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  • Balance of Taxation (Supplementary) [2]

    • Question by: Stephen Knight
    • Meeting date: 24 October 2012
    Stephen Knight (AM): To pick you up on the point you have just made around the high property values in London, compared, I believe with most other developed countries, we have very few property and wealth taxes in this country; we predominantly focus on income and sales taxes. I just wondered to what extent you think the high cost of housing in London is partly driven by the fact that it is a tax free growth area for people, by which I mean it is a tax free investment and therefore that has partly driven the speculation that has driven...

  • Balance of Taxation (Supplementary) [4]

    • Question by: John Biggs
    • Meeting date: 24 October 2012
    Goodness me. I think this is a very worthwhile debate although it may seem a bit arid to some observers and we need to make sure we do not get too academic about it. Would you agree with me that around the world probably the single greatest source of income for city governments tends to be, in one shape or form, from properties? You have said a couple of times now that property taxes are so visible and so potent that virtually all political parties play 'chicken' with each other. Well, the opposite of 'chicken'; they are scared to look...

  • Balance of Taxation (Supplementary) [6]

    • Question by: Nicky Gavron
    • Meeting date: 24 October 2012
    Nicky Gavron (AM): While we are on land and talking about the planning system, currently the Assembly's Planning Committee is looking at the community infrastructure levy (CIL). That is, to a certain extent, a fixed charge, although there are lots of complications because it is set different in different boroughs and there is not necessarily a duty to cooperate and so on. On top of that is the Mayor's own CIL. I was wondering, this CIL is for Crossrail, but is the Commission going to look beyond that to the way CIL might be used by the Mayor in the...

  • Tax Devolution (Supplementary) [1]

    • Question by: Nicky Gavron
    • Meeting date: 24 October 2012
    In the same spirit, how far are you going to frame for the Mayor any of the mechanisms he might be thinking about for the comprehensive spending review for London?

  • Climate Change Action Plan and London's Buildings (Supplementary) [2]

    • Question by: Tony Arbour
    • Meeting date: 16 January 2008
    Do you know, I am flabbergasted by this, Deputy Mayor. You have just told us that these low-energy bulbs are in fact a transitional thing, because LED bulbs are going to come in which are going to be efficient, but at the same time your publicity has told us that these light bulbs are going to have a very long life. Clearly it is quite pointless that they should have a long life if something more permanent is going to come along. It is a bit like somebody trying to sell me a Betamax video recorder! The whole thing is...

  • Climate Change Action Plan and London's Buildings (Supplementary) [3]

    • Question by: Tony Arbour
    • Meeting date: 16 January 2008
    One final thing on this; I believe the whole thing is completely ludicrous. This refers to DIY Planet Repairs. Whenever we switch on any of the computers in this building a big thing comes up with an exclamation mark saying `DIY Planet Repairs'; utterly meaningless. I can well understand why there is an exclamation mark there; this has cost the Council Tax payers of London more than £1.25 million! Can you point to any `DIY Planet Repair' which the Mayor and this campaign have actually achieved?

  • Climate Change Action Plan and London's Buildings (Supplementary) [4]

    • Question by: Tony Arbour
    • Meeting date: 16 January 2008
    Of the 30,000 a year that you are predicting?

  • Climate Change Action Plan and London's Buildings (Supplementary) [6]

    • Question by: Tony Arbour
    • Meeting date: 16 January 2008
    Mr Watts, that is not actually true. In the Mayor's press release ' which I suppose in this case is Nicky's press release ' a 63% take-up was predicted, which is four million. Your figure bears no relationship to the press release and the fact that you only made available this tiny number of light bulbs suggests that there was never any truth in the matter at all.

  • Climate Change Action Plan and London's Buildings (Supplementary) [9]

    • Question by: Tony Arbour
    • Meeting date: 16 January 2008
    It's very interested to hear you say that all of this is supposed to encourage people to take up these things. The total number of people who have actually taken up the insulation grants so far is barely 3,000 homes of the 30,000. The thing you principally have been trumpeting to make Londoners aware of how they can cut carbon issues has related to the exchange of light bulbs. Now the Mayor in his press release predicted that there was going to be a 60% take up of London's population of that; that is around four million people. I wonder...