• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

Now we come to the real strategy, in terms of the Budget. If you are as successful with the case for London as you were over PPP, we cannot expect much, can we? Therefore, given that you said last year that the high precept - in fact, at 27% I think the highest precept ever charged in local or regional government in this country - was a one-off because of the start-up, can you guarantee that this year there will be no large precept?

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

So, finally, you are admitting that there will be a substantial increase on the precept, and that Londoners are going to have to pay for the failures of this Labour Government to restore the cuts you say other Governments made, or might even have to pay for further cuts to London grant as money is taken out of London to go elsewhere. And your campaign to get money back is an abject failure already. We have seen nothing for months about it. You started off with this great London debate between yourself, London business and the City Corporation; I have...

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

But it is your Budget that we debate, Mr Mayor. Do I conclude from that, that you are saying, yes, there will be a large increase? You know as well as everybody else that the MPA/MPS budget has serious problems, yet you guaranteed an extra 1,000 policemen on top. So if that comes in overspending this year, the precept there will go up by - what? - 10%, 12%, 13%, 14%, before we even get to transport. A 1% increase raises about £4 million, so to get any decent money into your transport requires a hell of an increase in...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

Can you advise us on the implementation issues in a little more detail - how you actually see the role of the GLA, and particularly the role of your advisers, in that process? Can you also tell us where you expect partnerships to be undertaken to do that work if it is appropriate, and what steps you are taking to build those relationships?

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

What are you telling us about the implementation of the environmental strategies? This morning, you have said that we rely on others to carry them out - and you mentioned the boroughs and the private sector. But about five minutes later, you told us that there was a lot of business opposition to the environmental strategies, because they would mean increased costs for them. You also said that there are very few boroughs with spare capacity. So is your idea realistic, that business and the boroughs are going to implement these strategies?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

Toby Harris: You are required to produce seven strategies under the statute; the biodiversity action plan; implicitly you are required to produce a cultural strategy; we have heard today mention of the children's strategy; then there are the rough sleepers strategy, the domestic violence strategy, the energy strategy, the housing strategy, the asylum/refugees strategy. How many more strategies are your staff working on, and can you name them? [Laughter.] The Mayor: I think Toby has done an excellent job in identifying the strategies. [Laughter.] Bob Neill: Including several you have forgotten about.

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

My question, Ken, is about the capacity of your advisers to deliver. You gave a commitment to developing a children's strategy, which was widely welcomed, certainly by the young people and children that Nicky and I have met while going around selling the strategy on your behalf, and by the many organisations working on behalf of London's children. I understand that there was a three-month delay to the original timetable while documents were here awaiting clearance from your office. Can you tell us, was that about your needing more staff in your office? Will you ensure that there are no...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

I will try to be brief, then. Ken, obviously part of the idea of having a Mayor was that there should be a single unifying approach behind the strategies, and now that the draft strategies are starting to emerge, we can ask questions about consistency. One of the key issues seems to me to be about the vision for the future of London's economy. The draft economic development strategy is concerned, it seems, with diversity - having a broadly based economy, and therefore a more secure one, which is not so vulnerable and narrowly based. The SDS, in the view...

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

I will be brief. The 48 extra staff that the Assembly has are needed to read all the bumf that your office produces, Mr Mayor. The GLC at its height, I believe, had about 17,000 staff. Have you had any wild dreams about how many extra staff you might need to implement your strategies? More importantly, have you given serious consideration to the serious role that the boroughs will have and should have in implementing these strategies? Has the fact that your relationship with the ALG and many of the boroughs is pretty poor been a factor in deciding the...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 19 September 2001

My colleagues make a good point, but I do wonder how many of these people will actually be working on ensuring that your strategies are consistent. We have noticed that they make statements which are often directly contradictory. For example, your air quality strategy states that the congestion charge will not improve air quality, yet your transport strategy sees that as a major way to do it. How do you reconcile those two statements?