The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government — Hansard

Lords Proceedings 13 July 2026

I thank my noble friend the Minister for her response. The Open University’s latest Business Barometer report on the employer skills gap included a survey of 1,500 UK businesses and over 1,000 young people outside education, employment and training. Some 42% of young people agree that AI is threaten…

Lords Debate 5 September 2025

Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill

My Lords, it has been a short but very interesting debate, and I am grateful for the unanimous support across all Benches for this short but important Bill. If one theme has come through, it is the theme of speed and the necessity for the Bill to go through Parliament, this House and any other stag…

Lords Debate 1 September 2025 6 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, I start with Amendments 90 and 177, which relate to local area energy plans. I thank the noble Earl, Lord Russell, the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, and the noble Lords, Ravensdale and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, for tabling these amendments. Amendment 90, tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Rus…

I appreciate the noble Earl’s contribution, but I politely disagree in that there is a lot of advice and support from local net-zero hubs funded by DESNZ. I understand and sympathise with what he is saying. We have all said today that we want to get moving as fast as we can, in a speedy manner, and …

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Lords Debate 1 September 2025 7 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

I thank the noble Earl, Lord Russell, for raising this important issue through Amendment 77. The Government fully recognise the need to accelerate electricity network upgrades to support the transition to net zero. We agree with the intent behind this amendment and with many of the specific proposal…

My Lords, the rules that determine whether a turbine can be classed as permitted development and not require a full planning application have not been updated for over a decade. With advances in technology and increased demand for small-scale generation, there may be opportunities to update these ru…

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Lords Debate 24 July 2025 5 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, Amendment 50 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, seeks to create a national policy statement for livestock markets and abattoirs. The Government are committed to a resilient food supply chain. A thriving abattoir network is vital to this, providing a competitive route to market for prod…

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Hunt of King’s Heath for tabling these amendments, which relate to carbon capture and storage designation. Amendment 51 would amend the Planning Act 2008 to enable the designation of “carbon dioxide spur pipelines and carbon capture equipment … as Nationally S…

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Lords Oral Questions 24 July 2025 9 contributions

Voting at 16

My Lords, the proposed change is welcome, and unless we change the voting age soon, young people may continue having to wait until they are 20 or 21 to cast their first vote in a general election. But would it not make sense to have the same age for voting in all elections across the UK, starting in…

My Lords, this policy is very welcome. It is always good to extend the franchise, particularly after the voter ID fiasco of recent years, but education is going to be incredibly important, so that young people can use this new right. What plans do the Government have to improve discussions around po…

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Lords Debate 25 June 2025 2 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, I would first like to extend my thanks to the many noble Lords with whom my noble friend Lady Taylor and I have already spoken about the Bill. I know that there is consensus in this House that the country could and should be better served: better served by more decent housing, with a bette…

My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register as vice-president of the Local Government Association. We on these Benches support many of the Bill’s principles and ambitions, several of which build on work that we led in government during a period of record housebuilding. While not per…

Lords Debate 17 June 2025 3 contributions

Holocaust Memorial Bill

My Lords, it has been my great privilege to steer this Bill through the Lords. I thank all noble Lords who have dedicated so much of their time to scrutinising the Bill. I hope I have demonstrated my personal commitment to seeing it passed through my engagement with noble Lords from all sides of the…

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his courtesy during the passage of the Bill and congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, on her leadership of those of us who felt there were problems with it. I thank all those who pointed out the risks and drawbacks of the choice the Government have made abou…

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Lords Oral Questions 17 June 2025 9 contributions

Cladding: High-rise Buildings

I thank my noble friend for that Answer. Many blocks still to be done contain the same panels as Grenfell. Can we be assured that the companies identified in the Grenfell report as using dishonest strategies and making false claims, such as Kingspan, Celotex and Arconic, are not involved in any repl…

My Lords, eight years after the Grenfell tragedy, the Public Accounts Committee in the other place reported that 3 million people are still living in unsafe buildings, unable to sell their properties and move on with their lives, facing high service charges and high insurance premiums, and in some c…

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Lords Oral Questions 12 June 2025

Wildfires

My Lords, it is a privilege to stand before you today to address the important topic of wildfire risk and the devastating impacts that wildfires can have on our communities. I thank the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, for raising this important debate and for his invaluable insight in this area. I also …

Lords Oral Questions 12 June 2025 11 contributions

Political Parties and Elections Act 2009

My Lords, it is 16 years since Parliament passed the simple but powerful safeguard in Section 9, in response to a financial scandal over the origin of donations. Implementation does not require any time for primary legislation, nor for the Treasury to be asked for any money, but it would make our po…

My Lords, in considering possible future changes, will the Government take account of political parties such as the Liberal Democrats, who received £2.4 million from a known and convicted fraudster, Michael Brown, and, 20 years on, have still to pay back that money to the people who were denied thos…

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Lords Debate 11 June 2025 17 contributions

Holocaust Memorial Bill

I thank the noble Lords, Lord Carlile and Lord Inglewood, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Walmsley and Lady Laing, for Amendments 3 and 10. I was saddened to hear the news of the passing of the noble Lord’s sister, Renata. May her memory be a blessing. I also offer my thanks for the work done by the…

The purpose of Clause 2 is to disapply the London county Act of 1900. That is why we want to push forward with the project. I reassure the noble Baroness that, subject to the Bill passing, this will be treated as a serious issue. The entire proposed project will be subject to full scrutiny and accou…

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Lords Debate 11 June 2025 5 contributions

Holocaust Memorial Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Viscount, Lord Eccles, for his amendment. It has allowed us to reflect not simply on the need for careful control of public expenditure but on the core reason why this Bill is needed. I will deal first with matters directly relevant to costs and to the overall ma…

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Russell, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Deech and Lady Blackstone, for their amendment. This has been a lengthy but powerful debate, with much strength of feeling. Given that there were so many lengthy speeches, I am not sure if noble Lords got the memo from th…

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Lords Committee Stage 13 May 2025

High Streets (Built Environment Committee Report)

I thank the Minister for his warm words; he is clearly a long-lost cousin or brother from another mother. I thank those on the two Front Benches—the Minister and my former boss, when we were last in Government—for answering the debate from the Dispatch Box. I also thank the former committee members.…

Lords Oral Questions 8 May 2025 10 contributions

Climate Change: Wildfire Strategy and Action Plan

My Lords, we are having a bad wildfire year, with 439 wildfires and 95 square miles burned already. By mid-April, the total burned area will be the second worst on record. Wildfires are devastating to people and property, and brutal to our biodiversity and net-zero efforts. I push the Government to …

My Lords, would the Minister agree that there are three key ingredients to a wildfire: ignition, oxygen and fuel load? As most of the owners of our treasured landscape do not look after the fuel load, they are complicit in the wildfire problem. Would the Minister check that Natural England has the r…

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