Contributions
397 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDRenters’ Rights Act: ImplementationMy Lords, tenants are a group of people close to my heart. They have been promised that the Renters’ Rights Act will transform their security and will do so from 1 May this year.…11 Feb 2026HANSARDNew Homes TargetMy Lords—11 Feb 2026HANSARDNew Homes TargetMy Lords, obviously, the noble Lord was not quick enough today. Research by Crisis and the National Housing Federation found that we need to build 90,000 social homes a year to…11 Feb 2026HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill29 Jan 2026HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment BillMy Lords, I will add something to the wise words of my colleagues. To us, this is about the concentration of power in the hands of one person. The powers being given to new mayors…29 Jan 2026HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment BillMy Lords, in moving Amendment 91, I will speak also to Amendment 92. These amendments are the only ones in the group and concern mayoral powers and functions. Interestingly, I…29 Jan 2026HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment BillI absolutely accept that the new structures are complex and complicated. It is very easy to be seduced by the noble Baroness’s fluent explanation. My amendment was coming more…29 Jan 2026HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment BillMy Lords, I will make a brief comment on Amendment 196B, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, which is worth discussing further, especially given how it fits with Amendment 191…27 Jan 2026HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment BillMy Lords, I acknowledge the constructive intention behind Amendment 12 from the noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne. The desire to ensure that strategic authorities are properly equipped,…20 Jan 2026HANSARDNew Homes: TargetMy Lords, local planning departments are often cited as a blockage to building more homes, yet fewer than 40% of those local authorities are operating with an adopted plan. As the…08 Jan 2026HANSARDNational Plan to End HomelessnessMy Lords, there is a real issue around the allocation of funding for homelessness prevention. While the strategy helpfully recognises this and commits to some adjustments, we…16 Dec 2025HANSARDGateway 3 New-build ApplicationsMy Lords, it is important to recognise the significant progress made recently, but, sadly, much less progress has been made on the 253 applications for remedial work to existing…03 Dec 2025HANSARDPlanning and Infrastructure BillMy Lords, I am broadly in favour of the amendments in this group. As a general principle, we are in favour of any amendments that are genuinely about devolution and not just…03 Nov 2025HANSARDPlanning and Infrastructure BillMy Lords, I shall speak to my Amendment 112. I start by thanking my noble friend Lady Pinnock for pitching in on the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Best, in the wee…27 Oct 2025HANSARDPlanning and Infrastructure BillMy Lords, I rise to support the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, as we did in Committee, and in particular to talk about this broader area. My Amendment 92 is similar to that from the…27 Oct 2025HANSARDPlanning and Infrastructure BillI absolutely understand those points; as a localism person, obviously I agree with that. However, the key issue is that planning officers are playing “safety first”. Their…27 Oct 2025HANSARDPlanning and Infrastructure BillMy Lords, I was very pleased when this amendment was debated in Committee, as there was a very small but warm consensus that it seemed fair and reasonable. We are well aware that…22 Oct 2025HANSARDPlanning and Infrastructure BillMy Lords, it is of absolutely no surprise to me that the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, spotted my drafting omission, which is why we always take his amendments seriously. I hope that…22 Oct 2025HANSARDPlanning and Infrastructure Bill22 Oct 2025HANSARDNew Homes TargetMy Lords, we clearly have grey-belt/green-belt confusion when planning inspectors are approving more than 70% of major residential grey-belt appeals. These appeals are expensive,…21 Oct 2025