Speeches by Cocking.

“rose—”

“T10. Will the Minister outline what new planning powers could be provided to local councils to ensure that my local communities in Broxbourne can say no to houses in multiple occupation—HMOs—where they are not wanted?”

“Can the Minister outline for the Committee, where these powers will sit, once councils have gone through devolution talks and appointed metro mayors? Will they still sit with the unitary councils, or will they go to the metro mayor? Can the Minister explain where the powers will sit when they get a new devolution agree…”

“I will try to be very quick. Deputy Prime Minister, at the moment, the system for council tax is that it is collected and spent locally. Have you had any discussions across Government about it being collected in one area and spent in another?”

“That is not true.”

“What in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill makes infrastructure—the roads, the doctors’ surgeries and schools—come first? I could not find it, so can you tell us, as Secretary of State, what in the Bill makes infrastructure on development come first?”

“You just said you were tracking it. If you are tracking it, surely you should be able to say, “Over the last 12 months, we have granted planning permission for 10,000 houses, and 4,000 have started on site.” You cannot be tracking it if you do not have those figures.”

“Deputy Prime Minister, you have said that you do what you say. Can you tell us, then, since the July election—you have now been in post for 12 months—how many planning permissions for social homes have been granted in the last 12 months, and how many of those social homes have started construction on site since you hav…”

“Lewis Cocking, Broxbourne.”

“When someone wants to purchase one of your properties because they have looked around one of your estates and think it is quite nice, how many years’ service charge do you give them before they sign on the dotted line to buy one?”

“Paul, what is the average service charge for one of your properties?”

“What was it in the last financial year?”

“Hang on, from the beginning, if someone turns up—”

“Has anyone who left Anchor over all these failures received a payoff to go?”

“You do not provide a simple sheet that says, “Last year the service charge was £3,000. The year before that, it was £2,500”?”

“How many years of information do you provide on what the service charge will be in, let us say, five years? Do you give any information to people who want to buy?”

“I am the MP for Broxbourne, and I am a leaseholder as well.”

“You have misunderstood the question. If someone turns up to buy one of your properties, how much history do you give them about the service charge? You are talking about the budget moving forward.”

“You have described some scenarios that sound horrific, with holes in floors and what have you. Has your organisation done any analysis on what auto-enrolment will do to solve some of the issues around income when people reach pension age? Obviously, that is going to take a while to work through, but have you done any a…”

“Do you charge for that access?”