Speeches by Dean.

“House building in London this year is said to have collapsed. There were only 5,000 private sector starts in 2025. The Government has put quite a lot of emphasis on its growth strategy via this route, but it is quite a cyclical industry. It is not just the planning reforms that will affect this. Is that a concern for t…”

“One of the things updated in the EFO was the immigration figures, and I think that was driven partly by the ONS revising its own figures because of a change in methodology. It shows that more people have been leaving Britain than we first thought, and that that is driving the overall lower net migration figures. Is tha…”

“Take the hospitals programme, for example, with lots of people in a long queue and the NHS Confederation saying, “Actually, maybe we need to look at PPP again.” Obviously, there is some political scarring from how it went in the past, but are you open-minded to that?”

“Chancellor, you just mentioned the potential for the private and public sectors to work together. I recently guested on a Public Accounts Committee session looking at public-private partnerships in delivering social infrastructure in the past and the lessons that can be learned from that. Will the Government learn the …”

“But those are the more obvious places to do it.”

“I am going to probe inward migration a bit more, but that initial question was about the people who are leaving. We now understand that more people are leaving Britain than we previously thought. Is it a concern to you that more people—we do not necessarily know the entire make-up of them—are leaving than we thought?”

“I join you, Mr Speaker, in thanking Tom Goldsmith for his immense service. I also wish those celebrating this weekend a happy Holi. There are three events in my constituency this weekend, and I intend to get covered in colour. Moving on to the spring statement that we had this week, there were no policy announcements. …”

“My hon. Friend makes an excellent point: this is about not just buildings, but equipment and digital and technical infrastructure, all of which are crucial to getting the NHS to operate in the way it should. She also highlights how we need to upgrade ageing equipment to a very basic level, let alone take advantage of a…”

“I agree with the hon. Gentleman, who hits on one of the central points of this debate. We can continue to pour money into the operational side of the NHS, but if we do not get the capital expenditure right and improve the equipment, systems and buildings, we will always be pouring good money after bad. I know that PPP …”

“I am grateful for the point my hon. Friend made, and I will come to make very similar points about the impact that maintenance backlogs are having. It is partly because of the slow payoff of capital investment that we are in this mess. The last Conservative Government completely undermined the NHS’s future by overpromi…”

“The hon. Gentleman highlights the complexity in putting together large capital projects. Funding is not often from one source. It is from multiple sources, and everybody providing the capital needs to have greater flexibility for the schemes to become deliverable, or the funds end up getting clawed back and put elsewhe…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered NHS capital spending. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Western. I am grateful to have secured this debate on NHS capital spending. This subject goes right to the heart of how the NHS functions, and yet it is not discussed enough in this place. I had a look…”

“My second question—both can come in with answers if you have them—is whether anything has changed in the Government’s approach since the start of the conversation around this strategy because of input from industry. Can you point to an example of a way that the Government have changed the outcome of the strategy from w…”

“That’s what I said, yes.”

“We have two panels today, so can you answer the questions from your perspectives as a bank and building society? This is a broad one to kick off. I will start with you, Mr Singh. What do you view as the main causes of financial exclusion for your sector? Can you tell us what you think of the Government’s strategy?”

“Mr Singh, you said to start thinking about it. Are there things missing that the Government need to start thinking about sooner?”

“Just to be clear, I think it concluded that many customers were not getting fair value. It said it was possible that there are costs associated with introducing monthly payments, but that in many cases people were being overcharged—just to be clear.”

“Just to push you on what the FCA said about the premium finance market study, it concluded that customers were not getting fair value. As soon as the FCA started commissioning this research, there was an impact on pricing, and you started to see firms adjust, probably because they feared there might be further action c…”

“Mr Noakes, what do you see as the main causes of financial exclusion, and what is your evaluation of the Government’s strategy so far?”

“Mr Singh, in your opening comments you talked about systemic issues. I am not sure whether you tuned in to our previous session, but we had Mr McAteer of the Financial Inclusion and Markets Centre in front of us. He said that there is nothing in the strategy that the industry would not like. Do you want to contradict h…”