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• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 06 September 2018

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM: Thank you for that. Will the decision to delay the opening until autumn next year [2019] ‑ it would be great to find out which month in autumn ‑ mean further delay in the opening of the other sections and the final full opening of the line in December 2019?

• Question by: Florence Eshalomi MP
• Meeting date: 06 September 2018

Florence Eshalomi AM: Simon, is there anything you want to add to that?

• Question by: David Kurten
• Meeting date: 06 September 2018

David Kurten AM: Let us come back to the technical aspects. It seems the main problems are getting the three different signalling infrastructures to talk to each other. If you had an extension from Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet then you would need Crossrail to go onto Southeastern track, which might be a fourth signalling structure. Would it not be? You are shaking your heads.

• 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?