Assembly Members accuse Johnson of “recycling announcements”
November 3, 2009 by Martin Hoscik · 2 Comments
Boris Johnson has been accused of “recycling announcements” after his office today released a statement claiming he has “asked for an audit of land owned across the GLA family” to identify potential sites for new homes.
Appearing before the London Assembly in July, Johnson told Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Mike Tuffrey that an audit of London Development Agency and Transport for London land was already under way.
Asked by Tuffrey: “In relation to the 7,000 possible units of land held by TfL and the 32,000 possible units from the LDA – have you wielded your stick and got them to come up with a strategy?” Johnson replied that “the LDA’s Asset Management Strategy has recently identified 15 possible new sites for disposal” and said TfL “is working to bring forward a number of sites for residential development as a part of its property development strategy and in support of Building a Better London.”
Today City Hall released a statement coinciding with the Mayor’s appearance at his Housing Investment Summit stating he “has asked for an audit of land owned across the GLA family, including Transport for London, the London Development Agency and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, to identify potential development sites.”
Reacting to the statement Tuffrey said: “I am baffled by the Mayor declaring today that he would like to see an audit of land owned across the GLA when the Mayor is on record as claiming such an audit has already been undertaken!”
“The Mayor clearly needs to spend more time delivering on his pledges and less time recycling announcements.”
Green Party AM Jenny Jones has also criticised Johnson, accusing him of “rehashing his manifesto” by re-announcing pervious commitments for new shared ownership homes. Jones said: “One and a half years into his term he should be announcing delivery of affordable homes, not rehashing his manifesto.”
I remember all of this being done during Livingstone’s term of office.
That’s not so long ago. How often do they think they have to do these ‘audits’??
Isn’t it time we saw some results??
Stop waffling Boris or some of us may think that’s all you can do!
After watching (for the first time) the MQT which I can now view on IPlayer (Thanks BBC) I was appalled by what passes as ‘mayoral accountability’. So many questions raised by the ‘horseshoe’ were bluffed over by Boris, and I lost count of the number of times he looked across to his associates to get a signal if what he was saying was correct. Why do we have Boris in the middle when you actually need
Mr Malthouse to answer the questions. Just like Knight Rider – Boris is ‘the wooden face’ that was Michael Knight, but it’s his trusty steed ‘Kitt’ who has all the answers and who is the real star of the show.
I felt sorry for Jenny Jones who looked like she had enough of Boris – in the way that some women look when they have been cornered in a bar by the drunk lout
who lost any charm he may have had about 6 pints ago.
I am unsurprised by the recycling of information as the policies Boris championed are either unachievable, irrationally expensive or totally pointless (although it’s not stopped him completely) – and there is not much else he can do.
It’s ironic that when there is a piece of ‘bad news’ – like say fare rises – then it’s all down to the previous administration, but Boris is more than happy to take credit for the good news legacy from the previous administration.
Boris won’t stand for a second term I can assure you – he knows he won’t win it. He also knows that if he gets out soon the disasters he created will be the ‘NMP’ (next mayors problem). Unfortunately the next mayor wil know this too and my real
concern is that only a “mad-man” or a power crazy lunatic will be interested in taking over from Boris – neither of which would be good for London.
Still, I suppose this might all be a pointless discussion as once the Olympics comes we will be broke as a city and broke as a nation – so who will care really?