• Question by: Bassam Mahfouz
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Bassam Mahfouz AM: Thank you, Chair. I can appreciate Lord Bailey’s genuine interest in developing housing across the capital, but wanted to ask you: do you think that all London boroughs are treating the housing crisis with the same seriousness it warrants? I just want to give you some context as an example of the two boroughs that I represent to reflect what I feel is a clear contrast. Between 2016, when you got elected, and 2023, Labour-run Ealing completed 4,171 homes whilst neighbouring Tory-run Hillingdon completed just 971, less than a quarter. In terms of responding to the exponential...

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Andrew Boff AM: If we can go on the clock now, it is getting to sound like a referral to the London Drugs Forum sounds a bit like kicking into the long grass. One action that you could take straight away to reduce the harm on Londoners, especially young Londoners, is to follow what the Assembly decided in a motion on 22 February [2024] and that is to provide funding to set up two drugs testing centres, which allow people to have those possibly contaminated drugs tested and also, therefore, open the door to them for other services that may...

• Question by: Zoë Garbett
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Zoë Garbett AM: Yes. Thank you. This has been really helpful. Just to add the important perspective of how the stigma of drug use currently means that people do not seek the help that they want to get. I have spoken to families where children and their friends are worried about seeking help or calling ambulances because of the fact drugs are illegal and not legally regulated. If that could also be incorporated, I would be grateful. Thank you.

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Len Duvall AM (Deputy Chair): We on this side want to echo and support some of the comments that Assembly Member Lord Bailey made in terms of harm to the community. There is a difference between legalisation of drugs and the declassification, but the important thing that was said earlier, which I can agree with my colleagues, is that we need to have the debate and it needs an evidence base. But we must always remember the harm and distress caused to sections of our communities that do not always have to support networks that others have and do not...

• Question by: Lord Bailey of Paddington
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Lord Bailey of Paddington AM: Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, Mr Mayor. I just want to quickly talk about this Drugs Commission. You have been very clear to say it is not about drugs; it is about cannabis. But we have to remember that legal drugs also cause a great deal of harm in society. I lost my brother to alcoholism. I have worked with a number of young people who have been murdered because of the drug trade. I want to make sure that in your estimation and your reply to drugs that you have taken into account the...

• Question by: Hina Bokhari OBE
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Hina Bokhari AM: Child poverty can be reduced immediately by scrapping the two-child benefit cap. Will you be writing to this next Government as you did with the last?

• Question by: Emma Best
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Emma Best AM: Thank you, Chair. Mr Mayor, some of the people who do not feel as though they are sharing equally in the success of London’s economy are those working in the night-time economy. I want to focus particularly on the nightlife element of London’s economy. We know, obviously, since COVID, the higher you are the harder you fall, and unfortunately that has been the case in London. While we see cities like Liverpool generating 43 per cent growth, we are struggling to get back to where we once were in London and maintain that reputation that we have...

• Question by: Alessandro Georgiou
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Alessandro Georgiou AM: Thank you, Mr Chair. Mr Mayor, in our previous exchange two Mayor’s Question Times ago [23 May 2024], we discussed the Green Belt, and I welcomed your response. However, I am concerned by comments coming from special advisers and in particular MPs in the new Labour Government. I am not going to debate the rights and wrongs of your recent decision on Hounslow on building in the Green Belt but I am just observing it, but I have always defended you when it comes to the Green Belt and I have always said that I may disagree...

• Question by: Leonie Cooper
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Léonie Cooper AM: Thank you, Chair. Mr Mayor, I just wanted to briefly make sure that this word ‘suspended’, which is being used, that we are all absolutely clear not only that the post has not been suspended and actually given that we had barely been back in the building for two and a half weeks when [The Rt Hon] Rishi Sunak [MP, former Prime Minister] stood in the rain and declared an election. To say you have been not doing much for two months is a strange thing for the Assembly Member to say. To be absolutely clear, the...

• Question by: Emma Best
• Meeting date: 18 July 2024

Emma Best AM: Thank you. In yesterday’s session, we heard again and again and again that the single biggest problem for dentistry is not to do with funding. In fact, in London, money had to go back to the Treasury last year because of the underspend. The single biggest issue is the 2006 contract changes under the previous Labour Government and so I do hope that you will work with this new Government to change those. I also wanted to raise as well that before the time of the outgoing Government, they produced in February 2024 the Dentistry Recovery Plan...