Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Lord Fink, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
Lord Fink has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Lord Fink has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The Government is committed to delivering on our world-leading target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from across the UK economy by 2050. The Prime Minister has announced that 2020 will be a Year of Climate Action. In the run-up to the COP26 summit, we will be bringing forward ambitious plans across key sectors of the economy to meet our carbon budgets and net zero – including an Energy White Paper, Transport Decarbonisation Plan and Heat Roadmap. This will build on the £2 billion we have announced since setting the target and the commitments in our manifesto – from investing £9.2 billion in the energy efficiency of our buildings, to £800 million to deploy the first carbon capture and storage cluster in the UK, to planting an additional 75,000 acres of trees a year by the end of the parliament.
The UK’s success in the global economy will be rooted in innovation and cutting-edge technology. By driving technological change, we will create the high quality, highly paid jobs of the future, the Budget sets out plans to increase public R&D investment to £22 billion per year by 2024-25. The Government will invest that money in the people, ideas and industries that will cement the UK’s world-leading position in science and technologies ranging from nuclear fusion to electric vehicles and life sciences.
The Government expects the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to be in place by the end of April, including a new online portal through which businesses can access the Scheme.
The Scheme is a significant programme of work, and one of many Coronavirus-related changes and programmes that are being implemented at present. Nonetheless, HM Revenue and Customs are working at pace to allow the Scheme to be up and running.
Guidance for employers and employees has already been published on GOV.UK.
Guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was published on 26 March for both employers and employees. The guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.
This is an unprecedented jobs retention scheme and the Government has been working hard over the last two weeks to set out further details on the scheme. The Government will continue to review the guidance and publish further updates if necessary.
Continuing to build the homes the country needs is a priority for the Government and we have been supporting the sector through various measures to bolster confidence and retain capacity. In addition to the broader business support packages announced by the Chancellor, including the Bounce Back Loan and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan schemes, the £2.5 billion Home Building Fund (Short Term Fund), first launched in 2016, also remains open to new borrowers. The fund is targeted at small and medium builders that have been unable to access lending via the market and will help viable development schemes progress. We have also made available £1 billion of guarantee support to SMEs through the ENABLE Build scheme.
We will continue to engage regularly with all parts of the housing industry to understand and monitor the impact of Coronavirus.
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of social housing and has made £9bn available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022 to deliver approximately 250,000 new affordable homes in a wide range of tenures, including Social Rent, Shared Ownership and Rent to Buy. A mix of different tenures is vital to meet the needs of a wide range of people, and allow the sector to build the right homes in the right places.
Building on this, we announced at Budget 2020 that we are investing £12bn to build affordable homes between 2021/22 and 2025/26. This will be the biggest cash investment in affordable housing for a decade.