Edward Davey: The Minister failed to answer my question. The Treasury has other national resources, which will be disbursed on housing, so moneys are available. The hon. Gentleman seems to think that the money would not be invested locally in affordable housing, but it would be. It is not taking money out of the housing budget. The question is how decisions are taken; this Government takes the centrist...
Chris Leslie: I was wondering why it fell to me to respond to the new clause, and the many reasons have begun to hit me. This has been a short but worthwhile debate, and there have been significantly strong points about the virtues of giving support to community amateur sports clubs that do a great deal of important work in most of our constituencies, especially in engaging young people and the wider...
Oliver Heald: The clause repeals the statutory duty placed on local authorities to prepare a sustainable community strategy for their area. Councils should be trusted to produce strategies of this nature as a matter of course, and we believe that the existing duty represents an unnecessary statutory burden. Removing the requirement to prepare a sustainable community strategy will reduce the burden of...
John Mann: It is not just middle-class areas that have created such plans. The biggest one in my area is for Harworth, which until fairly recently was one of the last working collieries in the country. It has a huge working-class community. Its neighbourhood plan has been adopted by referendum and agreed by the district council, and it involves 1,500 new allocated housing spaces and vast amounts of new...
Simon Hoare: Can I come back very briefly? I was interested in what you were saying because you made that point in an earlier submission. You are right to be worried about the social cohesion perspective. I suppose I look at it from the other end of the telescope. Do you agree that if everybody in society, irrespective of colour or creed—I put that in inverted commas—had safe knowledge that their...
Caroline Flint: In a number of areas, we are considering how we can improve our tackling of level 1, 2 and 3 drug crimes. Towards the end of last year, I was pleased to help launch the London-wide middle market drugs unit, which brings together police officers and Customs and Excise to work at level 2 drug activity. There are also our measures regarding crack houses, of which around 200 closed last year. At...
Angela Smith: The clause provides for a community governance review to recommend the grouping or de-grouping of parishes. Some parish communities in England wish to have their own identity and interests reflected by the creation of a parish, but are too small to have one of their own. In such cases, a community governance review could recommend that such parishes be grouped together and represented by a...
Clive Efford: This is an important part of the Bill, and I am sure that through the usual processes of the Committee, the amendment will be taken back to one of those dark rooms and discussed in further detail. Perhaps I can inform those discussions with my brief speech. It is important that we engage with communities where we there is a great deal of disengagement. For example, in my constituency—I am...
Jacqui Lait: I apologise for being slightly wrong-footed, but I was expecting another group of amendments to be called before this one. My concerns are very similar to those of the hon. Member for North Cornwall. However, mine go a little further than just affordable housing. I am concerned about ensuring that section 106 agreements can continue more or less as they are, not just for affordable housing,...
Glenda Jackson: An example to which the hon. Gentleman devoted a great deal of time. The basis of his initial argument was that there should be some way to protect such stations, especially those in rural areas, against the threat of commercial interests from a wider media base. He said that that was especially true for Wales, where picking up mainstream programmes can be difficult. To return to my...
Clive Efford: I rise to speak in support of the new clause tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester. This is about representation of communities and making sure that voices are heard through the democratic process. If we were to stick rigidly to the averages as calculated and impose them on Scotland and Wales, the significant loss of seats would make people in those nations wonder, “What...
Alistair Burt: I am talking specifically about those who have been engaged as partners within an area agreement, so that will vary according to what the agreement is. I am trying to ensure that, when consultation is taking place, the involvement of those people will not simply depend on whether the authority considers them to be “appropriate”, but will be mandatory because of what they are doing and how...
Councillor Lawrence: It is an interesting discussion, in which we should perhaps differentiate between what I call the fixed and the mobile. As an elected member—I can think of my own ward and my own experience—I know the extent to which communities want to work with the police and with the local authority to deal with specific problems, not displacing the problem to another community...
Alison Seabeck: Some of the concerns that Labour Members had resulted from evidence that we had received in writing and orally during the course of the witness sessions. We were concerned that within the process there was no scope for an independent review of these decisions. We had a discussion earlier today about the need for an independent review, and the Minister said that there was an option to go to...
Chris Ruane: I want to make a few brief points about clause 28. I have grave concerns about its impact, especially on the poorest in society. The clause specifies that a report should be made but not that it should be published or distributed. Knowledge is power, and if we are serious about empowering the communities in question we need to give the relevant knowledge to people, especially in the poorest...
Stephen Timms: We all agree that the question of social and economic support for local communities that are heavily dependent on the nuclear industry is important, and the Government are committed to ensuring that the NDA and its site operators continue to play a full role in their communities. The issue was fully debated in the other place, and the Bill has always provided for the NDA to give encouragement...
Paul Cobbing: As I understand it, they are covered by separate and specific insurance policies. That brings up the SME question. Micro-businesses have been talked about. There are small-scale private landlords who are not covered by the scheme, there are the camping and caravan sites that you just mentioned and there are flats covered by management agreements. Those are all different aspects...
Karin Smyth: I beg to move amendment 17, in schedule 2, page 124, line 14, at end insert— “(7) An integrated care board may enter into an externally financed development agreement in respect of any Local Improvement Finance Trust relevant to the area for which it has responsibility and receive the income related to that agreement. (8) An integrated care board may enter into an externally financed...
Jack Dromey: Labour Members are very concerned about the lack of financial assistance that the Government will provide for neighbourhood planning. We are also deeply concerned by the decision to end the funding regime for Planning Aid England on 31 March. In December 2010, the Royal Town Planning Institute president, Ann Skippers, said the decision to cut Government funding for Planning Aid would leave...
Alison Seabeck: We heard a sedentary comment from Government Members about taxpayers, and we are talking about taxpayers—that is absolutely right. However, we are also talking about community assets. We recently debated a whole tranche of clauses dealing with the importance of community assets and communities having buy-in. There is a conflict.