Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Grant Shapps and Tony Lloyd(1 year, 1 month ago)
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Grant Shapps
As I have described, it is a complex position on the ground to get the aid all the way through, but I am happy to either meet or take details from my hon. Friend to ensure that those donations get where they are intended.
Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)
Defence Ministers will be aware that the situation in Kosovo is deteriorating dramatically. Can the Secretary of State give us an assurance that the current international military presence there is sufficient to counter any threat from Belgrade?
Grant Shapps
When the Supreme Allied Commander Europe asked us for additional support for the Kosovo-Serbian border, the answer was immediately yes, that weekend, and we have a battalion there now, which is doing a great job. That has contributed to a lessening of tensions, and we are keeping a close eye on it in our conversations, to ensure that we do not see the situation erupt.
Integrated Rail Plan: North and Midlands
Debate between Grant Shapps and Tony Lloyd(3 years, 1 month ago)
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Grant Shapps
No. With the greatest respect, I do not accept that narrative for several reasons. First, that was Transport for the North’s suggestion—and actually it was to be a 29-minute journey. That was one of the options, and another of those options is what we are doing. Secondly, as I have said to the House, there are many benefits to Bradford—including that 12-minute journey to Leeds and a journey at least half an hour shorter to London—which all come about because of the integrated rail plan. Governments have to make decisions, and I accept that we cannot do everything all of the time everywhere, but, when my hon. Friend speaks to his constituents, he will be able to tell them about dramatically improved journey times as a result of the plan.
Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)
A few moments ago, in response to the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone), the Secretary of State extolled the virtues of electrification. Any real plan for the north of England would have: electrification from the seats of my hon. Friends in Hull all the way through to Liverpool; access to Sheffield from Manchester; and access to Newcastle and the north-east. That scale of imagination is lacking in the announcement. Will he guarantee that no damage will be done that would prevent a more ambitious programme in the future?
Grant Shapps
It might have been lost in translation, but Liverpool to York is a core part of the NPR programme. As I have said before, it will be electrified and have some high-speed lines, too. None of this prevents further electrification. There are new plans to stretch beyond Hull to Newcastle and more. Obviously, no Government can do this in a single go. The plans I have announced today accelerate dramatically the advantages that constituents will get across the north, because it will now happen in this decade—starting from Christmas. This speeds up a lot of that, and the hon. Gentleman is right to say it does not prejudice anything else happening in the future.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Grant Shapps and Tony Lloyd(3 years, 9 months ago)
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Grant Shapps
The £2.8 billion referred to earlier is designed to do exactly that—for example, investment in a megafactory or a gigafactory to produce those batteries, which is one of the largest components of bringing down the price so that cars are affordable. It is also worth considering that we already have more rapid chargers per 100 miles driven than any country in the EU.
Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)
Grant Shapps
I thank the hon. Gentleman. I am not familiar with that situation, so I am grateful to him for bringing it to my attention, and I assure him that I will look into it this afternoon. On the wider point, he is right to say that right now people are being told to stay at home and avoid travelling. We must do a lot of work to encourage people back on to our public transport—it is important we do that—and as I have hinted to others, he will not have to wait long for a national bus strategy, which I hope will answer all his questions.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Grant Shapps and Tony Lloyd
Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)
T7. An antisocial neighbour, whether the tenant of a private landlord, a social landlord or a public landlord, can not only make their neighbours’ lives a misery but destroy a whole estate. On that basis, rather than reducing the role of communities through local councils, why does not the Government give them real powers to ensure that they can deal with antisocial neighbours? Instead of calling it “getting rid of red tape”, we could talk about doing something positive.
Grant Shapps
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. That is why we are proposing to criminalise certain types of antisocial behaviour and ensuring that previous offences can be taken into account. For example, if someone engaged in antisocial behaviour in someone else’s community during the riots, that should clearly count against them when it came to their own housing situation.
Local Government Finance
Debate between Grant Shapps and Tony Lloyd(13 years, 10 months ago)
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Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)
I have spent almost my whole political life not wanting to personalise politics, but I must say to the Secretary of State that he should be ashamed of himself for losing the battle in the Cabinet and the spending review so that local government has become the victim of his incompetence. He should be ashamed of himself because the settlement is divisive within the local government family. It will inflict damage on vulnerable authorities while, as we have heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith (Mr Slaughter) and the hon. Member for Wells (Tessa Munt), some local authorities are feather-bedded and treated with kid gloves. This political decision of his is an outrage because in cities such as mine it will be the most vulnerable people who suffer, as my right hon. Friends the Members for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Paul Goggins) and for Salford and Eccles (Hazel Blears) and my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton (Steve Rotheram) have pointed out. [Interruption.]
The Secretary of State chunters from a sedentary position. The reality is that, like previous Tory Secretaries of State for local government, he has no compassion or consideration for those who will lose their home help or for the children who will lose the life chances that people in his constituency will take for granted. What we have had from him and his Ministers is a campaign of ridiculous disinformation such as the nonsense that has been repeated by Tory Members today about £150,000 going on statues in Manchester or about the Twitter tsar who was an invention of the Minister for Housing and Local Government. [Interruption.] The Minister says something from a sedentary position that I cannot hear, but I am happy to give way to him if he wants to make his point. [Interruption.] He indicates that he will reply when he winds up. No doubt that will allow him to peddle his ridiculous fantasies again.
The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)
Is the hon. Gentleman saying that an advert for a new media expert for £38,000 was not placed by the council?
Tony Lloyd
I have checked and there is a communications officer, whom, the House might be interested to know, was asked to have competence in new technologies such as Twitter and is equivalent to a number of people in the Minister’s Department who have the same role, the same salary band and the same competences. His Twitter tsars massively outgun Manchester’s ability to communicate. He should think very carefully, because trading insults at this level does nothing for the people who are going to lose adult social services. [Interruption.] Does the Secretary of State want to intervene?
Tony Lloyd
I think the hon. Gentleman is either a little hard of hearing or not too fast at understanding. My right hon. Friend the Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East made the point earlier. Those balances that the Secretary of State and his Ministers have traded and which they said are there as some luxury cushion are, in the case of Manchester, allocated money.
Grant Shapps
Does the hon. Gentleman recognise that there is £108 million of non-schools money held by his local authority? Earmarked does not mean the same as allocated.
Tony Lloyd
The £64 million that will now be allocated will be for the redundancies that the Government are forcing the council to make. That is the answer to the hon. Member for Dover (Charlie Elphicke). It is a disgrace that Manchester must spend such a huge amount of money making good local government workers redundant. That is the responsibility of the Secretary of State. As a result, the things that the Housing Minister described as being merely earmarked will now not go ahead, so Manchester will lose provision and facilities because of the Government’s decision.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Grant Shapps and Tony Lloyd
The Minister for Housing (Grant Shapps)
It is our intention that areas that promote business within their communities should benefit in some way from doing so. The manifesto and coalition agreement make it clear that that is our intention.
Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)
T6. Because this Government have deliberately chosen to cut the budget for housing, and that will have an inevitable effect on jobs and training in construction, does the Housing Minister now regret his words in opposition that it would be ridiculous and counter-productive to insist on apprenticeship training in publicly funded housing schemes?
Grant Shapps
The hon. Gentleman knows about the huge deficit—£780 million was promised from other budgets but never existed—and building homes with imaginary money is not possible, so compromises need to be made. We have said that £170 million will go to support 4,000 homes—as the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Hazel Grove (Andrew Stunell) said—and 3,500 jobs.