Speeches by Norris.

“It is small numbers, single-figure numbers.”

“No, no. Those who have expressed interest and want to stay the distance, I will stay the distance with.”

“No, it would not have been tendered because it was in the geography under which the accommodation contracts are at the moment. It is within Clearsprings’ region.”

“On the pilots themselves, the progress is not particularly strong in the sense that it not to put more properties forwards. As I said to the Committee, when there has been reporting around some of the expressions of interest, when that has got into the public domain, that has led to anxiety in local authorities. I thin…”

“This is very much a slow journey. We have money available for—in the spirit that colleagues have talked about—trying to support local authorities to make their own investments. I think there is a lot to be said for that, and I think that has a place in a future model. We have seen that, and colleagues will have seen, s…”

“As figures for the Committee to hold in their heads, looking back at where we were when you published your report in October, we are talking about £144 per bedspace per night in hotels. Wethersfield comes in at £135. I would expect it would be reasonable to say that this will land in a similar place to Wethersfield. As…”

“No, this is a new product. I think there has been, certainly in the previous Government, a lack of curiosity. Interestingly, often those who talk with great interest on this topic now in the Chamber, were in different parties that perhaps have been part of government, but are now not part of the party they were, but ar…”

“It includes all the different parts of ways in which people enter or exit or are in the system currently—a very live picture of where people are.”

“Yes.”

“This is an important thing that we are trying to make sure we get right and are changing with a degree of pace. I am determined to close the gap between the Home Office and local authorities, having sat on the other side of that table. What we have brought in in order to do that is a two-stage property consultation pro…”

“For a bit of context, it is helpful to say that prior to 2022, there was one dispersal area in Scotland—Glasgow. There are now 22 dispersal areas, so that is part of that commitment. She also asked a very important, quite difficult question—one that, again, I have reflected on for a long time—around the interaction wit…”

“I might turn to Andrew just to help me out there because a lot of it relates to policing and health services.”

“I am coming back. Sitting suspended for Divisions in the House. On resuming—”

“Yes, and I hope you heard that I completely accept and understand that. As I have said previously to the Committee, these are choices. Choosing large sites is part of taking that pressure, because those are people who could have otherwise been in dispersed accommodation, so that is it. Getting to a fairer distribution …”

“Yes, some of those costs are front-loaded, but that is right.”

“We will do what we call maintain and replace. For communities that are at the higher end of capacity, we do not add new properties, but when properties fall out, we will replace them and keep things at the existing level. I would anticipate for Glasgow that that would be the way forward there, but as we do more elsewhe…”

“Our policy is, as our predecessors set, around what is called full dispersal. That is the point that we want to bring on properties across all local authorities in order to have a more equitable share of the load. As was alluded to in the previous session, that leads to a service user demand plan number for each local …”

“For Crowborough, we have not published that but, in the interests of transparency, we have spent £7.5 million on it so far.”

“We have arrived at this situation because in quite long years past, communities were asked to come forward in order to provide accommodation for the supported population. In the case of Glasgow, forgive me if I do not get this exactly right, but my understanding is that it was because of vacant properties that there wa…”

“Yes.”