of and the signing off of the 2007/08 accounts for the LDA was not an easy process. Could you briefly outline where the difficulties arose in that process, and what the Agency is doing to ensure that we do not have a similarly difficult process next year?

• Question by: Victoria Borwick
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

You touched on it in your briefing this morning, but perhaps you could update how your reforms of Business Link have made it a better vehicle to deliver? I am particularly concerned about the time it takes when people first approach you, the transparency process, into actually getting funding or help with business. Perhaps you could just give us a quick synopsis on what progress you have made.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

Thank you. Hopefully, with time, I have two lines of questions. The first one is that there was a lot of criticism before the last Mayoral election that the Mayor's Office used the LDA as a piggybank, if you like, for various projects, and there was a lot of heat about this, and I think you put in place processes, which I broadly support, for making sure that there is clarity about those relationships, but we have had so far, I think, two directions from the Mayor's Office. The first one was to spend money on sports infrastructure, which you...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

I want to concentrate on the Economic Recovery Action Plan. What proportion of the LDA initiatives referred to in that action plan consist of new measures? Just roughly and not down to the finest detail. What are actually new measures in that recovery plan in terms of the challenges we face? Who is going to answer?

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

Can I go back to the surplus, Mr Rogers. I am a great fan of yours and I know how good you are at cutting out unnecessary expenditure, and I am in a way delighted you have got a surplus, but also I have similar reservations to Ms Shawcross. I am a great believer that if we have raised tax, we should actually spend it and not stash it away in the bank. Are you examining any projects that you have previously turned down to now spend your surplus?