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• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

Yes, you are absolutely right. London generates an enormous amount of wealth - according to the London Chamber of Commerce about £13 - £20 billion - which is then taken by the Government and used to subsidise the rest of the country, if not Scotland. We can certainly do with more money. As far as Crossrail is concerned, the Mayor has said that is probably the most important project, even more important than the Olympics. Nevertheless, the Government still found themselves with a shortfall of over £300 million and turned to the City to stump up yet more money in...

• Reference: 2007/0044-1
• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

Who is going to benefit from the 'London Youth Offer' announced on 20th September 2008?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

You anticipated my next question which was, if we count the Olympics towards that target, so the real issue, as it were, is for non-Olympic area target for the rest of London that we need to highlight and make sure that that is sufficiently ambitious to give us the brownfield site to protect the greenfield and then green belt.

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

Can I just make one final suggestion which is, the danger is that you look at the individual schemes and say, `On that scheme we remediated pollution, on that scheme we had renewable energy' and there is no standing back to say, `Well overall, when we look at our total outputs as an agency, we can see whether we are making progress towards sustainable development'. So, some sort of annual snapshot stocktake would help and would help external stakeholders as well.

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

In a sense that is the ideal in the ideal world. One would invest in an environmental technology business that creates the jobs, that gets a long-term unemployed person into work and so forth, so you get the virtuous circle of win win win. But in the real world there are choices and what I want to flush out is really how the Agency and the Board, perhaps from the top, reconciles some of the tensions. Let me take an example of affordable housing. I think from the statistics I have last year, there were something like 1,500 new affordable...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

I agree that is the ideal. I just think in the real world that is not always possible, certainly in the time frames that one is dealing with. Can you tell me what the role of the Health and Sustainability Advisory Group is, which I think is a new innovation and how does that fit into your governance structure?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

Thank you. Can you just remind me of your statutory responsibilities in relation to sustainable development? There is a provision in the Act.

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

No, no because they are advisory, but do they make a regular report to the Board? Does the Board receive a report from the group?

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

Well, I would have thought that the purpose of the LDA was to provide London with jobs and economic development. Personally, I do not really see the rationale for spending so much money which could have been directed elsewhere, to jobs for young people, whatever, on the Caribbean Showcase, when the Notting Hill Carnival was going on at the same time. I cannot make that connection, I am afraid. I just think that it is extraordinary that you should spend the money in this way.

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

That equates to a very neat and tidy solution. You move the allotment holders off to Marsh Lane for a period of approximately seven years, I understand, and then you move them back to another site approximately close to where they are now. Unfortunately it is not going to work terribly well because it takes over seven years to establish a new allotment site. Frankly, if the plot holder is going to be facing two moves within seven years, a lot of them will simply give up. Perhaps the diehards will carry on, but I do not see that this...