Mr Keith Bradley: It is rather the other way round. The tenants assume that a housing action trust will be imposed on them. They want to talk about that imposition. What is to happen will be much clearer if there are open and wide-ranging discussions with tenants, local authorities and Members of Parliament. It would be much easier on Report, when we table amendments, to have a statement on the areas to be...
Mr Keith Bradley: It would be difficult for the Minister to be in close consultation with the Conservative party in Manchester, because it is a dying species.
Mr Keith Bradley: What remains is becoming increasingly remote. Conservative Central Office has established a new action team in Manchester.
Mr Keith Bradley: The new head of that action team has been appointed from the leafy suburbs of Surrey. His task is to revitalise the local Tories.
Mr Keith Bradley: The new head of the action team has not chosen to live in a property in Manchester or in one that will be within the housing action trust area. He is hunting around the foothills of Saddleworth for a property from which to try to revitalise central Manchester. Manchester has done a lot by way of consultation over the years, and we are now informing tenants of what can be done. I hold in my...
Mr Keith Bradley: I will happily give way to the hon. Member for Mid-Worcestershire (Mr. Forth) if he wishes to make an intervention. The hon. Member was nodding vigorously in support of that quotation. I should like him to explain to me, because clearly the Secretary of State will not, exactly how the Government proposal for housing action trusts fits in. Would the hon. Member like to comment on that? No. We...
Mr Keith Bradley: That is right. I can cite a similar example of a survey that was undertaken successfully in Wythenshawe by the research unit of Manchester's housing department. Wythenshawe, of course, could be a candidate for a housing action trust. That survey showed, as has just been pointed out, that 76 per cent. of respondents on the council estate, irrespective of their current tenure, considered the...
Mr Keith Bradley: We have sat through 13½ hours of fascinating debate on this important Bill, examining its precise details. As a new Member, I may say that this is the first Report stage in which I have been involved, and I have been surprised that Conservative Members who served on the Standing Committee have failed to turn up and make contributions to the debate. It would appear that they are unable to...
Mr Keith Bradley: I am grateful for your advice, Mr. Deputy Speaker, but l think it is essential for hon. Members who were not on the Committee to appreciate fully why we tabled this amendment in consultation with the very people who have lacked the investment that I have talked about. To comply with your ruling, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I will be brief. The hon. Member for Stamford and Spalding (Mr. Davies) was...
Mr Keith Bradley: That is certainly a possible reason for the Secretary of State's deafening silence. Later, I shall refer to other difficulties that he may be experiencing in announcing the areas. Our first experience in Oldham was designating an area and then imposing the way in which those properties should be renovated and upgraded, with the assumption that that would lead to better housing. Our research...
Mr Keith Bradley: Will my hon. Friend comment on the relationship with the programmes on community care, which the Government are encouraging? In my constituency, the health authority, as opposed to the local authority, is in negotiation with a housing association to close wards for elderly people, put those people into housing association units and try to get community care to link up. Rents will be charged...
Mr Keith Bradley: It is not a well-earned rest.
Mr Keith Bradley: Will the Minister give way?
Mr Keith Bradley: The Minister said that he would give way, so I was assuming that he has sat down to allow me to intervene. Because of the time element, we have not gone into detail on new clause 14 but, picking up what the Minister said about our thrust in Committee being to try to shift the onus back to give rights and protection to the tenants against the landlord, the purpose of this new clause is to...
Mr Keith Bradley: They would be able to apply for compensation only after they had been thrown out of their properties.
Mr Keith Bradley: To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 26 May.
Mr Keith Bradley: Will the Prime Minister explain to my constituents in Withington how her health care policies, presumably based on her interpretation of Christian morality, have led to a financial crisis in the south Manchester health authority? Will she personally intervene to stop further cuts in health care which next month will mean the closure of psychiatric beds at Withington hospital and the appalling...
Mr Keith Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what decisions concerning nuclear-capable aircraft were made at the last North Atlantic Treaty Organisation nuclear planning group meeting.
Mr Keith Bradley: Is not the combination of more nuclear capable aircraft, more air-to-surface missiles and more United States nuclear-capable strike aircraft merely a replacement for the INF weapons cuts? Does NATO not already have superiority in such aircraft? Rather than increasing the number of such weapons, would it not be better to trade them against further Soviet arms cuts?
Mr Keith Bradley: I shall be brief because I am aware that a number of hon. Members wish to participate in this debate. I found it odd that the Minister should make jibes about the delay in holding this debate because, yet again, no date has been fixed for bringing back the Housing Bill. Is it true that the confusion that the Government have got into regarding concessions made in Committee has meant that they...
