Search questions

• Reference: 2013/0013-1
• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Darren Johnson (Chair): We then move to item 4, which is the question and answer session on the London Finance Commission (LFC) and we welcome Professor Tony Travers, the Chair of that Commission, to answer questions. Each group has a lead-off question, but we will begin with a brief opening statement from Professor Travers.

• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Tom Copley (AM): The report outlines the need to shift from, in terms of housing, subsidising rents towards subsidising capital instead. Could you tell us how you anticipate this could be done, particularly in terms of timescales and also the necessary transitional measures, which are mentioned in the report?

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Richard Tracey (AM): Tony, in your report you do talk to quite a great extent about Crossrail and we will all remember very much the length of the process to get funding, to get the whole process through. Now we are beginning to talk about Crossrail 2, which is very important in my constituency and in southwest London. To what extent do you believe the suggestions you have made would help to produce Crossrail 2 much sooner than is currently anticipated?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Andrew Boff (AM): I think, Professor Travers, when Assembly Member [Tom] Copley talks about a growing consensus on housing, he is talking about a growing consensus in the Labour Party on housing, and that, as you so rightly pointed out, there is a difference between a policy that subsidises houses irrespective of the needs of the people who live in them, and the policy that we favour of helping people when they need it. But that was not what I was going to ask. I really wondered whether or not you had reference to the European Charter of Local Self-Government...

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Fiona Twycross (AM): I want to go back to the point about the borrowing cap on local government in relation to borrowing and at a recent meeting of the Assembly's Housing Committee we heard that, although there are only 10,000 new social housing properties currently in the pipeline, if the cap was removed there was scope for building 800,000. I just wondered, obviously that is down to the political decision-making issue as suggested, but how likely do you think it is for the Government to relax or remove the limits on borrowing?

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Kit Malthouse (AM): Professor, it is very interesting, what you have been saying this morning. Obviously the restrictions on borrowing by local authorities were loosened in 2003. I hesitate to be political about it, but the strict introductions that were introduced in the 1980s were in response to irresponsible borrowing by a number of local authorities, not least Liverpool and Hammersmith and Fulham, interestingly, and also I think the interest rate swap debacle where Hammersmith and Fulham lost the case on their treasury management and got into all sorts of trouble. The reason that the Government introduced those restrictions back...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Valerie Shawcross CBE (AM): It is a really excellent piece of work and it gives us a good agenda for the future. Last week the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) made some comments that I think we all know intuitively are true about the importance of transport infrastructure investment for long-term growth. How do you think transport investment decisions would change in this city if we did have much more local control?

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Joanne McCartney (AM): I wanted to continue the theme, really, about the transport infrastructure. Jennette and I represent constituents in the Upper Lee Valley who are very excited at the prospect of Crossrail 2. But looking at the length of time it took Crossrail 1 to actually get off the starting blocks, obviously it gives is great concern that this wonderful idea may actually take many years or decades in the making. Did you have a view as to whether the better fiscal autonomy for London as well as that certainty would actually speed up the timescale for these big...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Jennette Arnold OBE (AM): You have touched on the issue of governance, so my question is about that. If the measures outlined in the LFC's report were to be implemented, what, if any, new powers or scrutiny roles do you envisage the London Assembly and/or local government in the capital requiring? You said in February that it was Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York, who played a great role in bringing the development of city mayors to London. Do you envisage a New York City-style of council in future where the 51 members there have sole rights of approval...

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 05 June 2013

Andrew Boff (AM): I do hate it, Professor Travers, when you come here because you answer all my questions before I have asked them. But do you think the Mayor is missing a trick in just lobbying for London when he should actually be lobbying for cities? It strikes me that the 'carrot crunchers' have their lobby groups and unfortunately the cities do not seem to have a cohesive one.