Speeches by Curtis.

“I have taken up too much time; people really want to get off. We all accept that we should be focusing on smaller sites because, as the Minister set out, the bigger sites should be decided and focused on by the planning committees. This measure will free up more of their time to focus on those bigger sites and issues. …”

“I do not believe that democracy is changing it. It is fundamentally the incentives of certain local politicians to do this when they can have a veto power over a development that has a wider gain, often outside their local constituencies. That is a wider consequence. I am democratically elected, as is the shadow Minist…”

“I join the Secretary of State in offering my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the driver, Shaun Burton. I thank her, the Rail Minister and staff at East Midlands Railway for keeping us updated in what I am sure were very difficult circumstances on Friday evening. As someone who represents the railway to…”

“Is there some sort of commitment that, either directly or indirectly, this money will not be recouped by central Government?”

“Thank you. On how it will be set up as a scheme, will all of the money that it raises be kept by the body that raises the money—the combined authority, the foundation or the strategic authority?”

“Do you expect there to be ringfencing on the funding?”

“The reason for the question is that it will apply to mayoral authorities rather than local councils, but there is also a big open question at the moment about whether it will apply to foundation authorities as well. Do you have a view on that? Do you think it should apply to foundation or strategic authorities or be an…”

“If we agree—which I think we probably do—the overnight visitor levy is a good thing that is supportive for local areas. Are you worried about a two-tier system, where mayoral authorities and foundation or strategic authorities get their powers, but lots of other parts of the country—including places that have very stro…”

“If the money is being raised by combined authorities, will there be an expectation or a ruling placed on combined authorities that that funding has to be spent on supporting the visitor economy, or can combined authorities have the freedom to spend it however they want?”

“Why does it sit under your brief?”

“I will come on to the reset in one second, sorry. I think you touched on an important point there. There is a funding pot that local councils have to raise in order to do their stuff, which is a question of redistribution and how we redistribute the rules nationally. However, within that, local councils need to raise s…”

“On that final point—and you touched on the question before—I can see a plan from Government for how we are doing that for combined authorities. Most notably, more fiscal devolution is set out. The point behind all that is to create a growth incentive in a local area, knowing that they will be able to keep some of the r…”

“This might be quite short. We think you have the overnight visitor levy within your brief.”

“Will you be giving the powers to combined authorities so that it can apply to short-term lettings like Airbnb?”

“I get the point that the Treasury decides the policy generally, but I think some questions about reform of business rates and council tax do firmly sit under your department, most notably in the conversation on devolution, particularly related to the recent comments that we saw with the Mais lecture speech. If we are m…”

“Chris Curtis, Milton Keynes North.”

“From local government stakeholders that you have spoken to in your role about the recent changes and the impact they will have on local business.”

“Yes.”

“Do you think there is concern from local government stakeholders that you have spoken to about the recent changes, the business rates changes?”

“Do you think it is still the plan?”