Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sajid Javid and Rosie Cooper

Monday 16th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Gentleman talks of it as profit, but the revenue generated is used not just to provide public services to those people who make applications but to support wider public services. As I said, it is right that we have a balance between the costs of an application and the costs to which the taxpayer is exposed.

[Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire) (Lab)]

3. What recent assessment he has made of the performance of UK Visas and Immigration against its target times for responses to members of the public.

Housing White Paper

Debate between Sajid Javid and Rosie Cooper

Tuesday 7th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

That is right; my hon. Friend is right to focus on the housing infrastructure fund. It was announced in the last autumn statement, and it goes live in April this year. It is just one of the new ways in which we are trying to ensure that, when local authorities make decisions, the infrastructure can quickly be put in place to support them.

[Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire) (Lab)]

My constituents feel that localism is all but dead. Will the Secretary of State expand on how he intends to strengthen the planning laws to ensure that their voices are heard much more loudly than those of the avaricious developers who are trying to thwart the local plan and defy any remaining vestiges of localism?

[Sajid Javid]

We rightly follow a policy of letting local authorities set out their plans and determine what is right for their area, but it is important to ensure that that is not used by some authorities—it is only some—as an excuse for avoiding making tough decisions. We have a housing shortage in virtually every part of England. That includes much of the south-east, and I can think of areas in the north as well. We can tackle that only if local authorities are honest about their needs and if they plan on that basis.