Ken at Mipim

Yesterday at Mipim Ken vowed to stamp down on 'renegade' boroughs who dare to disobey his plans.

Livingstone revealed that there had been a recent "surge" in planning rejections among London borough councils, citing Lambeth as one of the worst examples, where some 44% of applications were rejected last year.

"There is a proposed scheme at Clapham Park in Lambeth, which we think would go a long way towards regenerating that area, but it's being held up because the council is afraid about the noise and disruption to local neighbourhoods," he said.

"But honestly, do people really come to London expecting the stillness and calm of the Cairngorms?"

Classic Ken. (Let's ignore the bit in the State of the Cities report where it said that over half of London's population would actually rather live in a rural idyll) He also took on the government a little bit, and David Miliband has reason to be scared:

Referring to the current planning review, he said: "Now is the best time we will have in a generation to improve the present planning system, and I urge builders and developers to beat a path to David Milliband's door, telling him exactly what needs to change."

He also warned developers that they will need to spend money on making buildings greener as the GLA gets more demanding about energy efficiency and other green measures.