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• Question by: Keith Prince
• Meeting date: 07 December 2016

Keith Prince AM: Good morning, Mr Deputy Mayor. Just before I start, you mentioned earlier a 30,000 affordable homes figure and I wondered. When do you think that will be achievable by?

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

Andrew Dismore AM: I wanted to come to the issue of land banking. The previous Mayor stated: “To constrict supply to push up prices by land banking is plainly against the economic interests of this city.” Sadiq [Khan, Mayor of London] said in the manifesto: “Exercise use-it-or-lose-it powers to make sure developers who have planning permission build homes and do not land bank.” There seems to be a degree of consensus about the issue. How do you think the DCLG could support the GLA in tackling land banking? For example, one option would be to allow planning authorities to, if...

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 07 December 2016

Joanne McCartney AM: . I want to ask you about supported housing. Last month I was delighted to open Protheroe House in Tottenham. This was a development for older Londoners with extra care needs. It offers affordable rents, greatly below, alternative residential care accommodation and part of the units are supported by the NHS. In effect, it unblocks beds from hospitals. I was quite shocked to see under the former Mayor the Mayor’s Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund had an underspend of 66%. I am wondering what you have done to review this and what are your plans for...

• Question by: David Kurten
• Meeting date: 07 December 2016

David Kurten AM: I do want to ask you about something, maybe a different area, which is about the balance between getting the new housing that London needs and also protecting our culture and our heritage. There are a couple of reports that I have seen over the last couple of months and constituents have written to me of some disturbing issues in London with the drive to build extra houses and one of them concerns the view of St Paul’s Cathedral. Off the top of my head there are 37 protected views of St Paul’s Cathedral and reports recently...

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

Tom Copley AM: It follows on quite nicely from the point about co-ops. I want to talk about smaller developments and smaller pieces of land. We did hear a bit about this earlier from the Housing Minister, who suggested this was not a silver bullet, but a lot is being talked about trying to get SME builders going and there was a recent announcement from the Government of a homebuilding fund that would provide loans to small and medium builders. Can you tell me: is that fund all going to be administered nationally or will it be devolved for administration...

• Question by: Tony Devenish
• Meeting date: 07 December 2016

Tony Devenish AM: Do you think there is a real sense of urgency in how you are tackling the housing crisis?

• 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.