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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?

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 15 February 2007

All right, David. One thing that I am a bit concerned about is that, if you look, for example, at the actual stadium and you look at the original quote of £280 million, the Government has now acknowledged it will be higher than that because of the fact that you want a legacy from it; you do not just want a temporary 80,000 seat stadium. Now, the problem is that that tends to indicate to me that no account initially was taken of a possible legacy use, so therefore there is at least another £100 million in costs. Ignore the...

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 15 February 2007

If I turn to other areas, you mentioned - Sydney and Athens, and so on. My problem with the situation is, if you look at Athens, and, five years earlier, at a lot of the other venues, and with things like rowing and so on, these things were promised to be legacy. If you look at all the original stuff, it said, `this will be legacy'. But the rowing area now has, sort of, environmentally despoiled a wetlands area. The problem is, I cannot find any situation where I can trust claims. It all seems very pie in the sky...

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 15 February 2007

I am very grateful for Mr Biggs mentioning Croydon and Sutton, and I will just briefly touch on that in the limited time that I have. Recently the Department for Work and Pensions came up with figures for Croydon Central Parliamentary Constituency. It is 14th in terms of number of lone parents who are on income support, so there is a very real need to recognise the importance of investing in this area in terms of social deprivation. But my question is actually about the question which Mr Biggs has down about the economic development impact. I would declare an...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 15 February 2007

On this issue of economic boost, clearly it would give London and economic boost if we committed to a living wage for all the workers. Is this going to be -- I know the ODA is working with London citizens to ease this forward. Is this going to be living wage Olympics? Are we going to be globally embarrassed?

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 15 February 2007

Right, I have given you 45 email addresses from these people, who will allow you to reach the parts that you have not reached previously. What I would actually like is a commitment from you that you will change whatever you are doing, so that you get down to these people and you talk to them and find out what they want.

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 15 February 2007

There is nothing like having high aspirations! My concern is that I am not sure that the jobs that are going to be available are going to do what it is everyone is trying to achieve, ie get the people who have perhaps never worked, into jobs. My view on this was made more concrete, if you like, when I chaired a meeting in this building, which your officers attended at my invitation, and there were 45 community leaders in the room representing 15,000 of the most deprived in society. Not one of them had heard of the LDA. They...

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 15 February 2007

Sorry, Manny, I do not mean to be rude, but I am on a time limit, and any answers you give also comes off my time, so I really want to talk about this. The two examples you have given, first of all about people who for generations have never worked and who are on benefit for whatever reason, the people who have never had opportunities, will want to volunteer for this programme. I hope you are right. I definitely know that sport is a tremendous catalyst, particularly in deprived communities, and I hope you are right. I am not...