• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

On the other hand you are left with a strong bidder, as you put it, which includes an element which you have been massively critical of in the past. None of us want the same scenario where we have a contractor appointed and then we have a guerrilla warfare of rubbishing them either from your office or from anywhere else for their performance. Is there not a concern that if you get somebody there who appears on the surface to be all right but it starts to unravel we will have no alternative; it is a time constrained contract and...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

When you think that within that mile radius the residents of Hackney, the neighbouring borough, are affected equally as badly as Islington, do you think it is appropriate that Hackney is left out of the discussions? Why is it that a big corporation like this should only deal with the planning authority? That is totally unfair to the rest of the people within the mile radius who are experiencing the same as those within the planning authority.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

Would you agree that an incoming alternative Mayor who wanted to change these targets would have to reopen the London Plan and set new targets and justify in front of an inspector in public examination why the needs of Londoners had changed and were no longer requiring a 50% target for affordable housing?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

I had two questions on this. Would you agree - and I think you have sort of confirmed this - that the position we are in is that there has been a very extensive consultation on the Mayor's London Plan, which was adopted some time ago? During that consultation people had an opportunity to attack and shoot down these targets, and they were affirmed by an independent inspector to the Government who again confirmed that this was a reasonable set of targets. Would you confirm also that we are heading into a period with the consultation on the Housing Strategy...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

Very finally, because you have mentioned it twice, I am sure you are welcoming the announcement by the Government that there is going to be an additional £1 billion for investment in affordable housing in London over the next three year period and there could be more, depending on the performance of other regions in the UK.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

I had another supplementary which is perhaps a more difficult question to answer and it is about the suburbs. If you look at the figures for London housing completions in London, you will find that in the inner London boroughs - more or less regardless of who controls them, but not completely the case - you have higher levels of affordable housing being built, and in the outer London boroughs you have very low percentages; in many cases below 20%, 15%, 12%. What that says to me is there is a real battle to be won. There is a very...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

You have quoted the report I was going to paraphrase from as well; Value Added by the Assembly's Transport Committee, where it suggested the persistent problem with deregulation of the bus service outside London has been a failure to develop the competitive markets that we have here. This clearly puts blue water between yourself and Mr Johnson on transport policy, given that he has not supported Crossrail and he seems oblivious to the success of the bus service with the quality incentive contracts. I wonder whether there are other areas of differences between your opponent and yourself.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

What about the availability of wheelchair ramps which was also addressed in that report and which I am told by my pensioner friends and your pensioner friends who I met on Monday is a problem again.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

I am very pleased that the Mayor chose to quote the Transport Committee's findings and I wish he would do so more often. Having studied that report in detail no doubt, Mr Mayor, you will recall there was a recommendation that driving standards be included as an element of the contracts in order to improve them. Is that now being done?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

Would you expect Mr Johnson to be supporting the Local Transport Bill which will hopefully improve the quality of the bus services in the rest of the country on the back of London, if he bothers to turn up?