Business of the House

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Thursday 8th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

Obviously, that is a matter for local councils, which have responsibility for pavements, but my hon. Friend is right to make herself a champion of pavement politics, because people want pavements in good condition. The Government have made record amounts of taxpayers’ money available to local councils, so urging them to ensure that pavements are in a good state of repair is the right thing to do.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

My city of Bath has two successful universities, which the Leader of the House and I share, and so far daily cases remain low. I want to commend and thank the universities, the council and our students for everything that has been done so far, which includes new testing facilities. However, the experience of other cities is that covid cases can rise very quickly and stay high for a prolonged period of time. Therefore, the absolute focus has to be on how to keep numbers low, so can we have a statement in the House about the preventive measures we need in low-covid areas and how the Government intend to support areas to keep their cases low?