Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Debate between Lord Pickles and Lindsay Hoyle(9 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Pickles
We are talking about something in the region of £400 million in London. The hon. Lady needs to understand that she is the queen of the cheap point. None of us will forget the tweet she sent out—[Interruption.]
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. Just to help everybody, it should be the Chair who everybody speaks to and addresses.
Mr Pickles
Thank God you’re here, Mr Deputy Speaker. I was very happy to address the hon. Lady, but you were absolutely right to pull me up on that point of etiquette.
The plans are there; they are published. If the hon. Lady cannot be bothered to look at the plans and work with her local council, that is hardly our fault.
Winter Floods
Debate between Lord Pickles and Lindsay Hoyle(10 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Pickles
I suspect that might concern my coalition partners. I can recognise an elephant trap when it is there.
With regard to eligibility, absolutely—the local authority will of course be eligible for the scheme. The hon. Gentleman’s council has not yet made a claim, which is not unreasonable, and that is why we have extended it to the end of March.
The amount of building on the floodplain is at an all-time low. In fact, it is the lowest—[Interruption.] I am terribly sorry, but there are noises off. As I was trying to say before I was bullied by Opposition Members, such building is at the lowest level ever. I think that about 99% of objections by experts in relation to floodplains have been successful.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
I do not think that we need to worry about the Secretary of State being bullied. Any Bradford Bulls supporter well knows how to deal with being bullied.
Mr Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane) (LD)
To offer a balanced view, it is fair to say that many residents of Somerset feel that the Government were slow off the mark, but they are now grateful that the Government appear to be acting in a way that matches the enormous size of the challenge, particularly in dredging the River Tone and the River Parrett. Will the extra funding support, which the Secretary of State talked about today and the Prime Minister talked about yesterday, be made available in the long term for long-term solutions? There is now flooding right across Taunton Deane, not just on the Levels, and dealing with the problem requires a river catchment approach and a longer-term view, not only immediate responses to emergencies.
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)
I have just heard and read the Secretary of State’s statement on behalf of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and there was no mention of resources for emergency services. Between September and December last year, my East Cleveland constituency suffered badly from the surges and floods on the east coast of England. Instigated by the Secretary of State, there has been a cumulative cut of £4 million to Cleveland fire brigade over this Parliament, and there will be a further cumulative cut of £5.96 million to 2017-18. It is not a statutory requirement to respond to flooding, so how will emergency services deal with flooding in the future?
Mr Deputy Speaker
Before the Secretary of State stands up, may I say that we need quick questions and brevity in answers? I want to get every hon. Member in on this important statement, but there is a very important and over-subscribed debate to follow.
Mr Pickles
The hon. Gentleman asks whether we should make responding to flooding a statutory requirement for our fire authorities. I am afraid that that is a rather old-fashioned view. How we respond to emergencies is well set out through local resilience forums: it relates not just to the fire authority, but goes right across local authorities, including to the health authority and the like. Frankly, those obligations are laid down in legislation and work perfectly well.
Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)
The Secretary of State said that the Government will work to defend “both town and country” and that there are lessons to be learned about the “resilience of our nation”, so I assume that he regrets the swingeing cuts to flood defence work. In view of the increased extreme weather, will he accept that it is time to implement the Pitt review in relation to the statutory responsibilities of the fire and rescue services, and to reverse the cuts that he is making to firefighters? [Interruption.] There will 5,000 fewer firefighters by 2015 than there were in 2010. They do heroic work in rescuing people—[Interruption.]
Mr Deputy Speaker
Order. I think that the Secretary of State has certainly got the message. It is not helpful for other hon. Members to join in, because I may have to ask for the question to be repeated if I cannot hear it. I want to get you all in, but please help me to do so.
Mr Pickles
Heaven forbid that the last question should be repeated! The hon. Gentleman is simply gullible if he believes everything that comes from the unions. He seems to be more interested in union rights than in the people who are suffering because of the flooding.
Mr Deputy Speaker
That is a bad example of being brief. Hon. Members must be brief; otherwise, they will stop colleagues getting in.
Cost of Living
Debate between Lord Pickles and Lindsay Hoyle
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. As the Secretary of State has pointed out, he does not have time to give way. Voices can be saved for tomorrow.
Mr Pickles
I am most grateful, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Labour in Wales hit the housing market with extra red tape, adding £13,000 to the cost of building a new home in comparison with England. Labour has cut the right to buy, abolishing it completely in parts of Wales. Labour has failed to introduce support for new home buyers. Their new-buy scheme will not start until next year.
Whether it be in England or Wales, Labour’s economic policy could be summed up, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, as “If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; if it stops moving, subsidise it”. Labour wants to tax enterprise and hard-working people to pay for the same old borrow-and-spend policies. It wants to regulate small business, high streets and landlords—
Growth and Infrastructure Bill
Debate between Lord Pickles and Lindsay Hoyle
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
I beg to move, That this House disagrees with Lords amendment 7.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
With this it will be convenient to discuss Lords amendments 1 to 6, 8 to 24 and 26 to 40.
Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)
I do not know about omelettes, but the Secretary of State is making a very soft-boiled case for supporting the Government, and I am really trying hard. I do not know about him, but I hear complaints from many of my constituents, at my surgeries or through local councillors, that their neighbours have extended the remit of their planning permissions in terms of height, length or type. How many more complaints does he think will be made to us when planning permission is no longer required for a development that a neighbour would regard as completely unacceptable and antisocial?
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. We must have shorter interventions.
Mr Pickles
When I became Member of Parliament for Brentford and Ongar, my predecessor gave me a single file and two pieces of advice. The first was that when the sun rose I should always be found in my own bed, and the second was “Never, in any circumstances, become involved in planning.” Since then, I have been made a Planning Minister. My advice to my hon. Friend is not to become too heavily involved in disputes between neighbours.