Speeches by Curtis.

“Could I go to Ben now? You have about £200,000 from the rough sleeping winter pressures funding for this year. Can you give us an idea about what a lump sum like that is going to pay for and what material difference it is going to make in your area?”

“I want to start with an open-ended question: is the current level of funding local authorities receive to tackle rough sleeping adequate? I suspect I know the answer to this one.”

“You do find that you struggle to get by funding-wise in terms of the healthcare service and those other—”

“You are saying we need prevention.”

“I am Chris Curtis, Labour Member for Milton Keynes North.”

“You are doing surveys, effectively, then. Do you make that data accessible? Is there a way of us seeing it?”

“When you say it is an allocation issue rather than a cost issue, what do you see as the barriers to accommodation not being allocated effectively as things currently are if it is not cost?”

“Would you say that temporary accommodation is always a safe environment for families with children?”

“At the moment, do you think that most local authorities are meeting their statutory guidance to ensure that temporary accommodation is suitable for families?”

“Schools have come up a couple of times in B&Bs but also in temporary accommodation across the board. Apart from the free bus passes for children that you mentioned, is there any other support that local authorities or the schools tend to give to support children getting to school?”

“Nobody has responsibility at that point?”

“To Hannah Dalton, on the point about LHA going up, I see the pernicious impact that that has caused, increasing TA and your costs for TA. What response have you had when you have had conversations with people in the Government Departments? Following on from that, I suppose you would argue that it would be beneficial to…”

“What wider support services should local authorities provide for residents while they are living in temporary accommodation?”

“Does anybody have any thoughts to add on schools and best practice? What are the limitations to ensuring best practice, ensuring that children have the support they need in schools and ensuring that children can get to schools? What challenges are faced there? What works? Why is everyone not doing what works?”

“Most of the schools I seem to be dealing with, particularly secondary schools, are academies. As someone who works in a local council, how do you find working with them? Is it a mixed bag? Do you find that some are supportive? Do you find some groups do not want to engage on this?”

“I was wondering, given that there are now so few Conservative Members of this Parliament after the recent general election, what proportion of the House of Lords the hon. Gentleman thinks should now be made up of Conservative Members.”

“I cannot remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, but they round down to a very low number. From what I have heard in this debate, it seems that people who believe in the hereditary principle are vastly over-represented in this Chamber. We have heard that some people think the legislation is moving too fast, …”

“I rise to make a few brief points in this incredibly important debate. The most important point—one that we have still not spent enough time discussing—is the basic one that people should not be in this place on the basis of the hereditary principle. It is incredibly important that we move away from that for a variety …”

“We could say many things about hereditary peers, but their being representative of the country as a whole is certainly not one of them. Many of us Labour Members think that elections are certainly good, and I hope there will be a point in the future when we can look at introducing them to the House of Lords, but in the…”

“That is certainly true, and it brings me to my next point. This Friday, I will visit Watling academy, a fantastic new school in my constituency, and will chat to children of many ages who are getting their important education. I want to look them in the eye and say that if they work hard, they can have any opportunity …”