Business of the House

Martin Vickers Excerpts

Thursday 16th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I heard my hon. Friend make that statement—and my jaw did not drop. If the hon. Gentleman looked at the legislation that his Government introduced on individual voter registration, he would find that there was no legal duty to register. That was the position under his Government; we are going to do exactly the same.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

Earlier this morning, I met Karen Rastall, the chairman of Shoreline Housing, the principal registered social landlord in my constituency. She explained the difficulty that social landlords have in giving work to small businesses because of the criteria laid down for contractors, such as holding the Investors in People certificate. At a time when small businesses up and down the country are finding things extremely difficult, could the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the restrictions placed on social landlords?

[Sir George Young]

I understand my hon. Friend’s point that local housing associations would like to allocate work to local builders to save them having to go through the problems of the process he has just outlined. I will, of course, draw his concern to the Minister for Housing and Local Government, but one has to strike a balance between on the one hand encouraging firms to register for IiP and have the requisite qualifications, and on the other hand seeking to pursue the objectives that my hon. Friend has mentioned.