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• 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?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

Am I right in saying that the target for the percentage of time spent on community fire safety at station level has risen from 6 per cent to 8 per cent? Looking at the actual performance last year, over a third of our stations exceeded 10 per cent and one of them, Sutton, according to the figures, spent 25 per cent of their time on community fire safety. Is not 8 per cent really too low as a target, therefore, and should we not be getting the average a lot higher?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

If some can achieve above 20 per cent, can we not encourage the others too?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

Thank you, Sir Ken. I think we would all like to congratulate those success stories that you have just highlighted. Obviously the picture we are getting is that it is a patchy performance across London. Would you agree with that?

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

Thank you very much, Commissioner. I am very delighted to hear that, although I was rather sorry that there was a delay because I can remember at least two years ago when we were in here for a scrutiny session, and you came with your Union Representative and he agreed that there really was no hold up with the Union as to getting this sorted out in London as long as they were not to be sent there instead of an ambulance, to which we, of course, agreed. You have been given £100,000, but none of this has been drawn...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

Just in case Londoners watching this think that London Fire Service is always locked in disputes about things, I think other answers and briefings we have seen show that there has been massive development of work practices and cooperation, for example, community fire safety work, which I think all Londoners would welcome. This does look like an impending dispute and I am wondering how you see it evolving and being managed and, without carrying your negotiations on in public, what you see as being the bottom line, the problems, the challenges that we face in addressing those?

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

Thank you. Have you done any costings of this? What it would actually cost to start this programme? I want to check the cost of taking out beds to replace them when those beds may be perfectly good ones, plus any ancillary costs on building work that may be necessary.