Speeches by George.

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“rose—”

“The hon. Gentleman raises once again the issue of second homes. He is well aware that the Liberal Democrats have proposed a change in the use class system to introduce a new use class for non-permanent occupancy. The introduction of such a thing would allow local communities to limit the number of second homes. It coul…”

“Will the Minister give way none the less?”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent case. I know that, in a moment, he will come on to the point that this contract is coming to an end. I am sure that it is being reviewed by the Government—the Minister will respond on that issue—but we are encouraging them to bring the contract to a close, for the reasons that my h…”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent case. I know that, in a moment, he will come on to the point that this contract is coming to an end. I am sure that it is being reviewed by the Government—the Minister will respond on that issue—but we are encouraging them to bring the contract to a close, for the reasons that my h…”

“I believe the Minister has until 10 past 3 if he wishes. He has not addressed the issue I raised regarding the counterproductive impact of the changes to the national planning policy framework, particularly for edge-of-community rural exception sites. A wholesale change of planning is happening. Those sites were origin…”

“I am not saying that the Government have done nothing, but the changes to furnished holiday lets and double council tax, for example, were actually introduced by the previous Government. The Minister has simply implemented them, which is welcome. I was simply talking about the massive, gaping tax loophole involving ind…”

“The Minister objects. I am sorry but the small business rate relief is still available. The tax loopholes available are still there. Perhaps the Minister can put me right on that, if he wishes. The right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) is right that we need rent controls as well as the Renters’ Rights A…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dunbartonshire (Susan Murray) on her opening remarks. Other speakers have referred to the issues and difficulties that young people today are experiencing. They are not facing a storm but enduring a prolon…”

“That is useful. Okay.”

“Does the public side have QSs going through independently on an open-book basis?”

“Interestingly, there is an example that we will see next week where the construction of a building that achieved EPC A+ in terms of its energy efficiency, and that is satisfactory and built to a very high standard, was built at significantly less than £2,000 per square metre. I know that a lot of the projects that you …”

“I have listened carefully. The Minister knows full well that committing to spend 3% or 3.5% tomorrow does not mean that the Government cannot commit to commissioning that expenditure now. He is aware that the delivery pipeline can often take five to 10 years in any case, and therefore the defence investment plan become…”

“Okay. Are you happy with that, John?”

“I understand that, but is anything being done to better utilise the available capacity? That is the question.”

“Addressing the issue of delayed discharge from hospital, I am aware that in many parts of the country there is spare capacity within the nursing and residential care home sector, but the commissioners are not keen to discharge there because they deem that the sector is not particularly good at reablement. Therefore, on…”

“I have a very quick yes/no question. How much of the PFI legacy estate is on your books, or is it all held by ICBs?”

“That is your development arm.”

“I am very interested in better understanding the profit and risk-sharing elements of the development and construction side of all this work. There are certain projects that I have seen where—how can I put it?—the public sector takes the risks and the private sector takes the profit. When development budgets are being b…”