Search questions

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 02 December 2015

Fiona Twycross AM: I wanted to correct the impression that was given that the way it has been operating at the moment has been simply about opposition Members [on LFEPA] getting at the Mayor. The fact is that the Mayor has insisted on managing by Direction even when there has not been an impasse, including on issues over which there has been cross‑party agreement by LFEPA Members. I just wondered if you could focus a little bit on what impact the Mayor’s insistence on management by Direction has had. To be honest, we have had Directions on all sorts of...

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 02 December 2015

Richard Tracey AM: Chairman, probably this is one for you as the politician of the two of you. The fact is, surely, that government, particularly local government, has been changing very considerably over recent years. That is accepted. The straight point to you: is it not correct that perhaps LFEPA in its current form is out of date and past its sell‑by date, really?

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 02 December 2015

Fiona Twycross AM: We obviously have to make sensible use of resources in the face of cuts. Some of the new technology that could come online is really interesting and will offer exciting possibilities, but do you agree with the Londoner who contacted me yesterday to say that £283,000 for a website rebuild is bordering on scandalous?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

Can I just go back to Neale's comments. I am glad to hear that local authorities are looking at areas where there is already the social infrastructure to provide additional housing. It strikes me, though, that the last time the capacity study was done at the GLA, during the first term, the local authorities in the south-west, where there is the infrastructure, the roads and what have you, got off lightly. I am talking about Richmond upon Thames and Kingston upon Thames. It seems to me, when I go through those parts of town, the infrastructure is there to accommodate...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

It is good that we have got an opportunity to make a step change in the quality of development, particularly in affordable homes, with this Strategy and the Mayor's new powers. We also, as Assembly Members, had a rather robust conversation over lunch with the London Housing Corporation. That was about the very great degree of variance there seems to be at the moment between the housing management standards and the estate management standards - the neighbourhood management standards - between existing housing associations, amongst which there has been a great balkanisation; there are 500 or so housing associations in...

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

A little while ago I went to an exhibition at the Building Federation. They were showing what I can only call an updated pre-fabricated house. It was actually a flat. It had a steel frame and it was was in situ, inside this frame. The frame could be put on the back of a lorry and taken to a site and bolted together. You could construct, effectively, a block of flats in modular fashion and all you had to do, having plonked it there, was to connect up electricity and water. The whole thing was centrally heated, and worked just...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

That is going to be true even with the new powers.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

What about enforcement?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

Could I stop you there. I have got some questions and not very much time. Perhaps I can ask all my questions then you can just answer as best you can. The first question is how are you going to enforce all this, because that always seems to be the problem with councils actually being able to enforce codes. My view on all this, about trying to get to Level 3, is that it is just utterly unambitious. If you think that the houses we build now are going to be here for at least 50 years and possibly 100...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

Can I just pursue this point, to agree with Jenny's point - the fuel poverty point - that by focusing on the affordable housing you get an added social benefit, but the Strategy focuses on the larger strategic developments. Isn't there a lot more that we can be doing given that I think the statistic is that 98% of all residential completions in the last year for which figures were available, were fewer than 100. By focusing on the larger ones we are missing the greater number. Are you satisfied that enough is going on to get the standards up...