Business of the House

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Thursday 20th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am sure that the hon. Lady recognises that many of the subjects that the Wright Committee said the Backbench Business Committee should determine the priority of and allocate time to are the responsibility of Government. Paragraph 139 of the Wright Committee report made it perfectly clear that debates on the spending review are precisely the sort of debates that it should be up to the House to decide whether to schedule. As it happens, in the provisional business that I have announced for the week beginning 1 July, the House will debate the Finance Bill and there will be an estimates day, which will include debates relating to the departmental estimates for Health and Transport.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

Estate agents in Portsmouth are required to display energy efficiency information on property advertisements. Not only did the Cabinet Office give them little time to do that, but it does not give those details on advertisements for Government property that is for sale or to let and it seems confused about whether a sales listing is an offer to sell or lease. That chaos and confusion rather undermines the unhelpful answer that I received from the Department for Communities and Local Government, which states that “advertisement” is

“an ordinary English word which does not require further clarification.”—[Official Report, 4 March 2013; Vol. 563, c. 779W.]

Will the Leader of the House find time to consider those matters given that, since December, the performance of neither Department has been energetic or efficient?

[Mr Lansley]

I will, of course, take up the points that my hon. Friend raises with the Cabinet Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government. The Government are engaged in an ambitious programme of selling surplus public sector land and assets, not least in order to secure the building of 10,000 homes on that land. When we are selling properties, we must try to set an example by securing energy efficiency in those properties and advertising that fact.