Planning Reform
Debate between Mark Pritchard and Matthew Pennycook(1 week ago)
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Matthew Pennycook
I would say two things in response to that question. The Government have already allocated significant funding for planning capacity and capability in local departments. The Chancellor in the recent Budget allocated another £48 million. We are making £8 million of that available today to support local authorities with development management. In general, this framework will give a major boost to rural economies. We are making it very clear that development that supports farm modernisation and food production, and that allows rural businesses to grow, should be supported.
Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)
This is a dark day for Shropshire’s green belt—places like Albrighton and Shifnal in my constituency—for the remaining green belt in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, in places like Preston upon the Weald Moors, Edgmond, Bratton and Church Aston. Another time in this place, the Minister referenced the number of local authority voids—both Conservative and Labour, to be fair—and voids held by social landlords. What more can be done to release those voids so that we can take the pressure off Shropshire’s green belt?
Matthew Pennycook
The right hon. Gentleman rightly draws attention to the potential to do more on voids and on empty homes more generally, although councils already have quite significant powers to bring empty homes back into use. I say very gently to him, building on my comments about the need to release appropriate green-belt land where necessary to meet housing need, that my concern is less about the instances he described and more about the 1.3 million people languishing on social housing waiting lists and, in particular, the 170,000 children who are today homeless and living in temporary accommodation. We have to build more homes. That requires green-belt land, as well as brownfield land, to be developed.
Energy Price Cap: Residential Buildings with Communal Heating Systems
Debate between Mark Pritchard and Matthew Pennycook(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Matthew Pennycook (Greenwich and Woolwich) (Lab)
I will be incredibly brief—I think we will be voting shortly—and will pick up on a couple of points made by others in this debate. I have been raising issues about the lack of consumer protection for customers of communal heat networks since I was elected in 2015. It is a very long-standing issue, and there has been a tangible lack of progress in addressing it.
The first issue is the statutory regulation of the sector. We have come a long way. I remember raising this matter when I was a member of the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change before the Department was abolished, and Ministers would tell me that statutory regulation of the sector was not required, that introducing it risked strangling an emerging industry at birth and that they were not going anywhere near it. I remember asking the CMA—[Interruption.]
Mark Pritchard (in the Chair)
Order. I have to suspend the sitting for a Division, and I understand that we will be having a lot of them. The first suspension will be for 15 minutes, but it will be 10 minutes for subsequent votes. If Members could make their way back a little faster after the final vote, we can get off to a quick start.