Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justin Madders and Brandon Lewis

Wednesday 22nd June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Brandon Lewis]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We all want to see Stormont back up and running. It is important that we see all the Ministers back with their full powers. We have caretaker Ministers in place now, thanks to legislation that we passed recently, but having Stormont making spending decisions, getting money out the door and supporting businesses and people in Northern Ireland is the right thing to do.

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

2. What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on progress in the Northern Ireland protocol negotiations.

[The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Brandon Lewis)]

I have regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues about issues affecting Northern Ireland more widely, including the Northern Ireland protocol.

[Justin Madders]

The Secretary of State will be aware that the Northern Ireland Business Brexit Working Group, which represents 14 industries, released a statement last week stating that

“there are significant concerns about the introduction of an all-encompassing dual regulatory regime.”

I understand that dairy farmers have similar concerns. Having heard about those issues, can the Secretary of State tell us what consultation the Government did with businesses before introducing this regime?

[Brandon Lewis]

We are in continual engagement with business. We have had more than two meetings a month with the wider group, and the Minister of State and I have made more than 30 visits to businesses that are members of those groups. We are in constant communication with business. It is important that we design the details in conjunction with business to ensure that businesses that are doing well and sectors such as dairy that benefit from the economy across the island of Ireland do not lose out. We must also ensure that we deliver for the businesses that are so detrimentally affected by the problems with the EU’s implementation of the protocol.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justin Madders and Brandon Lewis

Monday 14th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

8. What steps his Department is taking to promote the building of affordable homes through the planning system.

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Brandon Lewis)]

The national planning policy framework requires local planning authorities to meet their affordable housing needs for their area, and we are committed to delivering some 275,000 new affordable homes through to the end of this Parliament.

[Justin Madders]

In my constituency, over the past 18 months developer after developer has used the planning rules to get out of their obligations to build affordable homes, and more than 200 much needed affordable homes have been lost to my constituency during that period. When will the Minister get a grip and get developers to comply with their obligation to build affordable homes?

[Brandon Lewis]

The hon. Gentleman might wish to take up with his local authority the issue of the power to negotiate locally. We are delivering affordable homes at the fastest rate in just over two decades, and in his constituency the number of homes going forward has increased by 124% since 2010. He should be thanking the Government for the work we have done to support that industry.