Results 1-20 of 186 for in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates' speaker:George Hollingbery
- Oral Answers to Questions — Transport: Topical Questions (25 April 2013)
George Hollingbery: Will the Secretary of State update the House on any discussions he may have had with the Mayor of London with regard to suburban railway services in the south-east?
- Department for Communities and Local Government — New Housing Supply (5 March 2013)
George Hollingbery: I am wondering whether the right hon. Gentleman might reflect a little more on those remarks. The provisions of the national planning policy framework make it clear that if a local council does not have a five-year housing supply, a permission is almost certain to be granted, wherever it is. I have just spent three interesting weeks in Eastleigh, where an application was allowed in the middle...
- Department for Communities and Local Government — New Housing Supply (5 March 2013)
George Hollingbery: I ought to point out that I actually spoke against that particular application, although I have not done the same in respect of many applications in my own district. The point remains that Eastleigh borough council has not got an extant local plan; its last one expired and its new one has not yet been approved. It does not have an identified five-year land supply and the NPPF’s...
- Department for Communities and Local Government — New Housing Supply (5 March 2013)
George Hollingbery: I have the unenviable task of following the eloquence of the Chairman of the Select Committee, the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts), who spoke without notes and made extremely important points about the report. If he will excuse me, I will not be quite as rigorous or eloquent. Housing is obviously an incredibly important issue for us all, not just for getting future...
- Department for Communities and Local Government — New Housing Supply (5 March 2013)
George Hollingbery: That is indeed the case; my hon. Friend will forgive me if I come to that in a moment. Several Government schemes are helping. They have been slow to start, but they are now moving forward. With the exception of areas such as London, uncertainty has also meant that potential buyers have been unwilling to take on what is frankly one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives. If we look...
- Department for Communities and Local Government — New Housing Supply (5 March 2013)
George Hollingbery: Indeed. The coalition has rightly taken a localised approach that incentivises housing policy, and good work is taking place on freeing up public land and opening up new opportunities to increase supply. Changes to the housing revenue account devolve real power and budgets to local councils to deliver housing, although, as the Chairman of the Select Committee pointed out, some freedom in...
- Department for Communities and Local Government — New Housing Supply (5 March 2013)
George Hollingbery: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that making point. I chaired a conference in Winchester only six months ago on exactly that issue, and I have made representations to the planning Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Grantham and Stamford (Nick Boles), saying that at the very least we need some incentives or recommendations in the national planning policy framework for local...
- Department for Communities and Local Government — New Housing Supply (5 March 2013)
George Hollingbery: rose—
- Department for Communities and Local Government — New Housing Supply (5 March 2013)
George Hollingbery: Will the hon. Gentleman develop some thoughts on how the enormous social housing assets on the books of housing associations might be leveraged? Perhaps he will reflect for a moment on the potential difficulties of governance structures and on having hybrid public-private bodies that would guarantee the public role of housing associations but allow access to private capital.
- Department for Communities and Local Government — New Housing Supply (5 March 2013)
George Hollingbery: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. He is being very generous with his time. In a discussion on this subject last night, a structural problem in the market was raised: a lot of social housing is leveraged out of market housing, so in a time of much lower market housing production it is more difficult to build social housing. This point was not in his Committee’s report, but does he...
- Scam Mailing — [Jim Sheridan in the Chair] (30 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: The Minister mentioned my opt-in suggestion. My thinking was that there could be an option for people to sign into, such that their mail could be intercepted by their local post office worker. We have heard about postal workers’ frustration about not being able to get involved. If somebody could opt in, giving a postal worker the right to intercept at the door, there might be some scope...
- Scam Mailing — [Jim Sheridan in the Chair] (30 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Sheridan. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Heather Wheeler) on securing the debate. I have worked closely with her on a number of issues, and we sat together on the Communities and Local Government Committee. She is a passionate defender of her constituents’ interests. I readily admit that my expertise...
- Scam Mailing — [Jim Sheridan in the Chair] (30 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: That is plainly the case. In my experience, and my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire also made this clear, it tends to be the older and less mentally robust who are scammed and are subjected to repeat versions of the same thing. Their names get on a list and they are targeted again and again. The estimated annual cost of scam mailings to the economy is some £3.5 billion. The...
- Scam Mailing — [Jim Sheridan in the Chair] (30 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: Hear, hear.
- Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Fishing Industry (24 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: What progress he has made on creating long-term sustainability in the fishing industry.
- Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Fishing Industry (24 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: The Minister will be unsurprised to know that I have a question about recreational sea angling. What work has the Department undertaken to assess the importance of this sector to the creation of sustainable fishing, and thus to fishing communities?
- Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Private Rented Sector (23 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: rose—
- Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Private Rented Sector (23 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I apologise for delaying the House’s business. In my speech, I omitted to alert the House to the details of my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I apologise to the House for doing so and now alert it appropriately.
- Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Private Rented Sector (23 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: In the interests of allowing as many colleagues as possible to contribute to the debate, I hope to keep my remarks very brief—five minutes is simply not long enough to develop a substantial argument. We know that the private letting market is extremely important in this country. Indeed, it is of rising importance. The Communities and Local Government Committee published in May 2012 our...
- New Clause 1 — Cost-benefit analysis (18 January 2013)
George Hollingbery: I am not a lawyer, unlike a good many colleagues in the House today. Are the offences specified in clause 5, particularly the penalties detailed in subsections (8) and (9), already specified in a previous Act or are they enactments of punishments that may be used if the Bill is passed that would otherwise not be available?