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• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Nicky Gavron AM: Sir Edward, thank you very much for that introduction. The big headline out of this Plan is that the Mayor’s target is not high enough to meet the housing that London needs. It does not even take the target that is given in his own evidence. We have a housing crisis. Why are you content to move forward with a Plan that does not meet London’s housing need?

• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Tom Copley AM: I want to move on to talk about affordable housing. Would a London-wide percentage target for affordable housing be more effective at delivering the homes that Londoners need the most?

• Question by: Navin Shah
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Navin Shah AM: Good morning, Sir Edward. In your introduction, you made a reference to the long-term future. Can we look at that in the context of safeguarding London’s skyline? Can you tell me, please, what policies in the altered London Plan could be used to ensure that in the short and long term we do not end up with out-of-character buildings like 1 Merchant Square popping up across London?

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Richard Tracey AM: Thank you, Chairman. Could I just pursue you a little further on the line of questioning you were receiving from Steve O’Connell about parking in outer London? Are you specifically delineating what is ‘outer London’ and what is ‘inner London’? What bothers me is that sometimes it seems that TfL, when commenting on planning applications, tries to impose the rather stricter inner London format on outer London boroughs. As you said, we do definitely need more scope for residential parking in outer London.

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 06 February 2015

Murad Qureshi AM: Sir Edward, can I bring up the particular issue of subterranean basement developments? Last night I heard from residents of Bayswater that they have had 15 of these developments in the last 18 months. It has caused sinkholes, flooding and structural damage to properties. It is a problem not only in the City of Westminster but in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in Hammersmith and Fulham and I understand in other boroughs in north London as well. We also unanimously passed a motion in March proposing that some limits should be made on these excessive...

• 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...

• 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...

• 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...

• 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?