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• Question by: David Kurten
• Meeting date: 02 July 2020

David Kurten AM: Good morning, everybody. My first question would go to David Bellamy. I think you would be the person to answer this, but if you are not you can pass it on. My question is, what remuneration will the members of the London Transition Board and London Recovery Board be receiving for their service?

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 02 July 2020

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM: My questions are to start off with to John O’Brien. I want to ask about support for businesses in London, with a particular focus on the restaurant industry. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, as of July last year there were nearly 16,000 restaurants in London employing around 325,000 people. Clearly, the sector has been hit very hard by COVID-19. Data showed in March, before the pandemic had fully hit, that 71% more food and accommodation businesses closed this March than they had in the previous March. John, I wonder if you could...

• Question by: Leonie Cooper
• Meeting date: 02 July 2020

Léonie Cooper AM: My first question is to David Bellamy and it is about the balance between lives and livelihoods. Many politicians and commentators have portrayed the journey out of lockdown as a trade-off between the economy and health and between lives and livelihoods. Do you agree that this is a false distinction and that there cannot really be a full economic recovery without the public being confident that going about daily life is safe?

• Reference: 2013/0005-1
• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 13 March 2013

What do you perceive will be the impact on London of housing related welfare reforms - including linking the uprating of Local Housing Allowance to the Consumer Price Index rather than rent inflation and introducing under-occupation penalties - given London's existing shortages of affordable rented accommodation and overcrowding problems?

• Reference: 2013/0006-1
• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 13 March 2013

London is about to experience the largest change to the welfare system since the 1940's, due to take effect on 1 April. These changes include the overall benefit cap, uprating Local Housing Allowance by CPI, bedroom tax (under-occupancy penalties), localisation of the discretionary social fund, localisation of council tax benefit, and replacement of Disability Allowance with the Personal Independence Payment. Can you provide a very general picture of the impact these changes will have on the people of London?

• Reference: 2013/0007-1
• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 13 March 2013

There have already been many significant and cross-cutting changes to the welfare system, and there are even bigger changes planned for the coming year. Is there adequate monitoring and publicly available information about the cumulative impacts on Londoners, councils and support agencies?

• Reference: 2013/0008-1
• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 13 March 2013

The 'bedroom tax' will result in an immediate cut in Housing Benefit of 14% for those deemed to have one extra bedroom and 25% for two or more extra bedrooms. However, the extent to which such penalties will make a difference is questionable, as there is a significant mismatch between under-occupying and over-occupying households - with 80,000 households in London under-occupancy, against 260,000 over-crowded households. Will the bedroom tax help address overcrowding in London in any substantive way, and what impact do you believe it will have on established communities and social cohesion in the capital?

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 13 March 2013

I want to follow up from Stephen Knight's questioning on the CPI. Perhaps I could ask Kate, because she did not get a chance to answer. Have I got it right that the CPI is going to mean that rents are now going to be tagged to the CPI, rather than to rent inflation? Further, as the CPI has always risen at a much lower rate than rents, the 30th percentile which the LHA is tagged to will drop to perhaps 20th or 10th percentile available? Have I got this right?

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 13 March 2013

Can we look at the cost. We all understand the principles of trying to help people that are truly in need but it is right, is it not, that Housing Benefit costs have gone up by £10 billion since the beginning of the decade? It was about £11 billion in 2000/01 and it is now £21 billion, and if it were to go on then it would be £25 billion in the coming year if the reforms were not brought in. Jules Pipe, do you want to comment on that?

• Question by: Stephen Knight
• Meeting date: 13 March 2013

I wondered if I could very quickly ask Mayor Pipe a question on the Ministerial statement yesterday on the 'bedroom tax'. It appears to me that what is being said is rather than change the actual proposals so that the categories talked about are exempt, what is being done is that the Government is asking local authorities to use discretionary payments to effectively pay that money back. Is that right? Can you explain what the process would be and, importantly, is the Government actually funding this?