• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Steve O'Connell (AM): Picking up on the work around the London Plan, something that bedevils the quality of life of many people in the outer London boroughs is building on gardens, 'garden grabbing' to use a phrase, and that was an issue coming up very much in the previous months of the election. We very much welcome building in Croydon and Sutton. We very much welcome more affordable housing, appropriate affordable housing in the right places, for our families, affordable for our young families. There is certainly the issue around over-development of back gardens and the ruination of life around...

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Can I move on to another point which is a very important component of the Plan which is directly relevant to young people and it is very recent, it has just been put in the Further Alterations; -it is a requirement that all new housing developments in London must provide play and informal recreation space for children and young people, ten square meters per child or teenager, either on site or in the neighbourhood if there is something that can be improved and accessible, and the developers have to maintain that for 15 years.

• Question by: Navin Shah
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Navin Shah (AM): Mr Mayor, I am also after a commitment from you. The question relates to the issue about the family size units. Certainly in outer London boroughs there is a glut of small one and two bedroom units. Definitely what every borough aspires to are family size units. Are you committed, and would you put that clearly in the London Plan, that there would be greater emphasis for a larger proportion of family size units and to better than Parker Morris standards?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Len Duvall (AM): Now, can I just return to the issue about affordable housing and the scrapping of the 50%. I understand that you want to beat some of the previous Mayor's affordable housing targets. How are you going to reconcile the issues of affordable housing? What is your approach to it? Are you a champion for it? On those boroughs that resist it, what is your approach?

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Richard Tracey (AM): Mr Mayor, going back to affordable housing, can I ask you to commend the excellent Hidden Homes Scheme in Wandsworth, which of course you visited and looked at. The whole idea is to use redundant space in estates and elsewhere. Would it not be a good idea if you, Mr Mayor, with all your authority, commended this scheme to other London boroughs and elsewhere in the country?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Len Duvall (AM): With Simon Milton, it is not a question of finance; it is a question of advice to a senior politician of another Authority and it is a Conservative Act and it is an Act that is often quoted by the Members opposite. Your twin aims of the Patience Wheatcroft exercise looking for the future, looking at the LDA and the GLA I would take on board. We would want to participate in that in some form or another. It is really about the partisan way: if you have nothing to hide and you are not worried, why...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

John Biggs (AM): I am very happy to start with the supplementaries because we had a briefing earlier on from the Mayor on his appointments. The first one then is that in your manifesto you announced that you would launch an immediate review of City Hall and its finances within the first 100 days and I believe, but can you confirm, that that was through the creation of the panel headed by Patience Wheatcroft?

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Richard Barnes (AM): Mr Mayor, given that I have been very closely involved with the investigation into the LDA, will you accept my congratulations of taking positive action on behalf of the Authority and London in setting up this panel. Will you also note that of the six companies referred to the police there have been arrests in five of them and further examination is going on in the sixth? Will you also assure us that when you are taking positive action for London you will do it in a transparent and open manner, as you have to date, and...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

John Biggs (AM): Can I move on very quickly to the issue of Sir Simon Milton who is a man who a lot of Labour Members in local government in London and elsewhere have a great respect for, for his abilities. We may not share his ideology but he is relatively at the 'One Nation' end of the spectrum and that is pretty good news. However, there is a further complication about his appointment. First of all you announced in a press release that he was to be appointed as your senior planning adviser. We now find that a different...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Mike Tuffrey (AM): I would like two quick commitments from you if I may. In relation to the Patience Wheatcroft inquiry, has she been given the work that this Assembly did on the matters before?