Tenant Fees Bill

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

3rd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Tuesday 15th January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, I have it in command from Her Majesty the Queen to acquaint the House that Her Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Tenant Fees Bill, has consented to place her prerogative and interest, so far as they are affected by the Bill, at the disposal of Parliament for the purposes of the Bill.

Clause 11: Interest on payments under section 10

Amendment 1

Moved by

Affordable Housing: Social Homes for Rent

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, following on from my noble friend’s question—

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Best.

[Lord Best]

Thank you, I am most grateful. I congratulate the Government on moving towards more genuinely affordable low rents. We are seeing a swing in the pendulum; I hope that it is just the start of a swing that goes a lot further than it has done so far, but we are now heading in the right direction. Can the Minister impress on his Treasury colleagues that it really is important that rents are low enough for people genuinely to afford because otherwise the Treasury is paying more in housing benefit, people’s work incentives are much worse, and we end up with homelessness? We can see already that housing associations and councils have to turn people away because those on the lowest incomes cannot afford the so-called “affordable rents”. It would be to the benefit of the Treasury if the Minister could argue the case for more grant aid in support of real social rents.

Anti-terrorism: Hate Speech

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Wednesday 27th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Afshar (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, I think that we should hear from the Lib Dems and then there will be time for the Cross-Benchers.

Thirlmere Reservoir

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Thursday 25th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Noble Lords]

Tebbit!

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, I suggest that we hear from the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit.

Homelessness: Emergency Housing

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Thursday 7th December 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Spicer (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, it is the Liberal Democrats’ turn.

[Lord Shipley]

My Lords, I remind the House of my registered interests. May I remind the Minister that in the Budget, the Government committed themselves to eliminating rough sleeping only by 2027? Why will it take 10 years?

Wales Bill

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

3rd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 18th January 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, I have it in command from Her Majesty the Queen to acquaint the House that Her Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Wales Bill, has consented to place her interest and prerogative, so far as they are affected by the Bill, at the disposal of Parliament for the purposes of the Bill.

Clause 4: Devolved Welsh authorities

Amendment 1

Moved by

Wales Bill

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Report: 2nd sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Tuesday 10th January 2017 Lords Chamber

Relevant documents: 5th and 10th Reports from the Delegated Powers Committee

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, in the absence of my noble friend Lord Bourne, I propose that the House do adjourn for five minutes during pleasure.

Energy Bill [HL]

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Tuesday 12th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, I have it in command from Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to acquaint the House that they, having been informed of the purport of the Energy Bill, have consented to place their prerogative and interest, so far as they are affected by the Bill, at the disposal of Parliament for the purposes of the Bill.

Motion on Commons Amendment 1

Moved by

Energy Bill [HL]

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, I should like to say a word in support of my noble friend Lady Worthington because this is not just an isolated example of the Government treating this House, and Parliament, in a cavalier fashion. If I may give another example, next week we were due to have a debate on English votes for English laws. It was promised again and again by the Leader of the House, the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell—I notice that she has disappeared—yet it has been switched. We are to have a debate on the size of the House, which is not an immediately urgent matter, yet the Commons will make a decision at some point about English votes for English laws and we were given the assurance that we would be able to feed into that. My understanding—I hope that the Chief Whip will answer this—is that the decision to move the debate on English votes for English laws off the agenda for next week was taken unilaterally by the Government and that when the Opposition were consulted, we said that we did not want to change. We wanted to have the English votes for English laws debate because it was promised to this House. That is another example of the cavalier way in which the Government treat this House, wanting to bulldoze their business through. It is about time that some people in this House stood up and said that Parliament has a responsibility to challenge the Government. The Leader of the House may think that we should come in only one day a week when we want to say a few words but we are here to hold the Government to account.

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

The noble Lord has asked that I say something about the decision to change the agenda for the coming two weeks to allow the House to discuss the whole business of its membership. I think the House is acutely conscious of the issues raised in the media and by other noble Lords. I felt it was right and proper, as did the Leader of the House, that we should have an opportunity to debate this while we are here. As the noble Lord will know, we had promised a debate on EVEL. He made a point about that. Subsequently, this House decided to support very strongly a Motion from the noble Lord, Lord Butler, for a Joint Committee of both Houses to consider this matter. There has been no reply to this Motion from the House of Commons and, in the absence of a reply, if I am honest, there is not much that the Government could say in this House on this issue at this time.

I felt it was proper that we should deal with something of immediate concern to this House. That is why the Leader informed all sides of the House. There were consultations and there were reservations about changing business, but nobody does this freely or without proper consideration of what is right and proper. I am sure all noble Lords are pleased that we will have the opportunity to debate in full the future of this House and its future reform in terms of the Motion tabled by the Government and the Motions of the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, and the noble Lord, Lord Steel, which will be debated at the same time next Tuesday.

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Thursday 20th January 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

I shall come to that in a moment. I was sent out, not by the Secretary of State but by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to Montserrat to calm things down. The airport had of course closed and I arrived by helicopter—I am not an inconsiderable figure, as noble Lords will observe—clad in a very large, bright orange outfit. I disembarked from the helicopter and saw all the cameras.

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

My Lords, I think the noble Lord has the opportunity of moving his amendment and seeking to test the opinion of the House or of withdrawing his amendment. I think it would help the House if he gave an indication of what he would like to do so we can carry on with business.