Results 1-20 of 415 for speaker:Phil Wilson

Finance (No. 2) Bill: Part 2 — Devolution of Wales Long Haul Rates of Duty (18 April 2013)

Phil Wilson: On the effect of APD on regional airports such as Durham Tees Valley airport in my constituency and Newcastle airport a few miles from the Scottish border, will the Government consider regional APD variations that might incentivise airliners to fly from airports other than Heathrow and Gatwick?

Finance (No. 2) Bill: Part 2 — Devolution of Wales Long Haul Rates of Duty (18 April 2013)

Phil Wilson: We should set aside the selfish approach shown today by the SNP, because APD is an issue not just for Scotland and Northern Ireland, but for many UK regions, including the north-east of England. Durham Tees Valley airport, in my constituency, is under capacity. One way to ensure that we fill such airports to capacity is to have a regional variation in APD. Would that approach not satisfy the...

Finance (No. 2) Bill: Part 2 — Devolution of Wales Long Haul Rates of Duty (18 April 2013)

Phil Wilson: Is it not true that APD was devolved to Northern Ireland because of the flights that would have left Belfast airport and gone instead to Dublin? The specific APD problem for Northern Ireland is that there is an international border between Northern Ireland and Eire.

Finance (No. 2) Bill: Part 2 — Devolution of Wales Long Haul Rates of Duty (18 April 2013)

Phil Wilson: If air passenger duty is devolved to Scotland that will impact on the airports at Newcastle and Durham Tees Valley. To go further and say that independence will help north-east England is ridiculous.

[Mr Philip Hollobone in the Chair] — Munitions Workers (26 March 2013)

Phil Wilson: It is a pleasure to be under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone, to debate a subject that is important for many of our constituents, and to remember the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people who worked in dangerous industries during the war to keep our defences going in that period. I want to talk about the munitions factory at Aycliffe, now Newton Aycliffe. In 1941, when...

Petition — Wind Farm (Wingate, County Durham) (21 March 2013)

Phil Wilson: I present this petition on behalf of 156 residents who are opposed to the proposed Wingate Grange wind farm in my constituency. The petition states: The Petition of residents of the UK, Declares that the Petitioners strongly object to the proposed planning application for the erection of 5 wind turbines of a maximum height of 115 metres and the associated infrastructure which will include a...

Oral Answers to Questions — Education: School Information (4 March 2013)

Phil Wilson: Last week, the Secretary of State said of the schools in east Durham: “When you go into those schools, you can smell the sense of defeatism.” Will he tell the House which of those schools in east Durham he has actually visited since he became Secretary of State, and will he apologise to the people of east Durham for his outrageous remarks?

Backbench Business — Death Penalty (India) (28 February 2013)

Phil Wilson: On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Can you advise us whether you have received a request from the Secretary of State for Education to make a statement to the House to explain his outrageous comment about schools in east Durham made in a speech last night, that: “when you go into those schools you can smell the sense of defeatism”? That is a slur on the hard-working teachers,...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Core Equipment Programme (25 February 2013)

Phil Wilson: What plans he has for the future of the core equipment programme.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Core Equipment Programme (25 February 2013)

Phil Wilson: The National Audit Office has identified a £12.5 billion black hole in the Department’s equipment plan. Will the Secretary of State say how he will fill that black hole?

Housing Market Reform: Europe (30 January 2013)

Phil Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. “The eurozone is clearly in crisis, and to pile on that uncertainty the further uncertainty of a referendum on leaving the European Union, when half the foreign direct investment into Britain comes from the rest of the European Union, and half our exports go out to the rest of the European Union, would not be a responsible action for Her Majesty’s...

Housing Market Reform: Europe (30 January 2013)

Phil Wilson: As I carry on, the hon. Gentleman will find out exactly what my position is; I will answer his question in due course. With the Prime Minister being the arch-negotiator he is, he has decided to put in the next Conservative manifesto the terms he will be seeking, thus revealing to the entire world his negotiating position before the negotiations actually start. The Prime Minister has said that...

Housing Market Reform: Europe (30 January 2013)

Phil Wilson: I do not have much more to say, but I need to cover the earlier point and I know this debate is oversubscribed. We are left with a Prime Minister whose renegotiating position is “If I can’t get what I want; I’ll stop playing and take my ball home”. If he does that, he will be isolated in his negotiations. While this is being played out, the economic uncertainty faced...

Housing Market Reform: Europe (30 January 2013)

Phil Wilson: I want to continue. Hitachi Rail Europe is to build a train-building factory in Newton Aycliffe. It is called “Hitachi Rail Europe” for a reason: it wants to export trains and rolling stock to Europe. I would have thought that it wanted not uncertainty, but clarity going forward. No party is opposed to the principle of a referendum, but I do not believe we should undermine British...

Housing Benefit Entitlement — [Hugh Bayley in the Chair] (23 January 2013)

Phil Wilson: It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair this afternoon, Mr Bayley. I wanted to select the rules on the under-occupancy of social housing and housing benefit entitlement, which start this April, for this debate today because the Government’s proposal is divisive legislation. In fact, it is not only divisive but arbitrary, spiteful and deeply cynical. It has been devised either by those...

Housing Benefit Entitlement — [Hugh Bayley in the Chair] (23 January 2013)

Phil Wilson: It is obviously not fair, but the bedroom tax is hitting people whether or not they are in work. This regulation is just plain wrong. The reality is that if a married couple have lived in a three-bedroom house for many years and had two children who have grown up and left home, the two children’s bedrooms are now deemed to be spare. The house is seen as under-occupied and the...

Housing Benefit Entitlement — [Hugh Bayley in the Chair] (23 January 2013)

Phil Wilson: That is a very good point, and it is something that I will come on to later in my speech. As I was saying, a married couple with a three-bedroom house, which they have lived in for a long time, will need to top up their rent from another source if they want to stay in the home and obviously, since the family is receiving housing benefit, any sources of additional income are extremely limited....

Housing Benefit Entitlement — [Hugh Bayley in the Chair] (23 January 2013)

Phil Wilson: We should wait until the Minister responds to the debate to find out exactly what the Government propose for that situation, but I do not think that it will be very much really. Basically, the hypothetical family who I am talking about could be forced to leave the family home, and that is exactly what it is—a family home, not just a house. They will have no space for their...

Housing Benefit Entitlement — [Hugh Bayley in the Chair] (23 January 2013)

Phil Wilson: My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I will come on to foster carers in a little while. The lack of mobility in this sector—between two-bedroom properties and one-bedroom properties, for example—is a product not of tenants needlessly under-occupying larger homes, but of the logjam created by a national shortage of affordable homes, particularly two and one-bedroom properties.