Contributions
2,215 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Local Government Finance (England)I will turn now to the specifics for the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency. This settlement will see a 7.1% increase in core spending power, and the additional social care grant…24 Feb 2020HANSARD Local Government Finance (England)I beg to move, That the Local Government Finance Report (England) for 2020–21 (HC 68), which was laid before this House on 6 February, be approved. It is my pleasure to follow the…24 Feb 2020HANSARDRough SleepingI will be happy to meet the hon. Lady.24 Feb 2020HANSARDAffordable Housing: South-westThis Government are committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing with our £9 billion affordable homes programme from 2016 to 2022, and we have committed in our…24 Feb 2020HANSARDAffordable Housing: South-westMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. As well as enabling people to get on to the housing ladder, it is important to ensure that the new homes we build are of good quality. It is…24 Feb 2020HANSARDHousing LadderWe recently published a consultation on First Homes, our exciting new scheme to give a 30% discount to local first-time buyers, which will help tens of thousands of people across…24 Feb 2020HANSARDHousing LadderWe hope it will do both. It will increase the supply of new homes by building popular support for new developments, but I completely accept that the housing challenges we face as…24 Feb 2020HANSARD Local Government Finance (England)That is not the view of the LGA. After the Labour party issued a press release suggesting something along those lines, the LGA gave the clarification that it is impossible to…24 Feb 2020HANSARD Local Government Finance (England)I do not doubt the hon. Lady’s sincerity in raising the question, but I do warn against unnecessary scaremongering. The reports that we saw in the press on the fair funding review…24 Feb 2020HANSARD Local Government Finance (England)It will be, yes, and that is absolutely right. It is important that the new formula, when we bring it forward, takes account of sparsity, the cost of delivering public services in…24 Feb 2020HANSARDTopical QuestionsThe right hon. Gentleman is behind the curve on this one; he is behind the action we are taking as a Government. We have already said that we are going to bring forward the fire…24 Feb 2020HANSARDTopical QuestionsI agree entirely with my hon. Friend on that. Work by building owners in the private sector to ensure the safety of residents living in tower blocks has been unacceptably slow,…24 Feb 2020HANSARDTopical QuestionsMay I praise my hon. Friend for the hard work that he has done on behalf of his communities, who have faced severe flooding over the past two weeks? We have worked together and…24 Feb 2020HANSARDTopical QuestionsI have great sympathy with the issue that my hon. Friend raises, and it will be addressed in our forthcoming White Paper on the planning system.24 Feb 2020HANSARDTopical QuestionsI will happily give that some careful thought.24 Feb 2020HANSARDTopical QuestionsWe have taken decisive action to address the challenge of ACM cladding; we banned combustible cladding on buildings, and we have also brought forward the £600 million scheme, for…24 Feb 2020HANSARD Local Government Finance (England)If the hon. Gentleman will give me a few minutes, I will come on to our ambitious plans for devolution. He will have seen in the Queen’s Speech that later this year we will bring…24 Feb 2020HANSARD Local Government Finance (England)I am not familiar with those figures, but I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will welcome the fact that through this settlement, we are providing a 4.4% real-terms increase in…24 Feb 2020HANSARD Local Government Finance (England)My hon. Friend makes an important point. Knowing something of his constituency, I think it is the perfect example of a part of the country where there is great affluence, but also…24 Feb 2020HANSARD Local Government Finance (England)What a refreshing change it is to have my hon. Friend in the House representing Birmingham in the way he does. He is absolutely right that Birmingham City Council has a lamentable…24 Feb 2020