Illegal Migration

Debate between Ben Spencer and Robert Jenrick

Tuesday 24th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dr Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his announcements and the progress in this area. We urgently need to move people out of hotels and to instead provide stable, cost-effective accommodation that meets the needs of asylum seekers and the communities we serve. We all need to do our bit. We have received proposals from Home Office officials for asylum accommodation locally that would not work. The officials have been very helpful, but will the Minister agree to meet me and Runnymede Borough Council leader Tom Gracey to discuss alternative proposals to do our bit?

[Robert Jenrick]

I would be pleased to do so. One innovation that we have started this week is to write to all local authorities with an open offer: if they can bring forward better proposals for asylum accommodation than the Home Office’s providers, we would be happy to work directly with them. If my hon. Friend’s local council has ideas that would be more suitable, better value for money and more in line with the wishes of the local community, we will take them very seriously.

Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement

Debate between Ben Spencer and Robert Jenrick

Thursday 17th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Robert Jenrick]

The hon. Lady makes an interesting argument, because we on the Government Benches want to see more private sector investment going into the great cities of the midlands and the north. We want to see more homes, more urban regeneration, and more brilliant and inspired schemes coming to constituencies such as hers. That is exactly the approach we have taken with respect to the local housing need, and I respectfully ask her to show a little bit more ambition for her community. The three-year annual delivery of homes in Sheffield is 2,500 homes; the new local housing need that we have proposed is 2,800 homes, so if the hon. Lady truly believes that 300 extra homes could not be built in a great city such as Sheffield, then I think she is talking it down, which I am sure is not her intention. However, through your auspices, Madam Deputy Speaker, can I offer her and, particularly, her mother—who has done a fantastic job leading her city over a very challenging year—a very happy Christmas?

[Dr Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for this much-needed further financial support for our local authorities, which lead the local response to covid. Local government staff in Runnymede and Elmbridge borough councils and Surrey County Council have worked tirelessly this year to provide essential services to my constituents, and will continue to do so over Christmas and the new year break and beyond. With Runnymede and Weybridge now entering tier 3 restrictions, will my right hon. Friend join me in thanking those staff for their efforts, and agree that we must continue to support our local authorities and the fantastic work they do for our communities?

[Robert Jenrick]

I would be delighted to join my hon. Friend in thanking the brilliant staff at his local councils. I have been consistently delighted and impressed by the fantastic work that staff at local councils have done across the country, including my own in Newark and Sherwood, Rushcliffe and Bassetlaw, and Nottinghamshire County Council. I am sure that all of us in the House want to join together to thank them and wish them a healthy and peaceful Christmas.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Spencer and Robert Jenrick

Monday 16th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Robert Jenrick]

The Department has already made it clear that a robust process was established—before I became Secretary of State. It was followed to the letter and we will not apologise for investing in communities that have been under-invested in and undervalued by the Labour party for generations. With respect to the accounting officer’s report, accounting officer assessments are not routinely published. That is a matter for the Department, which I am sure will consider it and reply to the Select Committee in due course. But I can assure the hon. Gentleman that he will not deter us from our mission to level up all parts of the country.

[Dr Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge) (Con)]

. My right hon. Friend knows that homes alone will not stop homelessness, and that many of the drivers of homelessness, such as mental illness, addiction, debt and low social capital, need tackling in a comprehensive homelessness strategy. Will he confirm that the Protect programme will co-ordinate this wraparound support, which is so needed to help people who are homeless?

[Robert Jenrick]

I can do that. My hon. Friend shares my belief that street homelessness is a crisis not just of housing, but of health, mental health and addiction as well. Our approach from the start of the pandemic has been not only to bring people in off the streets into safe and secure accommodation, but to ensure at all times that they have that wraparound support. That was part of the success of Everyone In and it is part of the Protect programme, and it learns from the enormous success of the Housing First pilots that we have initiated in parts of the country.