Results 281–300 of 1367 for speaker:Mr Matthew Green

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 146 - Extension of introductory tenancies (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I am grateful to the Minister for his explanation. I will not trouble the Committee with a long explanation of my problems with this approach to dealing with introductory tenancies and other things. I did that when I served on the Committee of the Anti-social Behaviour Bill, where we were alone among the parties in worrying about some of the ways in which this power could be used. I will not...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 153 - Right to buy: information (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I was talking about sewage when the Committee adjourned this morning. I welcome what the Minister has said. He may have noticed that my hon. Friends and I have added our names to the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre. I add to the Minister's praise for the work that he has done on the issue. I look forward to some cross-party consensus. It is a shame that the...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 153 - Right to buy: information (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: The hon. Gentleman is getting rather carried away. I wonder whether he can answer the question in reverse. Does he want tenants to buy something without adequate information being made available to them as to the condition and costs that might be attached to purchasing the property? Is he saying that tenants should be kept in the dark? That appears to be his position.

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 153 - Information to help tenants decide whether to exercise right to buy etc. (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I was not going to speak, but the hon. Gentleman reminded me of a different and in some ways less severe situation in my constituency. Large parts of my constituency are not on mains sewerage. Householders can make an official request, with which Severn Trent has to comply in certain conditions, to bring mains sewerage into a village. In one village, Clumbury, trying to negotiate that...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 153 - Information to help tenants decide whether to exercise right to buy etc. (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: No. The hon. Gentleman is completely wrong. In the circumstances that I described, separate provision for sewerage might have been made. Most of the properties use individual cesspits—I shall not go into too much detail about sewage in my constituency, although I sometimes think that the hon. Gentleman speaks enough of it— It being twenty-five minutes past Eleven o'clock, the chairman...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 152 - Right of first refusal for landlord etc. (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: Will the Minister confirm what will happen in a situation in which transfer has taken place, as happened in my constituency in 1995? In the intervening time, there have been transfers between local registered social landlords—there are some good RSLs in South Shropshire. I understood him to say that it would be open to any of those local social landlords to attempt to acquire the property....

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 152 - Right of first refusal for landlord etc. (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I do not support the amendment, because I believe that it is inaccurate in what it seeks to do. It also raises the prospect of the householder paying for the valuation rather than the district valuer, who offers a free service, in effect. Perhaps the amendment imposes a charge on the householder, which I do not think the hon. Gentleman intended. I have read section 158 of the Housing Act...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 152 - Right of first refusal for landlord etc. (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: The Minister says that I jump up on every single amendment and that he is getting tired of it. Well, in this instance I would like him to explain what right of appeal there is for a housing authority, a registered social landlord or a householder if they believe that a district valuer's valuation is wrong. I cannot find a right of appeal against district valuers in the Housing Act 1985. Their...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 149 - Repayment of discount: periods and amounts applicable (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I know that the hon. Gentleman is concerned that some local authorities might not exercise as much discretion as others. However, I thought that the Conservatives—and Labour, following its recent conversion—were now in line with the Liberal Democrats in wanting local authorities to be able to take more decisions for themselves. I wish to alert the hon. Gentleman to a potential conflict so...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 152 - Right of first refusal for landlord etc. (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I am concerned, because my understanding is that the district valuer is not really part of the council; he or she is, in a sense, already an independent person. My concern about independent valuers is that one can get two such valuers into a property and they will give widely differing values. Indeed, I have known a valuer to ask a householder, ''Do you want this at the low end or the high...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 152 - Right of first refusal for landlord etc. (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: The hon. Gentleman is assuming that the district valuer is on the side of the council or the housing body, which I find slightly odd, particularly as councils often, in my experience, get annoyed with district valuers when they place values on things. However, I am more concerned about how the amendment is phrased. It would mean that the Bill read, ''an independent valuer or the district...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 149 - Repayment of discount: periods and amounts applicable (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: The Minister gave a reasonable explanation, particularly when trouncing the Tories' amendment extending the period to 10 years. The fine balance between five or six years is a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other. The Minister was slightly wrong to ridicule my question about whether the figure he quoted was a mean or a median. That can make a substantial difference. In future,...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 149 - Repayment of discount: periods and amounts applicable (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I support the sentiment behind the amendment. However, it might be unnecessary because the Bill says that the landlord ''may'' demand repayment of discounts. It is necessary that some guidance be given to local authorities about the sensitivity of such action. I would be horrified if a local authority in my area demanded repayment when someone died. Members of the Committee would regard that...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 149 - Repayment of discount: periods and amounts applicable (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: To go back to the figure given by the Council of Mortgage Lenders that seven years was the average tenure for an owner-occupier, is that figure a mean or a median? Therefore, of what quintile is the five years reflective in terms of house ownership?

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 149 - Repayment of discount: periods and amounts applicable (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I welcome the hon. Gentleman's Damascene conversion to tackling abuses of the right to buy. Can he confirm that, when in Government, the Conservatives did very little to deal with the abuse of right to buy in Westminster?

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 149 - Repayment of discount: periods and amounts applicable (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: On a point of order, Mr. Pike. The hon. Gentleman has been speaking for about 15 minutes and he has not yet mentioned the simple amendments that you pointed out. I have a lot of sympathy with what he is saying, but should he not be guided to talk about the amendments?

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 148 - Exceptions to the right to buy: houses due to be demolished (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I did not go too strongly on that point because, as the Minister knows, we have been talking about this matter outside the Committee Room. South Shropshire has fewer than 400 permissions left by 2011, but last year's affordable needs survey showed that there was a need for 1,400 affordable homes between now and 2007. There are not enough permissions to keep the local working population...

Public Bill Committee: Housing Bill: Clause 148 - Exceptions to the right to buy: houses due to be demolished (12 Feb 2004)

Mr Matthew Green: I thank the Minister for his observations. He is saying that the amendment would overly restrict a tenant's right to buy in certain areas. The problem is, however, that in such areas those houses cannot be replaced at the rate at which they are being lost. Therefore, there will be a diminution of the social market in rented properties, and that is a serious issue. I know that the Minister...


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