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• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Absolutely. I am aware of the Canary Wharf initiative, and I laud it. It is absolutely fantastic, and it is the kind of thing we want. We work very closely in north London with The College of North West London to try to look at the skills that will be needed in that area. Therefore, through the LSC and the further education colleges, it is absolutely essential that we work out the skills that are needed. That is what happened in Canary Wharf. They worked out the skills that were needed, and then were able to provide the training for...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

I think it would be very helpful if that were done, but also, if something which is accessible to local businesses who are not politicians like us ' who understand all these convoluted politician-speak reports ' something which they could understand and could understand how they could have access to tendering and contracts and get some of the benefits which they have been promised out of the Olympics. I hope that is possible, as well. The second question, then, is about employment training in the construction industry. My understanding is that there has already been quite a bit of work...

• Reference: 2004/0196-1
• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 March 2004

How are you going to ensure that those living in Thames Gateway will have the necessary skills to access more of the new jobs created there? .

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 March 2004

Perhaps I should declare that I was at that partnership board as well, and I welcome the work that you are doing on this. But my constituents in east London can, I think, be forgiven for being a bit cynical about regeneration in the area, because it is all very well to get investment bankers there, but very few local kids become investment bankers and the arrival of investment bankers very often, by driving up the land values, forces out SMEs in traditional old workshops, which have been a classic leg-up for people in east London in the past. They...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 March 2004

Business start-ups and SMEs set up, particularly by minority ethnic communities in east London, have been pretty fundamental in the last 20 years or so, and yet, if I look through East Ham, West Ham and Tower Hamlets, the sort of premises they used to occupy have disappeared. The ones that are now available are unaffordable. How are the LDA and the other partnerships going to intervene in that?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 March 2004

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 March 2004

Very briefly, two constituency-type questions. The first is about hospital provision in the area and I know there is a study which talks about numbers of GPs and primary health care facilities, but it is a very common question locally in east London as to whether that would be sufficient and whether we need a new primary hospital in the area. The second bit is this idea of a Royal Park, and I happen to be a republican, so I prefer to think of a `people's park'. The idea of having a regional park in the area, which is a...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

I am interested in looking at ways in which my constituents can buy in to the Games. Many of them will probably not be able to go to the Games because they will not be able to afford it, or they will seem rather remote to them even though they might live next to the Olympics. Clearly the regeneration vision is part of that. My questions are about employment and contracts and how they can link into the prosperity of communities in London which are particularly disengaged. An attractive idea would be for the Olympics to have as part of...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

But I see this as being possibly an integral and an attractive part of the bid.