My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for giving us the opportunity to reflect on the future affordability and quality of higher education in this country. Her interest in HE is of long standing, and I recall her very effective role as inaugural chair of the Office of the Independent Adjudic…
My Lords, home ownership is important, but social housing must play a central role in meeting the housing needs of young people. Over the past year, government decisions have put the social housing sector in a much better financial position, so can the Minister confirm that enough funding will be ma…
I thank the Minister for that reply. She will, of course, be aware of the disparity between the main pension schemes in the university sector, with both employer and employee contributions significantly higher in the TPS than in the USS. The Government have emphasised the need for the sector to be f…
My Lords, I will say something about disposals, but as this is the first time I have spoken in the debate, I will make some general comments in support of the Bill.
Social homes are a vital resource for low-income families, and the current system has depleted that stock for decades. I therefore wel…
I did realise that, which is why I made the point that I just wanted to make some general references because it is the first time that I have spoken. I will continue on to my point. I had wanted also to say something about the impact on rural affordable housing, but I echo so much of what others hav…
The UK Visas and Immigration service has a comprehensive training programme kept under regular review to support consistently high standards of decisions. This is supported by a quality assurance framework that draws on feedback from the study sector and incorporates evidence from the independent ad…
I am very happy to meet my noble friend and representatives from the university sector. It is extremely important that we make this work properly for both sectors as a whole, and I know that officials in the department are in constant touch with the sector to look at how we can improve performance. …
My Lords, I, too, most warmly congratulate the noble Lord on securing this debate. I always think health matters should be handled by a former president of a royal college, and it is excellent that we have another former president of a royal college with us today. This should be a criterion for join…
My Lords, only someone who was there on the night of the Grenfell Tower fire or who experienced the loss of a loved one in that disaster can truly understand what it must have been like to suffer the physical and emotional losses that it caused. Death, injury, mental trauma, the sudden removal from …
My Lords, I am sympathetic to the probing amendments in the names of the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, and the noble Viscount, Lord Younger—Amendments 47 and 51 respectively—on value for money, which I alluded to at Second Reading. With any Bill or set of regulations, it is important to have clarity…
My Lords, I have no extant interests to declare—my interest in pension schemes is in the past—but I have considerable sympathy with my noble friend Lord Davies’s Amendment 7.
We suffer from chronic underinvestment in genuinely affordable and social housing, which is undermining the social fabric of…
My Lords, there is a lot in this Bill. Some of it is to be welcomed—there are quite a few crackers in it. However, there are also large elements of it that feel—dare I say it at this time of Christmas?—like a little bit of a turkey. It is such a skeleton Bill that it is more appropriate for Hallowee…
My Lords, I speak in this short debate as someone who owes her career to a predecessor of today’s music and dance scheme. I will focus my time on what it takes to achieve that success in the highly specialised field of dance. Without that understanding, it is easy to underestimate the importance of …
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 64B from the noble Lord, Lord de Clifford, to create a new possession ground for carers. I know that every noble Lord here appreciates and values the important work that carers do in our communities. It goes without saying that we should take every step possible, …
I understand the points the noble Baroness is making. That is one of the reasons why we consulted on two different levels. The consultation for the implementation of MEES would require social homes to have energy performance certificates at rating C or equivalent by 2030. There is currently no minim…
My Lords, I will speak briefly in support of the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill. With the Government’s ambition to increase the supply of social and affordable housing and the reforms to improve the capacity of the planning system, now seems the right time to reform PDR. The Government have rightly …
My Lords, I speak to Amendments 139A and 140A in this group and link them to 150A in my name in a group discussed earlier today, which dealt with affordable social housing. Together, these amendments seek to ensure that, when strategic planning authorities develop their spatial strategies, they do s…
My Lords, we have heard some powerful speeches from distinguished and knowledgeable speakers this evening. I am very conscious that, like the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, I come to this debate relatively new. However, I have one ace in my pack. I have been briefed in detail by an expert who has wor…
My Lords, I rise, I hope for the last time, as temporary spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, as my noble friend Lord Fox’s spectre has arrived behind me—and he is a sight to behold.
I begin by thanking various Ministers—the noble Lord, Lord Leong, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Jones and Lady S…
My Lords, again, it was the Prime Minister of the day who forwarded and promoted this scheme. As I say, my understanding is that the Friendly WiFi scheme is primarily directed at retailers, hotels and transport companies—all the areas I have mentioned—specifically because of the access to wifi in th…
I thank my noble friend for her question. The important thing is that we get the balance right between ensuring that tenants feel this body is genuinely tenant-led and doing what we can to help convene the right people around the table to bring this forward. I will continue discussions with all the …
My Lords, I was delighted that in the spending review last week the Government were able to provide the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation. We have confirmed £39 billion for a successor to the affordable homes programme over 10 years.
On the planning applicati…
I am grateful to my noble friend for her warm reception for the announcement made at the spending review, and to the many social housing bodies that have echoed her words. We will work with the sector at pace to design the programme. We have provided certainty that it will be for a full 10 years; ou…
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg. I remind the Committee of my registered interest as chairman of the Chartered Institution for Further Education.
I will speak about an important and brand-new initiative in heritage crafts: the Wren international centre of excellence at St P…
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 143B standing in my name, regarding outsourcing measures and their applicability to higher education providers across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Universities, like other employers, are preparing for the enactment of the Bill and will be adap…
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for her reply and her attempt to reassure me and other Members of the Committee. I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Watson of Invergowrie for his staunch support for what I am trying to do here. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe of Epsom, for his support; …
My Lords, I support my noble friend Lady Whitaker. I want to emphasise the shortage of appropriate accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers, particularly when the size of this community is growing. There are multiple disadvantages linked to insufficient quality accommodation on sites—not only poor e…
My Lords, I will speak briefly in support of the noble Lord, Lord Best. I declare an interest, which I recently gave up, as the chair of the Property Ombudsman board. Perhaps I can provide some of the evidence that the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, wanted because, in 30 years of dealing with complain…
My Lords, it is 80 years since World War II—a global war that touched every continent and many countries—came to a juddering halt with the deployment of nuclear bombs. Fortunately, we have never seen that again. The noble Baroness, Lady Hunter, spoke eloquently about the liberation of people from th…