• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

So are your officers checking planning applications now for their energy content?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

But you had some tough negotiations with developers over affordable housing targets and you were right to do that. Why could you not have had some tough negotiations with them over energy targets?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

This is a question about empty homes, which is one of the targets. The total has indeed come down, and that is very, very welcome, from 114,000 empty homes in London in 1999 to just under 100,000. Most of that reduction has been in the public sector. In the private sector, which is 83% of the total, some 80,000 remain stubborn and have not moved during your period of Mayoralty. Given that you have few, if any direct, powers in that regard is this not an area where you need to show leadership? Therefore, have you not actually failed to...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

On the issue of home insulation, you said that you would take a personal lead on ensuring the delivery of an effective programme of home insulation in your manifesto. How many homes have been insulated as a result of your personal lead?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

I am always happy to talk to my Green Party colleague Victor Anderson, but if I put questions to the Mayor then I would prefer to put them to you directly. On the traffic target, you did not take the traffic target that you signed up to with Friends of the Earth on board, so why are you condemning outer London to traffic growth?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

Undoubtedly there is a case for selective use of compulsory powers, particularly with stubbornly unoccupied private ones. I was looking for you to show some leadership now and not wait until the legislation changes because it would require changes in legislation. For example, in the London Plan the target is to bring 25,000 empty homes back into use by 2016. That is 2,000 a year, roughly half the current rate the boroughs have been working on. Is that target not lacking in ambition?

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

No, I am certainly happy. I also just wanted to add the wonderful news that we only received yesterday, about a further £20 million for recycling in London over two years, and for the fantastic work that has been done in terms of making sure that London is now considered as a region for recycling. As far as I know, that work was done by myself and John Duffy and your team. I do not remember seeing a Green Party member in that sort of cohort. Are you having more discussions with DEFRA about how we could be spending that...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

The other question I have is on the work of London Remade, that you quite rightly have said is doing some fantastic work across London. I introduced Victor Anderson to the lead member Hugh Carr-Harris in the lift about nine months ago. Do you think Victor has actually met with London Remade on a regular basis?

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

On that last point about planning I was curious if you had supported your environmental advisor to go and talk to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) to try to eliminate some of the problems that we are experiencing with getting the London Plan through. Has your environmental advisor, Victor Anderson, done that?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

But even if you did not have the powers, you have offered advice to developers on some fairly low levels in terms of your planning negotiation. You have got into big discussions about lidos and things like that, which some people would argue are not of strategic importance. Why are you not even offering developers advice at this stage in terms of the strategic referrals you are getting on energy?