Housing White Paper
Debate between Sajid Javid and William Wragg(7 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Sajid Javid
We have increased local councils’ borrowing ability, but where the most ambitious councils that have good, sensible plans want to come forward to do a deal with central Government, we are listening. That invitation is in the White Paper.
William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)
Can a self-imposed housing target become the exceptional circumstance to build on the green belt?
Sajid Javid
My hon. Friend helps me to highlight, again, the way in which we have tackled the green belt in this White Paper by keeping all its existing protections and demonstrating, for the first time, exactly all the hoops a local authority has to go through to show us categorically that it has looked at all other reasonable options.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Sajid Javid and William Wragg(8 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)
13. What steps he is taking to reduce the level of business regulation.
The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (Sajid Javid)
The Government committed in their manifesto to cut £10 billion of business red tape through the business impact target. We will report on our progress in June this year.
William Wragg
The Government are doing well to cut regulation at home, but we cannot ignore the fact that the most burdensome regulations on British companies come from the European Union and cost British business £22 billion a year. Given that there were 1,469 new pieces of EU regulation and 51 EU directives in 2015, is it not clear that the only way to end the cost to British business is to vote to leave?
Sajid Javid
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise the issue of cutting business regulation, but I do not recognise the £22 billion a year figure for EU regulation. I am sure that he will agree that as well as looking at the costs of regulation, we should consider the benefits of the single market. With 500 million consumers, it is the world’s largest economic zone, and there is no doubt that it helps to generate jobs throughout Britain, including in Greater Manchester.