Business of the House
Chris Hinchliff Excerpts(1 week, 6 days ago)
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Sir Alan Campbell
As the right hon. Gentleman knows, the Chancellor will bring forward her Budget at the end of next month. Some of those issues may or may not be addressed in that, but there certainly will be days of debate after the Budget in which such issues can be discussed. In the meantime, however, I will draw the Chancellor’s attention to his points and, if we can, get a better answer than the one I can give him.
Chris Hinchliff (North East Hertfordshire) (Ind)
Neil Whitehouse, a loving father and grandfather who lived in my constituency, sadly lost his fight with cancer earlier this year. Neil was a lifelong advocate of the NHS, but tragically delays in communication between NHS departments may have prevented him receiving earlier, lifesaving treatment. We cannot give back to Neil’s family the time they lost with him, but we can ensure that the NHS he loved learns the lessons from his case. May we have a debate on improving integration and communication within the NHS to honour Neil Whitehouse’s memory?
Sir Alan Campbell
I am sure the whole House will join me in sending our condolences to the family and friends of Neil Whitehouse. The 10-year health plan will deliver a single patient record that will, following consultation, go live from 2028. We expect that to go towards resolving some of the issues the hon. Gentleman describes, but he may wish to look towards the Backbench Business Committee or an Adjournment debate to raise them, because I am sure colleagues across the House share his concerns.
Business of the House
Chris Hinchliff Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Chris Hinchliff (North East Hertfordshire) (Ind)
The current drafting of national planning policy is allowing developers to ride roughshod over local democracy, imposing completely inappropriate bolt-on estates to market towns such as Buntingford and Royston, while wholly failing to deliver the genuinely affordable housing that we need. It is difficult to imagine a system and state of affairs more likely to erode public support for the Government’s house building ambitions. Can we have a debate in Government time to ensure the presumption in favour of sustainable development achieves what it is intended to, rather than the current farce?
Lucy Powell
I thank the hon. Member for raising that issue. We are unashamedly pro house building as a Government, but as he says, that does not mean we are pro developers getting away with poor developments. That is why communities need to continue to have a say in what they are doing. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is in the House of Lords at the moment and will come back to this place soon for further debate.