• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

Certainly, councils like Lambeth and this one in Southwark want to achieve those targets. What will the effect of that be on the totals? Currently, completions in affordable units are running at about 6-7% per year in London and the London Plan says up to 15,000 per year, even though estimates of need are well in excess of 20,000. How will the increased subsidy help and what is your assessment of whether we are going to reach 15,000, which in itself is not enough?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

I hope all that discussion does not mean there is any sense in which the goalposts for the Streatham Hub Project have been moved and I think you need to confirm that. The criteria you are applying this time are the same as those you applied last year. Would you share with me in saying there is some slight Liberal Democrat hypocrisy around in all this? Quite frankly, if Lambeth had been competent enough to submit a credible financial package last year for this project, it would have been agreed then and would not have had to wait 15 months.

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

The Spending Review indicates that by 2007/08 transport spending will be £2.4 billion higher than in 2004/05. However, if you look at the breakdown of the uplift in spending it actually totals £3.8 billion, which indicates either double-counting or that there are efficiencies to be gained, or cuts in funding in some programmes. In fact, there is a section in the document headed `Implementation Plans for Efficiency Gains' containing the following quote: `Deliver £125 million of efficiencies as a result of Transport for London's own efficiency plans." Would that not suggest firstly that Government is looking to count £125 million...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

In response to Graham Tope's (Assembly Member) questioning about Crossrail you stated that £2 billion from Government would not be enough. I think we can all accept that regardless of what the Government announces about Crossrail, you will probably welcome it now you have been welcomed back into the fold. How much money are you expecting to get from Government?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

That was spoken like a good `New Labour" Mayor, unfortunately without much expression and with a big grin on your face at the end, but I expect it will read well. We have not yet had the announcement on Crossrail, which I hope is imminent, but what will you wish to hear in that statement which will enable you to be as enthusiastic as you have just been in judging its success?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

Are they going to drop Crossrail, which is what the question is about?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

You still have not told us what you would like to see in the statement on Crossrail, which would cause you to welcome it.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

I am looking forward to a time when the GLA can speak with some unity on issues which are of value and interest to Londoners without doing that being seen as some kind of party-policy suicide pact. I hope you would agree with me that in answer to Graham Tope's (Assembly Member) question, we should in fact say that nothing currently appears as though it will have to be dropped. Some things might be postponed, but we should be very pleased that the funding announcement so far, which is still unfolding, appears to set in train the ability for us...

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

You partying with the Chancellor is an interesting vision. You told us before the election that you had to be smuggled in anonymously to the Treasury so it did not cause too great a stir. Have you ever considered inviting the Chancellor to visit City Hall?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

But hybrid bills also do not actually deliver the goods at the end, do they? In answer to the question about Crossrail you told us about all the Ministers you have met, the Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Transport and even the Home Secretary. One person you still do not seem to have met is the person you now say handles the economy so well, though I do not recall you always saying that. Why is it that you continue not to meet your old friend Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer)?