• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

I am very pleased to hear about the training and re-skilling, because many of the people we are talking about have skills particularly related to the air industry, and that may be necessary. But we are not talking just about airlines, of course. At a major airport, there are a huge number of other local support industries - catering, cleaning, engineering and so on. They are included in the package you are considering, are they?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

Can we be clear: you will be talking to the LDA about establishing criteria in order to respond - one hopes, never again to such a catastrophe - and take rapid decisions? In this instance, you did not talk to the LDA before you took the decision?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

I thank the Mayor very much for a very full answer - very unwelcome news, but very welcome action to deal with it. I wanted to focus particularly on the aviation industry and Heathrow in particular, and I am pleased you mentioned that. You are probably aware that last year 68,000 people were employed at Heathrow. That makes it a major industry for London, with all the associated economies. Can you tell us more about your discussions with Ministers and others, and what specific support you are seeking for the aviation industry in general in London, and Heathrow in particular?

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

It is strange, then, that, at the Economic Development Committee yesterday, the London Chamber categorically denied that there had been a view from the mayoral office, and said that the office had said they were not taking sides on whether there should be a merger or not. The Mayor: We are not taking sides, but I made it clear - Eric Ollerenshaw: You just said that you want the measure to go ahead.

• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

At the end of this, when we do some evaluation - hopefully the LDA will do it, rather than wait for someone else - we should learn the lessons of this. I am not saying it is just this one - there are others. Would you agree?

• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

How can we avoid the debacle of the debate in the Budget Committee about an odd half-million quid and whether it is here or there, whether it is GLA or LDA; and why should the LDA be the cash cow when the GLA should pay something towards it?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

I am grateful for that comprehensive reply. What do you think the benefit was at the end of the day? Did we get anything out of it?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

Have you had any response from Ministers to the specific points that you made, when you went up to the Labour party and other conferences, about the case for London?

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

In answer to John Biggs's earlier question, you said that the congestion charge was not a tax but a charge, and that it should be passed on through increased wages and cost increases. Would you advise borough leaders now to be making their bids to the Secretary of State for an uplift in the RSG to pay increased wages, and do you think that Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, should be having discussions with the Chancellor for a higher sum of money to pay the wage uplift you are saying should happen to pay for your congestion charge?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 21 November 2001

Do you acknowledge that the Tories are mining a very basic populist seam on this issue? Do you remember that it was only two years ago that Kensington and Chelsea Council, which happens to be Conservative, strongly supported a congestion charge? Do you recognise, in response to the Conservative tactic, that your scheme, if it is to succeed, needs to be presented in a fairly popular and populist way - as was discussed at massive length earlier today?