My Lords, I have two amendments in this group, which follow up the remarks by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, in that we ought to write into the Bill the requirement for the sports industry to recognise the effects of climate change and the need to adjust sporting facilities, materials and stadia to…
My Lords, as speaker number 31, I am relieved to have picked an aspect of the report that has yet to be discussed in much detail. I will use my time to concur with recommendation 24 of the report, which asks the Government to set out how joining Erasmus+ brings added value to the UK. I question whet…
My Lords, I put on record my profound support for this very significant commitment, which meets not only the fuel poverty objectives but the environmental and economic objectives in developing our energy policy. The Minister may dimly recall that many years ago I was the Minister who brought in and …
I too did not intend to speak on this group, but it occurs to me that these are such wide-ranging provisions that the charging of one local public authority by another is probably covered, in which case I wish to refer to a matter which was referred to when we were discussing the interim report on w…
That is true at present, but we are about to invent a new system of regulation of the total water system, which must have some interface with the planning system that we are referring to in this Bill. It may not be in this clause, but somewhere in the Government’s mind this should be an issue to add…
My Lords, I would like to correct, in a sense, the impression given by the noble Lord, Lord Burns, of the activity of his Select Committee at the time. I was a member of that Select Committee, along with my noble friend Lady Drake, representing the interests of the Labour Party. We did agree on a co…
That is true, but it does not require a ballot of individual shareholders. There is a vote once a year, or whenever, so that a donation can be made at the annual general meeting. It is not a ballot.
My Lords, like others, I would have preferred renationalisation, but a strengthened and unified regulator was my second choice so I welcome much of this report. However, will the next stage, the White Paper and the later legislation, envisage a situation where there is a system closer to franchising…
I am grateful to my noble friend for his question. A council tax cap of 5% was introduced by the previous Government. Councils do not have to increase council tax by 5%, but under the rules they cannot increase it by more than 5% without a local referendum. That remains the position.
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, whose wisdom and company I enjoyed during my time on the environment committee. I am a supporter of the Bill, by and large. I am delighted to see that the policy is shifting towards “We want more bats” and away from “No bat must be in…