Alex Norris: My hon. Friend makes an important point about the health of local government. Like many colleagues, I am a veteran of local government, and I am very conscious of the pressures it is under. As we design a new model for local growth, I am also conscious that local authorities will be at the heart of making it effective. If they do not have the capacity because of those pressures, that will be...
Manuela Perteghella: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to make my maiden speech. I thank all hon. Members for their fine contributions, including my hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) and the hon. Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Kevin McKenna). It is the greatest honour of my life to serve the people of Stratford-on-Avon. I am humbled to have been elected to...
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for their contributions and thank particularly the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, for the opportunity to debate these important issues—indeed, it is my first debate since I became a Minister. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, opposite, for his welcome, and I welcome him to his position too. He and I, on a couple of occasions a long time ago, cycled...
Polly Billington: I could have not said it better myself. The large increase in short-term holiday lets has left whole streets dark and empty for months on end as the days shorten, with perhaps a small glimmer of light and activity over Christmas and new year. One of my constituents said in an email only today: “We don’t have any neighbours: they are all Airbnbs…Our lives are being hugely impacted by...
Richard Leonard: ...the life and work of John Ainslie. Last month marked the 30th anniversary of a publication that I do not think is in the archive. It is a pamphlet that John and I co-authored—a coproduction between the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Scottish Trades Union Congress: “Trident—Not Safe, Not Economic, Not Wanted” is its title. In it, we exposed the huge hidden costs...
Wes Streeting: ...I am sure the whole House will want to join me in thanking him for producing this expert, comprehensive report, a copy of which I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses. I told Lord Darzi that we wanted hard truths, warts and all. His findings are raw, honest and breathtaking. He says: “Although I have worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, I have been shocked by what I have...
Paul Davies: ...Yorkshire, nestled in the heart of the Yorkshire Pennines. The Holmfirth food and drink festival offers a delightful family day out brimming with live music, delicious food and entertainment. This weekend, along with thousands of others, I will explore the stalls for local produce and enjoy the street performers. I welcome the £10 million that the West Yorkshire combined authority and...
Anneliese Midgley: Between 2022 and 2023, my constituency of Knowsley had the highest number of deaths per capita due to domestic abuse, but very few people are charged for domestic abuse, let alone prosecuted. Will the Law Officers meet me to discuss how we can join up the criminal justice system so that the police and prosecutors work together to take dangerous abusers off our streets?
Sarah Sackman: Our safer streets mission will drive essential change to bring an end to the epidemic of shoplifting that is plaguing our high streets. Between 2018 and 2023, under the last Government, the charge rate for shoplifting offences went down significantly, by 5%, so we are seeing 10,000 fewer charges a year. Rather than criminalising vulnerable people, this Government believe that criminal gangs...
Polly Billington: What we have noticed, particularly in town centres such as Ramsgate and Margate, is that antisocial behaviour, drug dealing and street crime, particularly knife crime, continue because of people’s anxiety about giving evidence against the criminals. What will my hon. and learned Friend and the Government do to give people confidence that the criminal justice system and prosecutions will...
Diana R. Johnson: Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission We will put thousands of neighbourhood police and community support officers back into local communities, so that residents have somewhere to turn to when things go wrong. We will crack down on those causing havoc on our high streets and in city centres by introducing...
Diana R. Johnson: The Government is committed to strengthening neighbourhood policing as part of its Safer Streets Mission, That is why we are working with policing to introduce a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, providing a more visible police presence in town centres, recruiting thousands of extra additional police officers, PCSOs and Special Constables, We will set out our plans for the Guarantee, and the...
Rupa Huq: ...some of those memorandums of understanding are being looked at by the new Government one by one to see if they are carried over. The hon. Member makes an excellent point. Let us have a reset. We have a fresh Government in this country and a fresh one in Bangladesh, so it is time to look at these things through new eyes. Back in the summer—in fact, it was at the same time as we saw race...
Baroness O'Loan: ...of this, will have grave difficulty keeping their houses as warm as they need to keep them. They cannot go and sit in the malls, shops and cafes, as so many other pensioners do, to keep warm. We should bear them in mind, and we should not be doing this. Noble Lords have already indicated ways in which a similar saving could be achieved, through taxation processes or windfall taxes, et...
Tracy Gilbert: ...of maiden speeches, I begin by paying tribute to my immediate predecessor, Deidre Brock, who represented the constituency for nine years—the first woman to do so. I wish her and her team well in their future endeavours. I would also like to pay tribute to Mark Lazarowicz, who represented the seat from 2001 until 2015, and who continues to advocate for human rights, asylum seekers and the...
Mr Mark Ruskell: ...are the choices that people, if they are fortunate enough to own a car and be able to drive, have to make every single day. Do they pick up the car keys or do they pay upwards of £30 to travel between Edinburgh and Glasgow on the railway? The reality is that, if people want to drive between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley, it is actually free—there is no pricing on the...
Helen Morgan: I beg to move, That this House has considered the Oswestry to Gobowen railway line. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. This is an important subject for my constituents in the lovely town of Oswestry and the nearby village of Gobowen. Oswestry has a population of approximately 17,000 people. It is the second largest town in Shropshire and is of huge importance to the...
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: If the objective is economic growth, jobs and housing—I am pleased that the noble Lord agrees—we should choose those transport projects that contribute the most to it in various parts of the country. I have a wry smile because he was the deputy chair of Transport for London when I was the commissioner, and between us we probably removed more road space from the streets of central London...
Sarah Dyke: ...Transport measured the economic benefits buses bring, finding that every £1 that Government spend on better services and bus priority schemes can secure economic benefits of up to £4.55. We must recognise that in rural areas alternative forms of bus routes can play a major role in ensuring that type of access remains. The Liberal Democrats made a commitment in our manifesto to supporting...
Olivia Blake: .... Rather than creating more sites, the previous Government moved to criminalise GRT communities through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. Those laws should be repealed, in my view. We should be tackling the root cause of the issue: the failure of the system to support a diverse group of people who already suffer prejudice and discrimination. There is a lack of...
