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.
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...
Jane Ellison: The new clause is designed to exempt scouts, guides and military cadet groups from the connected charities provisions of this Bill. We believe the new clause is not necessary. The connected charities rules are intended to protect the gift aid small donations scheme from abuse and they work in conjunction with the community building rules to deliver fair and broadly equal outcomes for...
Tony Burton: Generally, we think the Bill is helpful for communities who want to have more of a say on planning issues. There are one or two headlines. The most pre-emptive one is that the Bill confirms the statutory role for neighbourhood planning, given the uncertainty since the publication of a White Paper that said relatively little about it and that brought forward some proposals that...
Alison Seabeck: I do not intend to detain the Committee for long on this clause, but I wish to press the Minister for a couple of points of information. We come back to the problem that there is no definition in the Bill of what land of community value is—other than that it is of community value. If a nomination is to be deemed valid, will a community need to provide evidence or an explanation establishing...
Professor Tonge: No, because I run the general election surveys in Northern Ireland, but the Northern Ireland life and times survey has subsequently shown continuing support for devolved power sharing. That is an annual survey run by Queen’s University and the University of Ulster, and it again showed substantial support for devolved power sharing. That survey work is limited in the sense...
Mr John Maxton: With this it will be convenient to debate the following: Clause stand part. Amendment No. 97, in clause 15, page 11, line 21, after `abolish', insert `or reform'. Clause 15 stand part. Amendment No. 248, in clause 10, page 8, line 9, after `(1)', insert `Before the commencement of section 14 of this Act,'. Amendment No. 254, in clause 13, page 9, line 26, after `(1)', insert `Before...
John Denham: We are trying to ensure that the police service can offer a comprehensive service to our community. One of the strongest arguments for introducing CSOs with those powers is to ensure that a set of activities in the community that are not always given the highest priority—for reasons that we understand—are not left neglected. My fear about the approach taken by the hon. Gentleman is that...
Nick Day: Obviously we are in new territory with the Mayor’s housing powers, as far as London is concerned. That is starting to be played out. Local authorities are very much engaged with their local communities. They have a local democratic mandate. We want to ensure that the strength that will bring to developments, to regeneration and to sustainable communities is not lost in the...
Hazel Blears: I understand the point, but the hon. Gentleman is making incredibly heavy weather of it. He wants custody to be an option. The option of community penalties and fines, and a range of community sentences that he has welcomed, are perfectly sufficient. Community orders can be a big imposition on people's lifestyle, as they have to make some restoration for the damage that they have caused. If...
Cat Smith: Q As you have outlined, Dr Larner, it is expected that we will see some big changes to the constituencies in Wales, and with that we will see new boundaries drawn, probably around communities that look very different. How important do you feel community identity and having communities together in one constituency are when it comes to that balance between keeping communities together and the...
Shereen Williams: From the commission’s perspective, it is about communities that are together. We look at your electoral wards and communities that are linked through joint programmes and projects. Also, quite uniquely, in Wales, as you are very aware, is the Welsh language. We take it into account that you have constituencies where there are lots of links to the Welsh language. That is...
Therese Coffey: Finally, on broadband infrastructure, a lot of rural communities are concerned. There is great news today: we have been given state aid clearance, so we can finally start getting on with our planning permission applications. Communities are concerned that they particularly do not want to see long planning application processes now getting in the way of their faster broadband. Do you think...
Charles Hendry: Let me give the shadow Minister some reassurance. The original system made no allowance whatever for any scheme, of whatever type, of between 100 kW and 5 MW. We have now introduced a number of subsidiary levels, which gives greater support to the smaller schemes and therefore the ones that are more likely to be community led. The original scheme, as envisaged by the previous Government, made...
Professor Sir John Curtice: There is a certain geographical concentration of voters who may or may not feel a sense of community, or who may in fact feel that they are an aggregation of many different communities. For example, I expect that relatively few of the constituencies in the far north of Scotland necessarily think that their constituency represents one agreed community, as opposed...
Des Browne: If the hon. Gentleman will just allow me to finish this important point. The Government are adamant that we should do nothing that runs contrary to the first clause of the Bill, which protects the independence of the judiciary by treating it as being representative of any part of the community. The independence of the judiciary and the merit, ability and professionalism of its members, not...
Jennifer Willott: Trading standards officers are very good at knowing the communities in which they work, knowing where there are likely to be concerns, picking up intelligence and identifying businesses where there may well be issues. We should not underestimate their ability to operate in their local communities and to know very well what is going on. To judge by my experience in my area—I am sure the hon....
Liz Kendall: I want briefly to say something about the clause and ask the Minister some questions. The clause relates to an important and controversial issue, which is the use of supervised community treatment orders for people with mental health problems. Members may be aware that supervised community treatment orders were introduced in an attempt to stop the revolving door, whereby patients with mental...
Peter Atkinson: I want briefly to probe the Minister on the general purpose of the clause and the balance that the commission will strike in dealing with persons suffering from social disadvantage and areas suffering from economic underperformance. The hon. Member for Sherwood touched earlier on the fact that there is a considerable drift from the town to the countryside. Some of the problems in the...
Sandra Gidley: The amendment tabled in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon is almost identical to that tabled by the hon. and learned Member for Redcar. She has already made many of the comments that I was going to make, so I do not intend to rehearse them. The crux of the matter seems to be the independence of the commission. Clause 4 provides that the commission...