London Resilience Funding (Supplementary) [2]

We have had cross-party lobbying since this issue began. I think we should recognise that the Government did not actually have a system for funding London in this way. We have had support as part of the national New Dimension programme, and we have continually lobbied, and the latest message we are getting is that we will need to maintain this level of preparedness and equipment and training, probably for a generation; this is not going to go away. Therefore, our message back to the Government is, we did a good belt and braces in terms of getting London prepared quickly, but if this is going to be something we need to maintain for a long period, we need a long term funding mechanism to help us sustain that. We do have cross-party working on this one.

Also, within the Brigade we have now just appointed a Public Affairs Officer, which we have never had before, and we have a Public Affairs Programme. This is a crucial part of having planned, coordinated, cross-party lobbying in order to make sure we boost our resources for London Resilience.

Just one further comment if I may, Chair; The Authority was right to get ahead of the game and start spending money before we knew where the money was coming from. Some people might think that was irresponsible, but in fact I think it proved to be the right judgement. So we have got nothing to be embarrassed about in terms of our preparedness. We were ready, and we are ready.