"My Lords, there is a real issue around the allocation of funding for homelessness prevention. While the strategy helpfully recognises this and commits to some adjustments, we still have no published needs-based formula. When will we get one? Will it set out how rent levels, housing supply and market-measured pressures …..." Baroness Thornhill - View Speech
"My Lords, it is important to recognise the significant progress made recently, but, sadly, much less progress has been made on the 253 applications for remedial work to existing high-rise buildings. Some of this involved residents having to move out while still paying their mortgages and management fees for properties …..." Baroness Thornhill - View Speech
"My Lords, I am broadly in favour of the amendments in this group. As a general principle, we are in favour of any amendments that are genuinely about devolution and not just decentralisation. As we are all aware, there is a significant difference. However, we are aware that this brings …..." Baroness Thornhill - View Speech
"My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendment 112. I start by thanking my noble friend Lady Pinnock for pitching in on the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Best, in the wee small hours as I attempted to get my last train. I was very pleased to support …..." Baroness Thornhill - View Speech
"My Lords, I rise to support the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, as we did in Committee, and in particular to talk about this broader area. My Amendment 92 is similar to that from the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, but takes it up to a greater level.
"I absolutely understand those points; as a localism person, obviously I agree with that. However, the key issue is that planning officers are playing “safety first”. Their immediate response is, “No”, for the reasons that the noble Earl, Lord Erroll, set out earlier. Is there any way we can strengthen …..." Baroness Thornhill - View Speech
"My Lords, I was very pleased when this amendment was debated in Committee, as there was a very small but warm consensus that it seemed fair and reasonable. We are well aware that SMEs face many challenges, but we believe that this is a small but significant signal to them …..." Baroness Thornhill - View Speech
"My Lords, it is of absolutely no surprise to me that the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, spotted my drafting omission, which is why we always take his amendments seriously. I hope that the Minister will take on board his comments, which I thought were quite pertinent.
"My Lords, we clearly have grey-belt/green-belt confusion when planning inspectors are approving more than 70% of major residential grey-belt appeals. These appeals are expensive, time-consuming and quite obviously delay housing delivery. Given this clear disconnect between local interpretation and national policy success at appeal, will the Government please issue some …..." Baroness Thornhill - View Speech