Question: Under a Conservative government, how would the balance of power in London change?

Jacqui Lait: We seek to empower the boroughs to take more of their own decisions. The assembly’s got no power at all, it’s a talking shop. The mayor has power over a wide range of areas, some of which have been taken away from the boroughs.

Our belief is that the boroughs are quite capable of making these decisions collectively if they need to, and that they certainly should not lose the power over housing and planning that government is trying to remove.

We now have control of the Association of London Government, which is the Local Government Association equivalent for London - that's Conservative controlled following last May’s elections. Part of what we wanted to do is build a coherent borough view across London, that's where a lot of work is currently going in at the moment, to deliver a much more effective ALG.

Question: How would the mayor's role look under the Conservatives?

Jacqui Lait: To a certain extent the key to this is what does our next candidate for the mayoralty want to develop policies for given the current statutory obligations. Because let’s say we keep our fingers crossed and we win the next general election, there's going to be a lot of things we want to do in terms of parliamentary time that would make it difficult to make any immediate legislative changes on the mayor.

We want to see if the role can work better than it does at the moment, and whether the mayor can deliver and work better with the boroughs

Question: What is the mayor doing wrong?

Jacqui Lait: He's interfering in how the boroughs are operating. Already, under the limited powers he's got for planning, he's interfering in the express wishes of local communities. And he is spending a fortune.

Question: Do you think the Tory mayoral candidate needs to be a big name or a big personality?

Jacqui Lait: What we're looking for is somebody who primarily can do a good job of being London's mayor. If they come with a name or personality already then obviously that's helpful, but you know Ken didn't spring fully-formed as a personality.

Our primary concern is to find someone who can really run London effectively and really get the message over to Londoners.

Question: Are you confident this selection process will work?

Jacqui Lait: I am. When I talk to people they're intrigued by the idea, and it's going to be important that we have a wide range of attractive candidates.

While we had some very good people putting their names forward a number of others have said look this is 18 months, two years we're talking about, it's a huge commitment - which is why we've postponed it.

Question: Ministers have recently been talking about the idea of creating 'city regions' with elected mayors, along the lines of London. What do you think of the idea?

Jacqui Lait: I think what we've seen developing as Conservatives have regained control over local governments across the country is a much greater degree of co-operation between local authorities, so setting up some city regions just smacks of bureaucracy, it smacks of the cities telling the rural or suburban areas what to do in order to solve city problems rather than provide an equal partnership. We would be much more interested in seeing an equal partnership.

Question: What are the major issues in London at the moment?

Jacqui Lait: There's a serious problem with crime, that is the biggest headline issue. In terms of the slow-burning fuse that defines a regime, housing and planning and the general fear that Ken Livingstone, if he's given these extra powers, will dictate - there will be a residents’ revolt.

Question: That dramatic?

Jacqui Lait: In my view we're pretty close to that now. That's why there's such resistance to the mayor getting more power over housing and planning. It's centralised control.

The threat that is implicit is that the outer suburbs will be 'densified' to the level of the inner city, and London will be one inner city.

Question: What could cause such a revolt?

Jacqui Lait: At every resident's association, the knee jerk reaction to every planning application is no. There will be at some point a tipping point at which that 'no' will become a serious 'no'. It could be a supermarket, it could be a new bus station, something that will encapsulate the problem.

Question: Could the congestion charge be a flash point?

Jacqui Lait: We've got to see what happens if the west London extension goes ahead. All the evidence suggest the economy of the affected bits in central London have suffered, and Ken is of course now changing the grounds on which he uses the congestion charge. It was to relieve congestion, now it’s to relieve climate change.

If you start mucking around with the grounds for which you actually levy a charge, then people start getting very wary of why you've got it in the first place.

It's never washed its face - huge fortunes are to be spent on improving bus services, there is a huge black hole and Transport for London is possibly the least responsive organisation to the public of any of the pan-London organisations. It's very arrogant and doesn't take easily to the pressures of local residents.

Question: And other big issues in London?

Jacqui Lait: There is no end date for Londoners to finish paying for the Olympics.

Obviously none of us hope that costs overrun, but the government refused to put in an end date for Londoner's responsibility for cost overruns, and indeed the legislation is such that even when the Olympics are paid for, the mayor would still have the power to continue spending Olympics money.

It could be used for anything. It's completely out of control, it's just the Olympics precept.