Levelling Up

Baroness Pidding Excerpts

Thursday 18th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I refer to my previous answer: there is a series of provisional outcomes and metrics. I just pointed to table 2H as an example of one that affects my department. Those metrics are then captured by departments in their outcome delivery plans.

[Baroness Pidding (Con) [V]]

My Lords, at the last election, people voted Conservative, some for the first time, because they believed in levelling up and our vision of spreading prosperity to areas neglected by Labour. Does my noble friend agree that, by ensuring that every part of the country can bid for, and benefit from, the levelling-up fund, we are accelerating our transformational levelling-up agenda?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My noble friend is right that the levelling-up fund will operate right across the United Kingdom. It will invest in infrastructure and improve everyday life across the United Kingdom by regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport and investing in cultural and heritage assets.

Covid-19: Housing

Baroness Pidding Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh]

I thank my noble friend. There is no doubt that, like all others, the construction industry needs to embrace digital solutions in the digital era, which will help to ensure that construction is safer going forward.

[Baroness Pidding (Con)]

I welcome my noble friend to his ministerial position. I commend the Government on their proposals to provide help for private tenants. However, we need to recognise that many tenants’ rent arrears will grow over time, causing problems not merely for them but for small private landlords. Will my noble friend the Minister consider a scheme like that of the Spanish Government, offering tenants low-interest loans to help them to pay the rent and the landlords to receive it?