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• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

So why have you set such a low limit? Why not 25% or 30%?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

Finally, what are you going to do about the still considerable number of empty properties that are not brought onto the housing market at all?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

The key is that when those properties come available, there is a queue a mile long to acquire them. So, there is clearly a need for more of those types of properties.

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

Two quick areas I would just like to raise: how are you going to address the need for new affordable housing for families when we have already got a surplus of one bedroom properties at affordable level, and a large element of the developments that have taken place have been two bedroom properties? In actual fact the demand now in London is very much for family housing, both for affordable housing for rent but also housing that can be bought by families.

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 24 October 2007

Why then has the Mayor opposed, for example, what Wandsworth has been doing to bring back empty homes into the housing market?

• Reference: 2007/0016-1
• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 15 February 2007

There is no evidence from previous Games that the event led to any sustained increase in sports participation. Why should London's Games be different?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 07 December 2005

That clearly contradicts with what the Mayor has had to say. The reality is that the costs are going up beyond those expected and the Mayor has quite openly said to us, on the record, that it is basically a seven-year bridging loan that we are having here and we are acquiring additional property in order to fund the increased costs. Is it not a fact here that you are becoming a property speculator in order to fund the Games?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 07 December 2005

Can I just take you back to what the Mayor said at the last Mayor's Question Time, where he said, on the record, that this was precisely the reason why the land increase was taking place? Can I just tell you what he said? `We have increased the size of the land we are acquiring by about 25%' ' you are now saying it is 29%, so clearly the briefing to the Mayor was not quite correct - and basically he has done it so that the land could be sold later on at a greater profit.

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 13 October 2004

I just wanted to move on to some of the lessons learnt with the Paralympics and the Olympic Games themselves, because it became a bit, in Athens, of shall we say "after the Lord Mayor's show." That was very unfortunate, I think, given the high levels of competitors and the great interest there is in the UK in the Paralympics. Therefore, has any thought been given either to moving the Paralympics to be held before the main Olympic Games, or to go back to where we were and to integrate the two sets of Games, so that they are part...

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 13 October 2004

We will part on that issue, because I think most people in London, especially in the suburbs, do not regard themselves as being necessarily Londoners. They would regard themselves as living in particular parts, a network of villages. To move on to another issue, which I think is significant in this whole thing, there are a substantial number of businesses in the area that is supposedly to be regenerated that are going to be displaced and that are basically going to go out of business, with a great loss of business at the time and, potentially, loss of jobs in...