Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, can the Minister also send my best wishes to the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman?
Sorry, Lady Hayman. The noble Baroness is always an ally on the topic of small businesses, which is the subject of my Amendment 121G; I will concentrate on this rather than on gambling premises, which are also considered in this group. The noble Lord, Lord Foster of Bath, spoke with great eloquence,…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
Built Environment Sector
The noble Baroness makes another very important point. Over the past years, the nature of the construction market has changed and it is absolutely right to focus on small builders. There is a whole programme of support for SME builders, some of which is in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. It in…
Lords
Proceedings
27 October 2025
Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund
I must say that I find this conversation surprising. The Government seem to have given 12 years of fishing away in a negotiation without getting any very clear benefits in exchange. Our fishing has been an enormous issue right across the country, so I am slightly surprised by the tone of this conver…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 October 2025
Undersea Cables: National Security Threat
The repair record for this country is one of the best in the world. This sits with DESNZ and DSIT, as well as with the MoD, but I think the average repair is eight days. There is also a co-ordinated plan to ensure that were a cable, for whatever reason, not to continue to work in the way that it sho…
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, as time is short, I will simply focus on the lifeblood of local communities: small enterprises, or SMEs as we call them. A journey of a thousand leagues starts with a single step, we are told. Equally, major corporations driving economic growth did not start as large enterprises. That is w…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 October 2025
Rules on Duty-Free Goods
Let me be absolutely clear, again. If you have duty-free, you have to have allowances. If you have allowances, you have to have checks and enforcement. If you have checks, you have to have border infrastructure, and if you have border infrastructure, that will be contrary to the Windsor Framework an…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
Amazon Web Services
I thank the noble Baroness for that. As for a debate, I leave it to Members of the House to table it accordingly. I would welcome a debate to look at this in further detail. As far as the Bill is concerned, we have been working on it for some time, as most noble Lords know. The Bill itself will ensu…
Lords
Committee Stage
21 October 2025
2 contributions
Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Mutual Recognition Agreement) (Switzerland) Regulations 2025
I thank both noble Baronesses for their comments on this SI, which were gratefully received. This is an important SI because it is all about growth and building a relationship with a trusted trader in Switzerland that we can build on into the future.
On security and trust, the UK and Switzerland ha…
I will write to the noble Baroness with a fuller answer to her question.
Lords
Debate
20 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I support my noble friend Lady Hodgson of Abinger and her Amendment 45, to which I tried to add my name but was too late. It was persuasively introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbots, and I will try to be brief.
The essence of responsible political choice is to look to …
Lords
Oral Questions
20 October 2025
GDP Per Capita
The noble Baroness is absolutely correct to say that productivity is a long-standing problem in the economy. As I understand it, productivity fell to the lowest in the G7 under the previous Government, so clearly it is important that we have prioritised that. One of the most important things we are …
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, in seeking to intervene in the gap, my intention is to bring about the minimum of delay as we reach the most important stage of Second Reading, namely the winding-up speeches. I unhesitatingly begin by entirely endorsing the words of my new noble friend Lady Levitt—to whom much welcome—whe…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
Stablecoin Ownership
There is definitely something worth considering in that. I have learnt a lot in preparation for this Question. I know very little about the subject, but much more than I did when I started. The noble Baroness raises an important question, in terms not only of financial education—obviously we should …
Lords
Debate
14 October 2025
Renters’ Rights Bill
My Lords, I refer to my register of interests as the joint owner of a small cottage in the village where I live. I strongly support Amendment 64B, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord de Clifford. It has had the support of the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles, and of caring organisations, which would be helped…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
School Fees: VAT
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. What I have learned from this episode is not to listen to scare stories from the party opposite. She talks about school closures; I am sorry that she did not listen to the figures that I gave. Yes, 49 private schools have closed but 70 private sc…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 September 2025
Road Pricing
The noble Baroness asks a hypothetical question that I have already dealt with. The Government have no plans to introduce road pricing. She mentions low-traffic neighbourhoods. We want to support local authorities to deliver streets that work for all road users and enable integrated journeys. Decisi…
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I am honoured to speak, in the last group, to my Amendments 361A and 361B, on encouraging SME builders, and to Amendments 363 and 364, on mechanisms for encouraging the speedy rollout of planning reform. Amendment 275A, which I was unable to speak to this morning, belongs in a family with …
My Lords, I thank those who have spoken from the Front Benches, and I thank the Minister for some of her reassurance. I will look carefully at Hansard . I do not think we are quite there on Natural England. There is the choice of the existing system, which has its problems, or the new system, which …
Lords
Committee Stage
17 September 2025
Financial Services (Overseas Recognition Regime Designations) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am grateful to both noble Baronesses for their detailed comments and scrutiny, as well as for their support for this secondary legislation.
The noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, asked a number of questions, which I will seek to address. First, she initially expressed her surprise that the Tr…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 September 2025
Making Tax Digital
It may surprise the noble Baroness to hear that I absolutely agree. As part of our regulation action plan, we committed to reducing the regulatory burden on businesses by 25%. We must have a benchmark from which we reduce that burden. We are engaged in doing that, and, as I said, I completely agree …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 September 2025
Economic Growth
The answer to the first of the noble Baroness’s questions is no. As for the second question, she says she is interested in growth but let us look at just one measure that we are taking. Our planning reforms have the largest impact on growth of any non-fiscal measure the OBR has ever scored. Yet her …
Lords
Debate
15 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I support the general thrust of the amendments in the name of my noble friend Lord Roborough.
The focus of Natural England is bureaucratic and precautionary, as we heard from my noble friend Lord Caithness. We need to find a way around the freezing of housing developments by Natural Engla…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 September 2025
Plastic Pollution
I thank the noble Baroness for her support and for continuing to press for this. As she said, it is the thing that will make the biggest difference. As she is aware, the session was adjourned. It was agreed that it would reconvene, but the place and time are yet to be confirmed.
Lords
Debate
11 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, as I have said on several occasions, we need to cut down on the bureaucracy of planning and the excessive application of policy on habitats. Even the Prime Minister has criticised the HS2 £100 million bat tunnel.
In my experience, we have an over-precautionary approach in planning, so I a…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 September 2025
Merck Research Site
The shortage of medicines is always a problem. We cannot have a situation where essential medicines are not available. That speaks to better understanding of supply chain resilience. The noble Baroness will be aware that supply chain resilience came to the fore very much over the past few years, whe…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 September 2025
Pension Funds: Use of UK-listed Investment Companies
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question and her broad support for the Government’s agenda. This is an area where, aside from the specific issue that she raises in her question, we are in agreement that we want to see greater investment in UK infrastructure in this way. I do not agree wi…