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• Question by: Florence Eshalomi MP
• Meeting date: 07 December 2016

Florence Eshalomi AM: It is great to see you here as a London Member of Parliament (MP) for Croydon, not too far from my constituency in Lambeth and Southwark. One of the main issues that has been on your agenda and I am sure in your inbox as well has been the issue around Southern Rail. In the run-up to the mayoral election, quite a number of the candidates committed to looking at further rail devolution in London and it is right to say that it is something that has worked quite well with London Overground. Given that there is...

• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 07 December 2016

Tom Copley AM: Good morning, Minister. Thank you for being here today. I listened with interest to your exchange with Assembly Member Devenish. It feels to me like your predecessor in the previous Government seemed to put all his eggs in the Starter Homes basket and in the affordable homeownership basket. What you seem to have said by saying that there is no silver bullet is perhaps that that was not the right approach. Do you and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) support a full range of tenures and affordable tenures for London and does that include...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 07 December 2016

Len Duvall AM: I would like to return to the issue about rail privatisation and the issues around that. Can I thank you for your earlier statement in saying that you would come back before us? We are very grateful. We know that you do not have to and we look forward to further opportunities to pose questions to you on topical issues. In terms of the transport announcements made yesterday and the links with the wider issues around economic performance, would you agree that the issues in Kent and London coincide? We all want the best for the rail...

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 07 December 2016

Nicky Gavron AM: Minister, good morning. I wanted to ask you a question about permitted development rights, which allow a change of use from offices and other workspaces now to residential without going through the planning system. Everyone around this horseshoe agrees that we need more affordable housing and we need more housing generally, but we also desperately need affordable workspace. Change of use is offering a windfall in terms of upping value to property owners and to developers. What we are seeing in London is that rents are going up and, in many cases, land prices are going up...

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 07 December 2016

Andrew Dismore AM: Could I go back to rail devolution? In the Evening Standard today there is a letter from Chris Grayling [MP, Secretary of State for Transport] to Boris Johnson. Boris Johnson wrote to Mr Grayling supporting the idea of rail devolution. The letter says this: “Thank you for your letter of 17 April about the possibility of TfL taking on responsibility for a number [of] rail services in the London area, but outside the Greater London boundary. While I am generally a great supporter of what you are doing in London, I would not be in favour of...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

OK. If we take the example of the Olympic Boulevard, that is the main Olympic marathon route back into the Olympic Park after they have done their 26 miles. The aspiration would be that that looks good on television, for example. That is not your responsibility?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

OK. There is an interesting challenge here which is that virtually the whole of the rest of the world is very keen to make sure that the Olympics do not go over budget, whereas a lot of my constituents in East London are very anxious to make sure that, in making sure the Olympics do not go over budget, we do not spend too little on the regeneration benefits for the area. The individual borough councils, for example, have aspirations as to how the Olympics will improve their areas. One that pops up is the Olympic Boulevard idea, supported by...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Can I move on to the question of jobs and employment. There has been a lot of focus on the budgets ensuring that people are adequately trained to build the facilities. Do you have a responsibility for thinking about legacy land uses and the ways in which communities will benefit from those uses of land? The one that is held up very often is the Broadcast Centre which could become a major employment venue in the future. What is your role in that, or are you simply trying to get the cheapest building up quickly, do not care if it...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

I suppose I should declare, for the record, that I am the Deputy Chair of the UDC, although I would not accept that it is the only body responsible for this work.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Right, OK. If we want to make sure that the boundaries, although you could physically walk across them after the Games, are softened to a point where a resident of Bow or of Hackney Wick can walk into the Olympic Park after the Games as if it was next door to them, and talk about responsibility for funding that and making sure it happens, is that again not your responsibility?