You are the first London Mayor to include in your London Plan strong policies on play and informal recreation with space standards of 10 square meters per child and young person. However, given that the new census is happening this weekend, will you be updating the calculator used to assess the number of under 18s in a development to ensure your policies and standards are met and accurately implemented.

Chair, if you will indulge me, before I answer the question, can I just thank Nicky for the many thoughtful and insightful contributions she has made to planning and the built environment over a career working on behalf of Londoners? Both my new London Plan and its predecessors have all been strongly influenced by Nicky’s passionate campaigning. It is also fair to say that without, Nicky, your active campaigning during the 1990s, there might not even be a Mayor of London and London Assembly today. For those Conservatives on this Assembly who dislike me, Nicky is to blame. Nicky, your vision and determination helped create the pressure for a citywide strategic authority to fill the chasm left by the abolition of the Greater London Council (GLC) and Londoners thank you for that. I also want to say that on behalf of Londoners, I am sorry to see you go after 21 years, like Tony [Arbour AM] and Jennette [Arnold OBE AM].  City Hall is going to be a very different place, as will MQTs. Good luck in what you do next.

Play space is crucial for the wellbeing of children and young people and this has become clearer than ever during the pandemic. The GLA Population Yield Calculator gives an indication of the possible number and age of children that could be expected to live in a new housing development of a given bedroom or tenure mix. We will be updating this calculator once we have the data from the latest census. The calculation uses bespoke census data, commissioned by the GLA for this specific purpose. The ONS timetable for the release of 2021 census data is not yet detailed enough to give an accurate estimate of when an update will be possible, but it is likely it would not be before 2024. In the interim, we will continue talking to boroughs and developers to understand their needs and to develop tools so the system can make use of available data.

My London Plan, as you will be pleased to know, sets a hard bar for play space. All development likely to be used by children and young people is required to increase opportunities to play and be independently mobile. That includes the requirement you note for residential schemes to provide at least 10 square metres of good quality, accessible play provision per child, a first in a London Plan. The Plan also explicitly requires play space not to be segregated by tenure, a really important requirement we developed following your own helpful advice and input.

Mayor, thank you so much for that. Before I begin, I would just like to put on record my thanks. Of all the Mayors, you have been dealt the most difficult of hands and I just want to pay tribute to the way you have handled challenge after challenge with exceptional leadership. Thank you.

This question goes right back to 35 years ago when my first role as a local politician was as a chair of a housing subcommittee. Ever since then I have been trying to make sure that we get want we want, and we are nearly there. First of all, it is absolutely great that we now have a minimum of 10 square metres per child or young person under 18 [years] on every single estate. There is still a little way to go because the calculator, as you said, is based on an outdated snapshot, a very outdated snapshot, of patterns of occupation and tenure from 12/13 years ago. Because it is outdated, developers are still not able, often, to provide enough space.

I have two asks. One - and you hinted at it really, which is great - is that when the new census comes out, information should be supplemented with some work done on tenure - look at how many build-to-rents there are and look at how much overcrowding there is now in private rented accommodation - and with patterns of occupation. Some post-occupation surveys, some supplementing. That is number one.

Meanwhile, because it is going to be another two or three years before we have this updated information, could we please look at some kind of weighting? I am very happy to work on the other side of this - I have already done some work on it - with Joanne [McCartney AM] and with the officers, if that is OK.

Chair, firstly, I am looking forward to - I hope they do do this - the [Nicky] Gavron [AM], [Jennette] Arnold [OBE AM] and [Tony] Arbour [AM] memoirs. I hope they are thinking about those because Nicky has touched upon some things I could learn from the work done 35 years ago as well.

To answer your question, yes. In addition to incorporating the 2021 census data, our update on the calculator will include a review of available evidence and data on the occupancy of new build homes. I would be more than happy for my team to pick your brains about what more we can do in this really important area. The last year, Nicky, has made everyone realise - even those without children - the importance of play space, not simply personal experience that parents and carers have but all of us. Our own personal experiences of the need for amenity have reminded us why this is important. Any advice and assistance you can give, I am more than grateful to receive that.

Thank you. This is my final ask. You were very enthusiastic about this a couple of years ago when I asked this question and that was before the 10 square metres were actually in the Plan. I said what an opportunity it was, given all the cuts in youth service and so on, to aggregate the 10 square metres for teenagers, who are prohibited in all estates at the moment - no ball games - from playing any sort of sport activity. Those aggregated spaces should be put together to form some ball games areas in estates and that is something that you could put in your Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG). My ask is: can we put it in the SPG and when schemes are referred to you, could you make sure that you reinforce that when the schemes come up before you, “Have you got the ball games area?”

Yes. No, we have not yet and so you have raised a really interesting point, Nicky. Now that the London Plan has been published, I will ask my team to use the research recommendations to update the London Plan Guidance on how more guidance can be given in those areas of play and informal recreation. I am like you. When I visit estates - and I do all the time - I see those signs, saying “No ball games” and it begs the question, “What is it you want young people to do?” Rather than demonising them, we should be providing safe places.

You will be aware of our record sums of investment, led by Joanne [McCartney AM, Deputy Mayor for Education and Childcare], Lib Peck [Director, Violence Reduction Unit] and Sophie [Linden, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime] around the Young Londoners Fund, has led to additional sports, education and cultural facilities. Let me look into whether an SPG is needed and, again, any thoughts you have are more than gratefully received.

Thank you.