Results 1-20 of 917 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Phyllis Starkey

Business, Innovation and Skills: Higher Education (12 Nov 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: What steps his Department is taking to ensure fair access to higher education for all.

Business, Innovation and Skills: Higher Education (12 Nov 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: I thank the Minister for that answer. Increasing additional student numbers is incredibly important to constituencies such as mine in Milton Keynes where there is a relatively low participation rate in higher education. Can the Minister give me any good news about the expansion of the new university centre in Milton Keynes and perhaps about having additional student numbers for those who are...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (4 Nov 2009) has video

Phyllis Starkey: Last Friday, the Youth Parliament met to debate in this Chamber, and the MYP for Milton Keynes, Sean Barnes, spoke strongly in favour of votes at 16, helping to persuade the Youth Parliament to make the issue its top campaigning priority. Will the Prime Minister respond to that clearly expressed demand by the democratically elected Youth Parliament and make sure that his Government implement...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Prevent (26 Oct 2009) has video

Phyllis Starkey: When my right hon. Friend is monitoring the effectiveness of the Prevent programme, will he give his urgent attention to the need to push more resources into prisons, which are clearly a place where many young men are converted to violent ideologies? Will he also consider the criticism currently made of Prevent that it is spread far too widely in being aimed at an entire community with a...

Nato: Topical Questions (20 Oct 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: Does the Foreign Secretary agree that the appropriate response of the Israeli Government to the Arab peace offer would have been an unequivocal commitment to an immediate settlement freeze, as all the settlements are illegal under international law. What can be done to ensure that they do this now?

Parliamentary Elections (Recall and Primaries): New Clause 19 — Mutual insurance (13 Oct 2009) has video

Phyllis Starkey: Like my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Blackley (Graham Stringer), I, too, was the leader of a local authority—although a much smaller one—when the right hon. Gentleman was a Minister. I feel moved to welcome his Pauline conversion to local democracy, which is all the more unexpected for not being expressed in the directions that he gave as a Minister, of which I was on...

Parliamentary Elections (Recall and Primaries): New Clause 19 — Mutual insurance (13 Oct 2009) has video

Phyllis Starkey: I rise to speak in favour of new clause 9, which was tabled by me and a number of other members of the Communities and Local Government Committee. I say in parenthesis that I also support the various ideas around for allowing Select Committees to put forward amendments in a more direct way than has been possible on this occasion. The new clause arises from one of the recommendations in the...

Parliamentary Elections (Recall and Primaries): New Clause 19 — Mutual insurance (13 Oct 2009) has video

Phyllis Starkey: The hon. Gentleman may not have noticed that the Committee was not asking for a national strategy. It was asking for local authorities to be given a duty to draw up their own local strategies in consultation with their local populations. The best councils are already doing that, but not all councils are. That is why we suggested that every council should have a duty to draw up its own...

Parliamentary Elections (Recall and Primaries): New Clause 19 — Mutual insurance (13 Oct 2009) has video

Phyllis Starkey: As I have said, I am in two minds about that argument. The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that the Committee has just published a report on the balance of power between central and local government, where we argued strongly for local government to be given considerably more powers. I am in two minds because of the evidence that we received from individuals and organisations. Although...

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: I wish to concur with what Ms Walley has said. May I urge the Minister to respond to the issue that both I and my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe raised?

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: That is the issue of the asset-backed security guarantee scheme and whether the Minister and his Department will talk to the Treasury about modifying it to make it more effective, given that the Treasury Committee is on the same line and will doubtless make similar recommendations in due course.

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: No, Ms Walley, I do not. Question put and agreed to. Sitting adjourned.

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: I ask the hon. Gentleman to reconsider the wording. It is my understanding that the mortgage rescue scheme was originally designed on the basis that probably about 6,000 families would fit its eligibility criteria and that the money was therefore set aside accordingly. That is a slightly more accurate description than suggesting that the scheme has failed if it does not reach 6,000 people. As...

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: I agree with the hon. Gentleman that targets by themselves are pointless. However, in delivering the targets, the measures and priorities of the Government are focused. That must happen as well as just having the targets. I want the hon. Gentleman to focus his mind on the topic of the debate: housing and the credit crunch. Will he explain how giving incentives to local authorities to permit...

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: Perhaps I can help the hon. Lady on that last point. The Committee took evidence from the Minister for Housing this Monday on proposals for the HRA. Obviously, he was not totally explicit, as that would have anticipated the statement, but if local authorities are agreeable to the proposals once the consultation is completed, they could go ahead without the need for primary legislation. I...

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: In opening the debate, I want to set the report in context and draw Members' attention to the fact that a second report on this issue has just been published—the Committee's eighth report of this Session—which is the second stage of our look at housing and the credit crunch. I shall refer to some of that report's content, although the Government have not yet had time to respond to...

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: That is certainly probable. It is a matter of concern that nobody seems to know the answer one way or the other, but it is most likely that that might be a contributing cause. The lenders themselves gave evidence that indicated a much more active process is taking place at the moment and that individuals who are having financial difficulties are speaking to their lenders at a much earlier...

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: Absolutely. Again, that points to the need for the Government to keep a close eye on how a scheme is operating so that they can get early intelligence as to whether they need to step it up, or, as I said, step it down a bit and reallocate the money elsewhere. I want briefly to touch on housing associations. We welcome many of the steps that have been taken to increase social housing grant...

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: Let me finish this thought. It seems unlikely that the kind of profits that used to be available to private developers will be reinstated once we are out of the credit crunch.

[Joan Walley in the Chair] — Housing and the Credit Crunch (16 Jul 2009)

Phyllis Starkey: We have not looked at that in particular, and it is unlikely that we will have a chance to look at it in the immediate future, but I am sure that the Minister has taken note of what my hon. Friend said. There needs to be innovative thinking across the board to explore all the possible ways forward, because—I reiterate this—the scale of the increase in house building that is...