Speeches by Gardiner.

“But if you look at something like what FirstPort management have been doing, as many Committee members have experience of, people have been ripped off.”

“So they control the price.”

“They control the management of it.”

“Sorry—say that again?”

“Should the developer not set in place a ringfenced fund for the ongoing management of the biodiversity net gain on site? As I say, in putting your planning application in, it was your obligation to ensure the biodiversity net gain. It was not down the line for the property owner to then be charged an ongoing fee every …”

“So more ecological officers in planning authorities to help you, but also proper resource for the Environment Agency and Natural England. Thank you. I want to talk about estate management companies. When it comes to the maintenance of the BNG, it seems to me that if I were buying a property with net gains in the develo…”

“Thinking about the recommendations the Committee might wish to make to the Government, would it be to resource the statutory consultees appropriately to make sure that the process is speeded up? If you want to deliver 1.5 million homes in the timeframe the Government have set out, you cannot do it unless you have prope…”

“With inflation it is a good deal less than they originally had 21 years ago.”

“They have exactly the same resource that they had in 2006 when they were set up.”

“What is the consistency of the advice you get from the Environment Agency or Natural England?”

“I am not sure that the Berkeley Group has, just as I am not sure that all the members of this Committee have yet signed my early-day motion on swift bricks. Five have but I know the culprits, Chair. It is great that you have done that. I wanted to ask you a couple of things. First, how easy do you find it to work with …”

“That is not the issue here, is it? The issue here is that you are making, by your own admission in your annual report, a risk-adjusted assessment of the potential gross profit for each of those sites, and you do so taking into account the economic and political backdrop, the planning and regulatory regime and the sale …”

“It says: “This represents management’s risk-adjusted assessment of the potential gross profit for each of the Group’s sites, including the proportionate share of its joint ventures, taking account of a wide range of factors, including: current sales and input prices; the economic and political backdrop; the planning an…”

“I have been looking at your annual reports. Mr Spearing, your current 2024 annual report says that in 2023 you built 4,637 properties and about 65 of them were a joint venture. The average price was £608,000, making a pre-tax profit of £130,000 on every home. But the figure that really made me think that the Chair has …”

“Last week I had the pleasure of meeting representatives of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry when they came here with my old friend Piyush Goyal. I congratulate the Minister and his officials, as well as FICCI and the India Global Forum—under the leadership of Manoj Ladwa—and, indeed, everyone …”

“The Minister will be aware that a number of Iranian citizens in this country still have relatives in Iran, and it is not beyond the wit of the Iranian Government to use that pressure on them. In requiring the citizens of Iran in this country to report to our Government if they are in any way connected to the Iranian Go…”

“If the Minister could clarify whether indigenous communities are represented on the board of the Cali fund, that would be really helpful.”

“Before the Minister runs down the clock, I just want to say that it is clear from Members across the House that we will not accept any further delay to the due diligence regulations, and that they must be placed not just— Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 10(6)).”

“No, it is not the Plate. It is not the River Nile, and it is not the Amazon, but if anyone thought it was the Amazon, they are getting close. The river I am speaking of is actually, for the most part, invisible and airborne. Every day, 20 billion cubic metres of water—that is 20 billion metric tonnes of water—is pushed…”

“Energy resilience comes from a secure supply of clean and cheap energy. The major cause of the financial crises that the world has experienced over the last 40 years is the insecurity of supply of the fossil fuel markets, with Ukraine being just the latest case. As for cheap, the last Government in answer to a parliame…”