Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Jack Dromey and Chris Skidmore(5 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Chris Skidmore)
It is nice to be top of the menu for once. Yes, at 2.32 pm, we will have the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Apollo 11 moon mission. On the Government’s commitment to space, I will be giving a speech at the Policy Exchange, setting out what we think is a clear priority for the UK economy—not just in space exploration, but in earth observation. To come back again to the net zero target—it is not like we have talked about it enough already—space technology is a key enabling technology that will enable us to better detect changes in the earth. The future of space is actually critical for our survival on earth.
Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)
It was a privilege to stand with 1,000 Jaguar workers and hear that the factory that built the Spitfire during the war and two generations of Jaguar after the war—it nearly closed 10 years ago—will now build the electric cars of the future. Will the Secretary of State, in welcoming yesterday’s announcement, join me in saying that we must now build the batteries in Britain so that we have a vibrant British industry?
Will the Secretary of State also join me in paying tribute to the remarkable man that was Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya for his championing of manufacturing in Britain and his drive, intellect and ambition for Britain and British workers? It is thanks to Kumar that the Jaguar plant remains open.
Regional Pay (NHS)
Debate between Jack Dromey and Chris Skidmore(12 years, 1 month ago)
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Chris Skidmore
I believe that “cartel” is a rather offensive word to use in this context, because it has connotations that are inappropriate for health care professionals who are doing their best to ensure that the NHS survives in the long term. That is the crux of the debate. Let us look at staffing costs. The Labour Government made a significant investment in the NHS over 13 years. It would be churlish to deny that, but it would also be churlish to deny the fact that a huge proportion of those costs were soaked up in pay.
Jack Dromey
The hon. Gentleman has just spoken about paying people the market rate. Sadly, there is a low-wage economy in much of the south-west. That is precisely why regional pay was rejected in the lead-up to “Agenda for Change”. It would lead to the market rate being applied in much of the south-west, driving down pay and conditions of employment. Does he, as a south-west Member of Parliament, support regional pay bargaining for the south-west?
Chris Skidmore
What I support is south-west trusts coming together as health care professionals and working out what is best for them in order to survive financially for the future.
I want to read from Chris Brown’s reply to my letter:
“The Consortium was established in response to the serious financial and operational challenges facing the NHS, both now and in the future, and will work to identify ways in which taxpayer funding may be more efficiently used in order to protect both employment and the continued delivery of high quality healthcare.”
There is a significant point in that. I do not want redundancies in the NHS, but if we do not come up with a workable solution for the future, that is what Opposition Members will see, and it will be on their watch if they believe that we should follow the national pay structure. I do not want to see redundancies, and neither do the trusts, which is why they have come together constructively, and they should not be scolded for doing so.
Mr Brown’s letter continued:
“More than two thirds of NHS expenditure is on staffing costs. In recent years NHS organisations have largely exhausted other avenues of potential cost-saving (including reducing reliance on bank or agency staff and implementing service improvement initiatives). Monitor, the independent regulator for NHS Foundation Trusts, has also estimated that NHS organisations with a turnover or around £200m will need to produce savings of around £9m a year for each year until at least 2016/17 to remain in financial health.”
That is why the consortium has been formed. We cannot forget the financial challenge.
Green Belt (England)
Debate between Jack Dromey and Chris Skidmore(13 years, 2 months ago)
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Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)
The hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry) has done our green and pleasant land a great service by initiating this debate.
In this House and in this country we cherish our green belt and our countryside, as captured in the immortal words of the great English anthem, “Linden Lea”:
“Within the woodlands, flowery gladed,
’neath the oak tree’s mossy moot,
The shining grass-blades, timber-shaded,
Now do quiver under foot…
And brown-leav’d fruit’s a-turning red,
In cloudless sunshine, overhead…
To where, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.”
But to cherish is not enough. The great planning settlement of 1947 sought to reconcile growth and development with a genuine say for local people and the protection of our natural environment. Historically, the purposes of green belt in planning policies were to protect the countryside from urban sprawl and to retain the character of towns and cities. Green belts are a buffer between towns, and between a town and the surrounding countryside, and within that belt damaged and derelict land can be improved and nature conservation encouraged.
Green belts are currently protected by planning policy guidance note 2, but that will be replaced by the national planning policy framework. The presumption against inappropriate development in the green belt unless there are very special circumstances that outweigh the harm caused by the development, is to be removed by the NPPF. At the moment, proposals in draft plans that would result in releasing land from the green belt must be fully justified; the Labour Government were committed to protecting the green belt and we encouraged the recycling of land and a brownfield-first approach.
Jack Dromey
Given the time available, no.
The NPPF also removes Labour’s brownfield-first policy. Under the Labour Government, the green belt expanded by 34,640 hectares. This Government have repeatedly said that policies to protect the green belt and nationally designated landscapes will be retained in the NPPF, but the framework, which replaces all planning guidance, does not give sufficient confidence to people who want our countryside to be protected and risks antagonising local communities rather than engaging them. Inevitably, there will be greater opposition, more appeals and a less effective planning system.
We badly need more development—well-designed and in the right place—not least because we have a growing housing crisis. The Government, however, have responded to legitimate concerns expressed by broad-based non-political organisations such as the National Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England by calling them “left-wing” and “semi-hysterical,” and by saying that the organisations are guilty of “nihilistic selfishness”. In the current climate, we have the worst of all worlds: collapsing house building, chaos in the planning system and a chorus of voices whose concerns have not yet been properly heard.
How do we salvage some sense from this mess, and protect our green belt? First, we need a recognised definition of sustainable development. The Government should continue to support the widely-subscribed-to 2005 definition. Secondly, and crucially, we need a restoration of the successful brownfield-first policy, which was initiated under a Conservative Government and developed under a Labour one, with 76% of development on brownfield sites. There is currently enough brownfield land available to build 1.2 million homes. Thirdly, we need protection for our town centres. The hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) referred to the repopulation of our town centres, including people living above shops, and I strongly agree with his view. Fourthly, there should be a commitment to affordable housing, not the trading-off of such housing for reasons of viability and, fifthly, we need transitional arrangements that protect local communities against what will sometimes be predatory proposals by developers—a point that the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) was absolutely right to raise earlier. Finally, we hope that the Government will put the NPPF to a vote in both Houses of Parliament.
Specific concerns have been raised about the NPPF and the green belt. Some people believe that the draft framework does not maintain the existing green belt protections and that it should be improved and strengthened.