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• Reference: 2010/0045
• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

When in partnership with property developers what are the LDA's housing objectives?

• Reference: 2010/0046
• Question by: Richard Barnbrook
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

Has the London Development Agency (LDA) invested in a company in the last 5 years in which their grant has been recouped due to the company fulfilling its potential for growth as outlined in the LDA Business Support mission statement?

• Reference: 2010/0047
• Question by: Richard Barnbrook
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

Recently, Britain's new Information Commissioner Christopher Graham pledged to prosecute public officials who fail to comply with Freedom of Information laws. Bearing in mind that he once threatened the LDA with contempt of court for failure to disclose information under an FOI request, has the LDA now resolved to comply with its duty, and deal with such requests within the required time limits?

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

Could I pursue some of what my colleague, Andrew Boff, has been asking you about? To be honest, we are receiving many comments from the boroughs, from borough leaders and from borough officers, that they are really not content at all with the sort of support for businesses which you are giving, so you are not really pleasing anybody it seems. You are not pleasing the boroughs and you are not pleasing us, certainly when we receive criticism from the boroughs, and you are not actually helping the businesses it would seem. I cannot understand why there should be the...

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

You identified in your introduction, and I hope I can allude to it then - because it covers the same thing - a number of past failures of the LDA which obviously you are seeking to address. For example, Mr Rogers has said that the LDA's business support programmes were not fit for purpose and I just wondered, first of all, how long that has been going on? How long has the LDA's business support not been fit for purpose and how long do we have to wait before it is?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

Mr McGrath, you said that one of your biggest contributions is to contribute the equity towards the development of projects, in the form of land, and, in order to assist developers, then producing a plan. To what extent do you take a view on the actual quality of that development and how it meets any of the GLA's strategic aims and meets the needs of Londoners, specifically with regard to housing?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

I just wanted to carry on a point that Len has already picked up around the spending against priorities because, at our Budget and Performance Committee last week, of which I am a Member, we heard, exactly as you have confirmed this morning, that you have some underspends from this year that you are taking as part of your funding package for next year. I cannot remember the number. I just simply want to put some numbers on these things so can you just remind me, was is about £16 million? What is the amount of underspend from this year...

• Question by: Richard Barnbrook
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

Good morning, gentlemen. We have heard about the fact of how London will survive without the LDA. We have also heard from Mr Duvall regarding the workings or possible wrong workings of the LDA. I want to touch on something that is a bit old and I hope is not going to occur again; that is perceived corruption within certain officers and employers of the LDA. One project comes to mind. I know it has been put to bed and I think it has been put to bed a bit too quickly; the Brixton project and the slap on the...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

Harvey, can I bring you back to the beginning when you mentioned the LDA objectives and one of them being international promotion? It is interesting, over Christmas reading things like The Economist, it was suggesting that the developing countries have come out of the recession much better than anyone had expected and that this has profound consequences on the rest of the world, including London. Hearing that, I understand that we do not now have an office in Delhi or Bombay, one of the leading BRIC countries and one of the countries that we can expect to trade with in...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 13 January 2010

You will know that Members on this side are very sceptical of the role that the LDA is proposing to play in the establishment of academies. Do you not think it would be infinitely more sensible and more attuned to your statutory role if such monies as you have available for education were channelled into providing apprenticeships, training for real jobs, rather than what some of us see as a kind of Trojan horse for re-establishing the Inner London Education Authority?