Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 December 2025
Planning Reform
Although I am grateful to the Minister for advance sight of his statement, I fear that it represents an unprecedented removal of power from local people and local government by a Government who appear to have given up on sustainable development as a driving force behind decision making. The cost-ben…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 December 2025
2 contributions
Quarries: Planning Policy
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Murrison. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Leicestershire (Alberto Costa) on securing this important debate, which is of real concern to not only his constituents but those of Members around the country. As a child growing up in Somerset, I…
I accept that further assessment is needed before the policy is finalised, but the experience in Canada shows that the distance is appropriate for reducing noise. At the moment, no buffer zone at all is set as standard, as I have pointed out. I am sure the hon. Gentleman would not be the quarrier I …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 December 2025
National Plan to End Homelessness
We Liberal Democrats also welcome this statement and the additional funding, although I still have some questions. For Liberals from Beveridge to Stephen Ross, who introduced the first homelessness legislation into this Chamber, tackling homelessness and poor housing has been central to allowing peo…
Commons
Debate
9 December 2025
Railways Bill
It is a pleasure to contribute to this debate, Madam Deputy Speaker. I will start with the things I welcome in the Bill and in what the Government are doing on railways. After increasing rail fares by almost 5% last year, it is very welcome that the Government have frozen fares—something that Libera…
Commons
Debate
8 December 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
When the Bill was presented to the House, the Liberal Democrats outlined three main concerns: accountability to Parliament, accountability to communities and accountability for our environment. Lords amendment 33 would address—to an extent—accountability to local communities and the importance of th…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 December 2025
Digital ID
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that if bad employers are not prevented from taking people on without national insurance numbers or passports, they will not stop at taking someone on without digital ID?
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
4 December 2025
2 contributions
National Resilience
7. What steps he is taking to improve national resilience.
From the first ever charts by Captain Cook to real-time digital mapping, the UK Hydrographic Office enables and keeps our Royal Navy safe at sea—operating quite literally under the radar. Will the Minister pay tribute to the hundreds of people in my constituency who work at the office, and will he s…
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 December 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Barker. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for introducing this really important debate. My feelings are very much aligned with the around 300 people in my constituency who signed the …
I very much agree with the hon. Gentleman. All the concerns that lead me to oppose digital ID cards also lead me to oppose a digital ID for all our children. As the campaigners behind the petition have stated:
“Once children’s data is out there it cannot be controlled nor put back in the box.”
I c…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
26 November 2025
Budget Resolutions
On health facilities, does the hon. Lady share my concern that the only thing with more leaks than the Budget run-up period is the roof of Musgrove Park hospital in my constituency? Does she agree that hospitals across the country in the second and third waves of the new hospital rebuild programme n…
Commons
Debate
24 November 2025
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I am grateful to the shadow Minister for giving way, especially as I missed the first few words of his speech—he can only imagine my disappointment. While promoting higher-density development near transport nodes makes a lot of sense, can he explain why subsection (3) of the proposed new section wou…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
Topical Questions
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill takes smaller decisions away from councillors. Last week’s direction, announced in a ministerial statement, will take big decisions involving over 150 homes, such as the decision on Oldway Road in Wellington, out of the hands of local councillors. Do the Governme…
Commons
Debate
20 November 2025
Injury in Service Award
I first heard of the “999 Injured and Forgotten” campaign and the enormous work Tom Curry has been doing to campaign for an award for those injured in service from constituents of mine. One of the constituents was a police officer who served for 27 years and suffered spinal injuries on two occasions…
Commons
Westminster Hall
19 November 2025
Specialist Manufacturing Sector: Regional Economies
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mrs Harris. I congratulate the hon. Member for Calder Valley (Josh Fenton-Glynn) on shining light on a really important part of our economy, both locally and nationally.
Specialist manufacturing is critical to my Taunton and Wellington constituency, …
Commons
Debate
18 November 2025
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill
Does my hon. Friend agree that veterans who served in Northern Ireland and were then pursued by the IRA to Germany and attacked there deserve more reassurance than the words that duplication will not occur unless “the duplication is essential”?
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
17 November 2025
Settlement: British National Overseas Route
The case for legal migration and for those genuinely seeking asylum is undermined by evidence that businesses in Station Road in my constituency are using and exploiting migrants to carry out illegal trading. Local businesses are shocked and frustrated that when the police raid those premises, they …
Commons
Debate
13 November 2025
6 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
I would like to assist the hon. Gentleman. Is the answer not a “use it or lose it” planning permission, whereby a developer loses the permission or the land if they do not build on it?
The Liberal Democrats welcome a number of the changes made to the Bill in the other place, but it is disappointing that my noble Friend Baroness Pinnock’s proposal, which was aimed at ensuring that all unsafe residential blocks are fully remediated, and my noble Friend Lord Foster’s proposal on curb…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Statutory Instrument
12 November 2025
2 contributions
Draft Infrastructure Planning (Business or Commercial Projects) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Murrison. The Liberal Democrats broadly support the statutory instrument, but we have a number of issues to raise. One is that this measure should not mean the overriding of all planning policy. Indeed, green belt policy needs to be protected. Alth…
I intervene simply to place on the record my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I recently undertook a study trip to Denmark to look at waste heat. I probably should have put that on the record, but it is in the register.
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
Remembrance Day: Armed Forces
It is a privilege to be able to stand in today’s debate and pay tribute to those who fought for this country, but that is nothing compared with how humbling it was to stand with veterans this morning and on Sunday in my Taunton and Wellington constituency to consider the massive sacrifices made by v…
Commons
Debate
4 November 2025
Supporting High Streets
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we should also look at the police having the power to close illegal shops and stop them trading immediately, rather than having to take lengthy processes through the courts before they can be closed down?
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 November 2025
Houses in Multiple Occupation: Planning Consent
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Dowd. I warmly congratulate the hon. Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) on securing this important debate on a matter that clearly resonates, as we can see from the number of Members present. I recognise entirely the concerns that he and other hon. …
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
3 November 2025
Topical Questions
T3. I warmly welcome, as do the families of 40 Commando in Taunton, the Government’s adoption of the decent homes standard proposed from the Liberal Democrat Benches, and the £9 billion investment. Can the Minister give an indication of the timescale within which all service family accommodation wil…
Commons
Debate
30 October 2025
Property Service Charges
I warmly congratulate the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) on securing what, given the number of Members taking part, has clearly been an important debate.
Liberal Members of this place have been campaigning to end residential leasehold and the charges it entails since Lloyd George, who, at t…
Commons
Debate
28 October 2025
6 contributions
Stamp Duty Land Tax
Access to home ownership has never been harder. Fewer and fewer people can afford to buy a home of their own, and 12,000 households in my county of Somerset are languishing on the waiting list unable to get a home at a decent rent. We have heard a lot about Mrs Thatcher, but since the sell-off of co…
I understand why Conservative Members keep asking us to look forward not backwards: their own Government’s experience with the Truss Budget is one that they do not want to remember and would like to forget, but unfortunately its effects were long, far-reaching and serious for all of our constituents…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
Employment: People with Health Conditions
Four thousand people in Somerset, many of them with disabilities, are being transitioned from employment and support allowance to universal credit. They were assured that they would not lose out, but one constituent waited three months with no income at all, until an intervention by me and the Depar…
Commons
Debate
22 October 2025
Renters’ Rights Bill
I look forward to Parliament finally passing legislation that will bring long-overdue protections to tenants. We do not believe, like the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Braintree (Sir James Cleverly), that tenants’ rights are “all well and good”. They are not all well and good.…