Mayor's Question Time: Updates as Sadiq Khan responds to issues on policing, housing, Brexit and Hammersmith flyunder

That's all we have time for

MQT has wrapped up for this month.

There were a few customary brief scraps between the members and Mayor but they live to do battle again at City Hall on October 12.

The session was dominated by questions on transport and policing, with the issue of funding coming up repeatedly.

Housing was also a major talking point, with the draft Housing strategy released just last week.

London's skyline

AM Shah has asked about whether we will have a ‘genuine’ public consultation on new tall buildings.

Local people will need to be involved in the boroughs planning process.

Boris Johnson was notoriously ‘pro-tall buildings’.

Sadiq Khan points out that mid-rise high quality housing can still provide dense housing options.

He has said that there will be a ‘horses for courses’ approach though and not a ‘one-size fita all’ approach on what should be built in London.

Human Rights of Londoners

AM Sian Berry is asking how we can safeguard Londoner’s human rights when the number of armed officers is rising.

The Mayor acknowledges the concerns but points to instances like the London Bridge Terror Attack where “extreme action” had to be carried out.

He also raised the issue of knife crime and London’s ability to tackle that through tasers as well as enforcing an ‘intelligence-led’ stop and search.

AM Berry has raised the possibility of a racial bias in usage of spit hoods and firing of tasers.

She wants officers who do not yet have a body worn camera will not be able to carry and use a taser.

There appears to be a misunderstanding between the Green Party member and the Mayor over the question.

Could we live in factory produced housing

The Mayor welcomes the use of “precision manufactured” homes to accelerate the construction of homes.

He also argues it will improve the “pace, scale and quality” of new housing.

We cannot produce the number of houses we need through traditional building alone.

Police numbers could be lowest in 15 years

AM Dismore has asked how the Mayor’s request to central government has progressed.

The government has already cut the Met budget by £600m since 2010 and will cut a futher £400m by 2021.

Crime in our city has been increasing in volume and complexity.

If the government doesn’t provide extra funding we could see the number of Met Police officers fall below 30,000 for the first time since 2003.

Kitchen Social

The Mayor praises the work of Kitchen Social in tackling ‘Holiday Hunger’ where children who receive free school meals go hungry in the holidays.

He also said part of the problem is the affordability in London, which is why he wants to make it cheaper to live and take transport in London while ensuring people are paid a fair wage for their work.

“My frustration is the lack of resources”.

Post Garden Bridge

AM Copley asked what the future of sustainable transport is after the Garden Bridge was scrapped.

We are working closely with Westminster Council on pedestrianising Oxford Street .

The Mayor runs down the projects he has initiated and listed in his draft Transport Strategy.

Rough Sleeping

Tom Copley AM has asked what is being done about the homelessness crisis following a rise under Boris Johnson.

The rise in rough sleeping has halted since I became Mayor.

Sadiq Khan has said numbers of rough sleepers have stopped rising but that he has appointed a taskforce to combat the issue and include tools such as allowing the database of missing people to be scanned to help the homeless.

Transport Policy on Taxis

Member Keith Prince asks if the draft strategy published this summer matches the Mayor’s 2016 Manifesto.

Asked about what ‘special privileges’ the Mayor is offering London Taxi drivers as he promised in his manifesto.

The Mayor points to more taxi ranks, increased use of bus lanes, support getting contactless technology and others.

Mr Prince responds by pointing to the Mayor’s policy of replacing black cabs with hybrid vehicles, with drivers having to pay £60,000 to buy the new London taxi and the scarcity of charging points.

The Mayor had pledged 75 roadside charging points by Christmas, with no new diesel vehicles allowed to be registered as London Taxis from January.

Brexit and the Higher Education Sector

We should be proud that London’s Higher Education is world class. We have 4 universities in the top 50 in the world and London is the world’s higher education capital.

The Mayor says numbers of foreign students should never have been included in net immigration figures by the government.

He also backed the efforts to establish a post-degree work program that will enhance the recruitment ability of London’s universities.

London's security after Brexit

Assembly Member Len Duvall asks how leaving the EU could impact the security of London.

The Mayor says he discussed Security Cooperation with Paris and Brussels after the “atrocious attacks” in May.

He stresses the importance of tools like Europol in security and policing cooperation.

Mr Duvall makes a powerful statement over the importance of the issue.

Sadiq Khan responds by saying he will try to accelerate some assurance over the issue.

Security must not be used as a bargaining chip.

Some of the questions raised will have an impact on the safety of Londoners.

The future of policing

Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon asks about teh police station closures in every London Borough.

The Mayor describes his plans, which you can find explained in our article earlier this month.

Assembly Member has described the ‘chaotic’ manner in which consultations have been changed and arranged at short notice.

The consultation ends on October 6 and you can make your views heard online here.

Should there be a TfL Ombudsman?

Assembly Member David Kurten asked whether, given the sweeping powers of TfL, there should be an Ombudsman to ensure integrity and accountability.

TfL is directly accountable to me and the London Board and I’m directly accountable to London.

The Mayor has named several different bodies and reviews that hold TfL to account, including the London Assembly itself.

Talk turns to Uber, with Assmebly Member Kurten asking about whether the Uber licence will be renewed at the end of the month, following a unanimous Assembly motion asking him not to renew the licence.

Sadiq Khan responds by saying that it would not be appropriate for him to comment from a ‘quasi-judicial’ standpoint.

Is the Government listening to London's concerns about Brexit?

Asked by Assembly Member Fiona Twycross.

Said Khan said:

The government’s progress on protecting the rights of EU citizens including one million in London is frustratingly slow.

I have been clear that I believe in the Single Market.

Businesses around the world are taking investment decisions now. It is important we have clarity.

The Mayor has criticised the government over the information we have on what the future direction of travel for Britain will be.

The schedule of questions begins

An unusual amount of time was spent on responses to the Mayor’s report.

The real show is now on the road, as the first questions are asked.

“We will make sure at least half of the homes on land sold through this fund will be affordable”.

Sadiq Khan says before land is released, there will be a deal in place for how many homes will be built and how many will be affordable.

'It will take some time to correct the mess I inherited'

It’s getting a bit heated here.

The Mayor has said “I can understand why you’re ashamed” of fellow Conservative Boris Johnson’s record on affordable housing.

Whilst Boris met his targets, he has been criticised by Mr Khan for having targets that were too low and not having been ‘genuinely affordable’.

'Do you care how many homes are built?'

Assembly Member Boff is persisting to seek a figure from Sadiq Khan over how many affordable homes he wants to build.

He says he has agreed a deal with the government to build 90,000 affordable homes by 2021, when his first term as Mayor will be completed.

'The revolving fund'

Andrew Boff AM is continuing to srutinise Sadiq Khan over the source of a £250million revolving fund he is using to ‘identify and free up land’ to be sold on to councils, housing associations and developers to build genuinely affordable homes.

The money will be used, for example, to buy brownfield sites currently unaccessible to developers, and then sell them on with “hopefully some profit” to people.

An example is a site in Waltham Forest where land purchased by City Hall and sold on to developers who will build 330 ‘genuinely affordable’ homes.

Questions on the Mayor's report

Conservative Assembly Member Andrew Boff has been quizzing the mayor over the Olympic legacy and the financial situation.

He has now moved on to the draft Housing Policy published last week.

The Mayor updates the Assembly

Sadiq Khan has updated the London Assembly on what he’s been doing since his last report was published.

In it he says:

• He has written to London Broadcasters including BBC London, ITV London and LBC to add air quality information to their broadcasts.
• He published his draft Housing Policy which will enter consultation for three months to tackle homelessness and inequality.
• He met with Lord Adonis to impress on him the importance of national infrastructure investment.
• He pointed out that his ‘hopper fare’ where bus users can catch a connecting bus within one hour of tapping in, has reached 100 million rides.