Speeches by Powell.

“Finally, several of you have referred to some other changes in the last six years; things like the Building Safety Act 2022 and Awaab’s law coming into force in October. How do you expect the new regulation of managing agents to interact with those other changes that have been made to housing sector regulations more br…”

“I am MP for Kensington and Bayswater.”

“I have a follow-up question for Halima. If the state remains unadopted, would you support extending the right to manage to those roads or unadopted parts? Would that be helpful?”

“I have just one brief follow-up, Dan. Have you considered the issue in this market where you have a very small number of very large managing agents—including FirstPort—that are largely owned by overseas private equity? It has over 400,000 units and then every other competitor is relatively tiny. From your perspective, …”

“The Imperial College healthcare NHS trust has the largest high-risk repair backlog in the country. The support from the Government estates safety fund is very welcome, but to solve this problem we ultimately need a new St Mary’s hospital. Will the Secretary of State join me in praising the work of the new three-year St…”

“15. What steps his Department is taking to tackle building maintenance backlogs in the NHS estate.”

“13. What steps he is taking to support small businesses.”

“Will the Leader of the House join me in praising the Ukrainian St Mary’s trust, which in recent years dramatically scaled up its community school to serve more than 2,500 displaced children, and pioneered new trauma-sensitive methods of education? Will she consider making time to debate its proposal to set up the count…”

“I strongly welcome this political agreement and congratulate the Foreign Secretary and the ministerial team on achieving it. I recently met Chief Minister Picardo, alongside my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Sir Andrew Mitchell) and other members of t…”

“Small businesses on our high streets across my constituency, from Earl’s Court Road to Queensway, Notting Hill Gate and Portobello Road, are fed up of being blighted by candy shops, low-grade souvenir shops, Harry Potter shops and even barbershops, with accusations of VAT and business rates evasion and even links to mo…”

“Under the Conservatives, London’s housing crisis escalated to dangerous levels, with one child in every classroom in temporary accommodation. I warmly welcome not only the £39 billion for the affordable homes programme, but the 10-year rent deal, the new low interest loans, and something that I have been pushing for—I …”

“What happens to those homes when they are not contracted?”

“I want to ask about the compulsory purchase order reforms in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Will they change the behaviour of landowners? Emily, I wonder whether we could start with you because you put in your written evidence that you would expect this to be challenged at the ECHR. What is the thinking behind t…”

“Will, if I could come back to the uncontracted section 106, the Home Builders Federation said that there are 17,400 uncontracted homes. You cited price and late involvement as one factor. What else is preventing your members from taking up those homes?”

“I am Joe Powell, the MP for Kensington and Bayswater.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for sharing those statistics. I think the reality is that the money is there; what we need to do is go building by building and solve the problems. That is where I welcome the Government’s emphasis on devolving some of the decision making, for example, to a London remediation board, which might b…”

“I know that this is one of the biggest teams that the Met police have in operation, and of course it is right that they keep the funding in place until their work comes to fruition. I also agree with my hon. Friend that we must make sure that taxpayers’ money is no longer going to those companies. I hope the Minister c…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for making that very valid point. It is good news that the Government have accepted all of Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s recommendations, and I applaud them for taking the time to come back in detail rather than rushing a response. However, it is absolutely vital that timelines are met. The example of …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. I do applaud the many steps the Government are taking on this issue—for example, on professionalising the housing sector and implementing Awaab’s law on damp and mould. As she states, the truth is that without real change, all of us in this House know that a tragic case suc…”

“I absolutely agree. I applaud the Prime Minister’s personal commitment to bring in the Hillsborough law. At the party conference in September last year, he said that the law is “for the sub-postmasters in the Horizon scandal. The victims of infected blood. Windrush. Grenfell Tower. And all the countless injustices over…”