Falkland Islands Defence Review

Debate between Bob Russell and Michael Fallon

Tuesday 24th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fallon]

We have a number of contingency plans, which we continue to refresh, to deal with any increase in the threat level. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will understand that I am not able to spell them out to the House in public session, but I assure him that those contingency plans exist. We take them out every so often to ensure that they are appropriate to the existing level of threat.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

As has been mentioned, my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) and I visited the Falklands at the end of January, and our report was sent by the Defence Committee to the Ministry of Defence. For security reasons, I cannot comment on most of our recommendations, but I draw the House’s attention to the £10 million saved by the Royal Engineers with the new accommodation for personnel that they are building at a radar head we visited. May I urge the Secretary of State to use £1 million or so of that saving to prevent false economy savings and ensure that Mare harbour is fit for purpose and compliant with international maritime regulations?

[Michael Fallon]

I referred specifically to the refurbishment of Mare harbour. I am able to tell my hon. Friend, and the hon. Member for Halton (Derek Twigg), who also asked about this issue, that the programme to develop Mare harbour is expected to be complete by the end of 2017.

UK Armed Forces (Iraq)

Debate between Bob Russell and Michael Fallon

Monday 15th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fallon]

I welcome the recent rapprochement between the regional administration in the Kurdish areas and Baghdad. It is essential that that is built upon so that oil revenues can be properly allocated and spending, especially on the military, can be considered by the Government of Iraq as a whole. The priority now is surely to halt the advance of ISIL and help the Government of Iraq, the Iraqi army and the Kurdish forces to push it back from the territory that it has claimed.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

Last Monday afternoon, members of the Defence Committee were at the presidential palace in Baghdad, and in answer to my questions the President said no to British troops on the ground against insurgents but yes to more equipment and training and a continuation of the airstrikes. Does the Secretary of State agree with the President and me that if UK combat troops returned, they could be regarded as occupying forces, which would create other difficulties for Iraq?

[Michael Fallon]

I agree with both my hon. Friend and the President of Iraq, in no particular order. The President of Iraq himself has said that he does not want British or any other foreign combat troops involved, which is why we need to make it absolutely clear that we are not proposing to return combat troops to Iraq. The effort that we are making is relatively small-scale and should be seen alongside the contributions being promised by others, including the Germans, the Spanish, the Danes, the Italians, the Australians and the New Zealanders, all of whom are considering what effort they can make to help with training and equipment.

Afghanistan

Debate between Bob Russell and Michael Fallon

Thursday 27th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fallon]

If I may, I will write to the hon. Gentleman on the details of the subsidy that is made available to farmers. We should be frank about this, however, and he is right to draw attention to the challenge posed by the poppy crop. It has increased—let us make no bones about that—and it presents a threat not just to the future of Afghanistan but to the west as well, where these drugs eventually get through. So it is a challenge that the new Government have to surmount, and in doing so they are going to need all the assistance and expertise that other countries can offer.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

I support the Defence Secretary’s tributes in his statement, and as a constituency MP I wish to draw attention to 16 Air Assault Brigade. Can he elaborate on the priorities for the new Afghan Government in working towards stronger economic development? Will that include bringing on stream the turbine at Kajaki dam, which soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade took there more than six years ago?

[Michael Fallon]

I note the tribute my hon. Friend has paid to his own unit. I could easily have singled out a whole number of units but I deliberately did not because the campaign in Afghanistan involved many—from all three service in the end—and I thought it invidious to pay tribute to any particular one. However, I certainly pay tribute to his.

I am familiar with the turbine that was, at some cost and with great difficulty, brought up to the dam, and I believe there are plans to get that working finally. I will write to my hon. Friend with details on that.

Growth and Infrastructure Bill

Debate between Bob Russell and Michael Fallon

Monday 17th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fallon]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.

The Bill is about the coalition’s priority: promoting economic growth. It contains a range of practical measures to boost infrastructure, increase housing supply and simplify planning rules, and all those things will make a difference now. I am grateful to the House for acting so swiftly in considering the Bill and I thank all colleagues who have contributed today, in Committee and on Second Reading. I particularly wish to thank the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Grantham and Stamford (Nick Boles), who shouldered most of the burden, and the Opposition for ensuring that, although we did not come to agreement on all the main issues, they were at least properly ventilated and discussed.

As amended, the Bill will provide for commencement on Royal Assent for clauses that support stalled sites being unblocked, broadband being rolled out, the removal of legislative blocks on the gas innovation network competition, and broadening the major infrastructure regime—key reforms to promote growth, on which the Government are acting decisively. It is regrettable that the Labour party stands alone in failing to appreciate the urgency of the Bill and in continuing to oppose it.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

Does the Minister agree that where the landowner blocking a development happens to be a Government Department—that is the case with the national health service and the missing link of road infrastructure in north Colchester—other Departments must bring pressure to bear and have joined-up governance so that the land can be released, rather than other less-desirable land going instead?

[Michael Fallon]

I understand that and it is such a skilful piece of constituency pleading that I fear I may have to address it in greater detail in writing. I will do that in the next few days if the hon. Gentleman will allow me.

Local councils and communities are at the heart of the planning process and we have no intention of changing that. We reject the flawed approach of top-down Whitehall housing targets and it is for local councils to determine where development should go and how best to meet housing need. That is why our policy is to revoke Labour’s regional strategies as soon as possible. Indeed, we have laid an order in Parliament to revoke the east of England regional strategy, which will come into force on 3 January.

Our reforms have given significant additional power to councils and communities but with that comes the responsibility to exercise planning functions properly. The measures in the Bill for tackling poor performance are aimed squarely at councils that are failing to deliver an effective service. Applicants can reasonably expect timely and good quality decisions—justice delayed is justice denied. Most councils deal with planning applications efficiently, but a small minority need to raise their game if we are to ensure that their local areas do not lose out in the recovery that is now under way. The Bill is therefore not about removing local people’s involvement in planning decisions. Where a decision is made by the Planning Inspectorate, local people will still have their say in the same way as they would if the decision were made by their local planning authority, but slow decisions are bad for local communities as well as for the wider economy.

The Bill also seeks to broaden the scope of the nationally significant infrastructure planning regime to promote investment, so that developers of large-scale business and commercial schemes will have the option to request to use the infrastructure regime. Given that the speed with which large-scale major applications are determined is falling, it is right to offer developers an alternative.

The need for affordable housing remains high, and the coalition is committed to unlocking stalled sites where affordable housing obligations make them unviable because they are economically unrealistic or were negotiated during Labour’s housing bubble. Let me repeat: affordable housing that is stalled is not affordable housing; it is non-existent housing. The Bill will enable developers to challenge the affordable housing elements if they make the site unviable.

As well as making those reforms to the planning system, the Bill will facilitate infrastructure investment, which is crucial for jobs and growth. Our ambition is for the UK to have the best superfast broadband of any major European country by 2015. It is vital that the deployment of broadband is fast-tracked to support the UK’s long-term economic future, but roll-out is being delayed or blocked because of planning requirements. As a result of this Bill alone, we estimate that 4.4 million more people will have access to superfast broadband. Without that measure, many hard-to-reach areas would be left unserved.

The Bill also amends the Electricity Act 1989 so that developers of power generating stations that want to apply to change their projects will in most cases need to undertake only a three-month consultation, rather than going through the whole process of applying for consent again. That could unlock investment decisions across a range of technologies, bringing thousands of new jobs and millions of pounds of investment to the UK economy.

As well as making the reforms I have mentioned, the Bill cuts red tape to speed up processes. In particular, it carries forward recommendations from the Penfold review of non-planning consents, most significantly the reforms to the town and village green registration system, which we discussed albeit briefly just before Third Reading.

As well as making the reforms to the planning system and unlocking infrastructure investment, the Bill contains two important economic measures. First, it postpones revaluation 2015 in England to avoid local firms and shops facing unexpected hikes in their business rate bills over the next five years. As business rates are linked to inflation, there will be no real-terms increase in rates over the period. That reform will provide certainty for business to plan and invest, supporting local growth. Secondly, as we have discussed at some length, the Bill creates a new employee-shareholder status to increase the range of employment contracts that businesses and employees can use. The measure is about increasing choice and flexibility in the employment relationship. The Bill makes it absolutely clear that it will be for the employer to choose to offer the new status, and for an individual to choose whether to accept it.

In conclusion, the House this evening has the chance to vote for practical measures to boost growth. The Bill will unblock delays in the planning system, encourage faster roll-out of superfast broadband, bring forward investment in energy projects, and give employers and employees more choice and flexibility. The Opposition repeatedly attack the Government for failing to do enough on growth, as if some magic wand could repair at a single stroke the terrible damage they inflicted on our economy. In the Leader of the Opposition’s speech to the CBI last month, he said:

“Enterprise and job creation are fundamental to the good economy and good society, and I will lead a party that understands that at its core”,

but businesses that back the Bill will see that, when his party has the chance to live up to those words and support reforms to promote growth, it votes against them. Government Members instinctively understand enterprise and will back the risk-takers and those willing to invest in creating jobs and growth. We want to help to modernise our economy, our infrastructure and our planning system. Only one part of this country resists modernisation—the Labour party. Better planning, more affordable housing, faster broadband, bigger investment in infrastructure and a boost for share ownership are the core of the Bill, and I commend it to the House.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bob Russell and Michael Fallon

Thursday 8th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fallon]

As I have already said, we are investing £4.5 billion to fund new affordable homes over the spending review period, all of which is committed to be spent in this Parliament. That is leveraging in a further £15 billion of private sector investment. We are on track to deliver 170,000 affordable homes by 2015.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

14. If he will bring forward legislative proposals to prevent owners of businesses which have failed with debts outstanding from starting new businesses of an identical or similar nature.