Contributions
869 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Seventh sitting)First, let me thank the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon, who has been a consistent champion and advocate of town and parish councils throughout the Bill Committee. Let me put it…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)I will speak to the specific amendments, then come to my hon. Friend’s important intervention about Cheshire and some of the specific challenges that we face there. It is worth…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)This cluster of amendments to clause 46 allow a mayoral combined authority or a mayoral county combined authority to take on the role of a fire and rescue authority, where…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Seventh sitting)We are developing the process of providing a land use framework, and we are taking onboard the responses that have come through the consultation. Whether that framework ends up…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Seventh sitting)I thank the hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion for tabling the new clause and new schedule. Let me put on record that I completely agree with the goals of an inclusive economy;…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)I share the hon. Lady’s concern and her view of the importance of environmental and climate change targets. The economic plans of any strategic authority must be compatible with…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Seventh sitting)Schedule 17 equips mayors with the tools they need to drive the critical function that we are asking them to. Mandatory consultation with councils where development corporations…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Seventh sitting)Clause 33 and schedule 14 will give mayors of strategic authorities the ability to raise a mayoral community infrastructure levy, or MCIL. I am sure Members will be aware that the…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Seventh sitting)The clause introduces schedule 19, which requires mayoral combined authorities and county authorities to produce and publish a local growth plan—a critical tool and document for…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Seventh sitting)We are very clear that although we want a strategic assessment of the economic opportunities and risk in an area, and a local growth plan that crosses that area, it must be…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)I beg to move Government amendment 171.21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)To clarify, the Bill does not specify any particular organisation that should be consulted. It says that we will set that out in guidance. That guidance will be driven by a whole…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)I hear the passion and commitment of the hon. Lady clearly. Certainly my experience of strategic authorities and mayors who cover a combination of areas—including rural areas—is…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)I thank the hon. Lady for these probing amendments. Again, we had a debate about this earlier in Committee. Let me put on record that we are clear that, if we are asking strategic…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)The process in practice is distinct from the local government funding settlement. Established mayoral combined authorities are all going through the integrated settlement process,…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)There are quite a few amendments in this grouping, and all are broadly technical, clarifying and consequential amendments. Government amendments 172, 181 and 190 are consequential…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)I beg to move amendment 178, in schedule 19, page 201, leave out line 28. This means that a Minister of the Crown or government department can be specified in regulations as bound…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)I thank both hon. Members for their heartfelt contributions to the debate. Let me put it on record that we absolutely recognise that air quality is one of the greatest…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)The Government amendments we just discussed enable the Government to specify a broader range of public bodies in secondary legislation, to reflect the original intention of clause…21 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eighth sitting)I beg to move amendment 188, in schedule 19, page 203, line 35, at end insert— “(4A) In section 252 of LURA 2023 (regulations)— (a) in subsection (5)(a), after ‘subsection’ insert…21 Oct 2025