Speeches by Gardiner.

“I promised the Chair a short question, but you have given me a long answer. I am sorry, Chair.”

“I will pick straight up on that. Land banking is clearly a problem. Cut the profit from the uplift that you get from agricultural to developed land and you would undermine how developers game the system at the moment, would you not?”

“You were in the room when I was speaking with the witness from Green Alliance earlier. We talked about document Z and the whole business of assessment of whole-life carbon emissions and embedded carbon in construction. Would you like to see that taken forward and put front and centre in our approach to this?”

“That was the point of my questions earlier about the Sendai framework and disaster risk reduction. Would you like to see this Committee making recommendations on those things in its final report?”

“Thank you very much. Councillor Wright, I would like to come back to you and perhaps also to Mr Stafford to talk about the resources that local authorities have, particularly if you look at what the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management has said about the availability of ecologists in planning dep…”

“Mr Stafford, do local authorities have the regulatory and legal powers that they need to ensure compliance?”

“Thank you very much. Councillor Wright, I would like to come back to you and perhaps also to Mr Stafford to talk about the resources that local authorities have, particularly if you look at what the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management has said about the availability of ecologists in planning dep…”

“That was the point of my questions earlier about the Sendai framework and disaster risk reduction. Would you like to see this Committee making recommendations on those things in its final report?”

“You were in the room when I was speaking with the witness from Green Alliance earlier. We talked about document Z and the whole business of assessment of whole-life carbon emissions and embedded carbon in construction. Would you like to see that taken forward and put front and centre in our approach to this?”

“I will pick straight up on that. Land banking is clearly a problem. Cut the profit from the uplift that you get from agricultural to developed land and you would undermine how developers game the system at the moment, would you not?”

“You are just pressing my soft spots now.”

“I was just beginning to think that.”

“Professor Scott, you spoke about how the environment is siloed into chapter 15, in effect. This Committee is in the business of preparing a report and making recommendations to the Government. What recommendations would you like to see in that report that could overcome that siloing and ghettoisation of the environment…”

“I promised the Chair a short question, but you have given me a long answer. I am sorry, Chair.”

“Yes, and the mapping of excess deaths as a result of that—absolutely. The Sendai framework sets out four goals: understanding disaster risk, strengthening governance to manage it, investing in disaster risk reduction and resilience, and enhancing our preparedness and response and the whole principle of building back be…”

“Let me put this back to Councillor Wright. What I was pushing for was more something about the regulatory powers that local authorities have and whether you feel that you require further powers to enforce the environmental protections properly when the NPPF comes in.”

“Indeed. I am talking about the effect on the future value of these properties. Residents who have moved in under one local authority may find the value of their property affected by its suddenly being designated under another. I must stress that I respect both councils and have no doubt that they look after their popul…”

“How good it is to have your guidance, Mrs Harris, for our first legislative duty of the day. Today will be a busy one for all of us, with votes on the Budget and the ramifications of the US election competing in our minds for attention. While boundary changes may seem like minor political fare in comparison, it is impo…”

“On a point of order, Mrs Harris. A point of order was made and I believe a motion was made, but I did not hear any vote taken on the motion. I would have thought that that was the function of the Chair.”

“As politicians, we talk of the international rules-based system, by which we mean the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations, but often we do so only when it suits our position. When it does not, we ignore it. That is why it is crucial that we grasp the legal implications of the decision promulgated on 19 July…”