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• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 01 July 2015

Stephen Knight AM: Thank you, Chair. My question was on this issue of London’s relationship with the EU, which your report makes quite a few comments about in terms of London ‘staying open for business’. It is quite clear in terms of the need to maintain the relationship with the EU and the dangers of undermining that relationship. In particular, I wanted to ask you about - and I am reading from the report - wanting to: “... strengthen London’s voice on national policies that could put London’s status as the global hub for business and finance at risk: particularly...

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 01 July 2015

Andrew Dismore AM: Thank you, Chair. I would like to raise the issue of connectivity and broadband, which does not seem to be moving on particularly well. A few weeks ago, Emily Thornberry [Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington South and Finsbury] raised in Parliament an example she had of a business in central London taking nine hours to upload a two-and-a-half-minute film, which is not particularly helpful. What are you doing to try to do something about this problem of connectivity?

• Question by: Victoria Borwick
• Meeting date: 01 July 2015

Victoria Borwick AM MP: If I may, I would just like to follow on and say that there are other boroughs that are very concerned. In fact, I have a residents group in Kensington and Chelsea that is extremely dismayed that it seems to be that others are moving ahead on this agenda. I would - I think - second the points made by Mr Dismore, not all of them, but I know there are others around here who I am sure could instance their boroughs and issues with this. There seems to be subsidies and other information for other...

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 01 July 2015

Nicky Gavron AM: Thank you very much. I just wanted to make one point. It would be extremely helpful in forwarding this issue if the LEP and Assembly Members could really look carefully at the amended London Plan. I argued on behalf of the Planning Committee that we should have symmetrical high-speed broadband as the new utility delivered to all new developments. There was a lot of querying of me about ‘symmetrical’. I am not a technological whizz, but I explained that it was about having the same speed of uploading as downloading, which is obviously an issue. Moreover, we...

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 01 July 2015

Kit Malthouse AM MP: I assume that you would accept that for all the businesses and people employed in the area of green technology and green industries, 80% of what they do and what holds them back is exactly the same as for businesses that are not involved in those technologies. Therefore, your work on small business, science and technology and all those areas of emphasis would be equally as applicable to green technology, Jenny ‑‑ Jenny Jones AM: Yes. Kit Malthouse AM MP: ‑‑ as they are to other things. Harvey McGrath (Deputy Chair, London Enterprise Panel): Indeed. Kit...

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 01 July 2015

James Cleverly AM MP: Thank you, Madam Chair. Prompted by Mr Knight, you mentioned more corporate involvement in the housing market and the provision of housing specifically for employees. Across the country, there are some significant examples where business owners have taken a very direct role in the provision of housing. I am thinking of Port Sunlight, Bournville, etc, where those - for want of a better word - early corporate entities recognised that they had a vested interest in the provision of good quality, local housing for the people working in their businesses. You mentioned the utilisation of pension...

• Reference: 2015/0421
• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Could you set out the aims and objectives of the Draft Further Alterations to the London Plan document as laid before the Assembly, and how the Alterations address the issues raised by the Inspector and the Assembly and the changes to national policy?

• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Stephen Knight AM: We have already heard a little bit about the issues of housing supply and the deficiencies in the Plan and so I will not repeat some of what has been said. However, it is clear that the inspector was willing to sign off this plan really only on the basis that there would be a further review to address the issues before 2016. I noticed in the response that the Mayor has made to the inspector - or it may have been to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) - that a review is already...

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Fiona Twycross AM: I am going to shift the question a little bit away from housing. Obviously, we all recognise the need for housing, but there is a danger that we create a false dichotomy between the use of land for housing and the use of land for other purposes. Does the Plan recognise and deal with the tension between the need to provide land for housing and the need for all other uses including employment and infrastructure?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Jenny Jones AM: On this substantive issue, I am very concerned that you are actually releasing too much industrial land because the vacancy rate on industrial land has actually halved in the past 15 years and is now lower than retail vacancies. I am concerned that you are talking about surplus land when, actually, it is not surplus because small businesses still need to be near centres of population and they still need to be near town centres. I just wonder how much research you have done on this.