Speeches by Cocking.

“Going back to the regulated period and your comments around the fact that you are not sure whether it is fit for purpose, you were just talking about volunteers who help political parties. Lots of candidates are volunteers as well; they have jobs and all the rest of it. If we were to say that the regulated period is no…”

“In that scenario, would you also have to put when you were selected? If you were selected earlier, you could spend more; on the return, the public could look at that and say, “Well, candidate A spent loads of money, but candidate B hardly spent anything.” Candidate B might have been selected a week before the close of …”

“I have a follow-up to Will’s question about the regulation of crypto. You were asked when there would be enough regulation to lift your recommended suspension; you gave a long, detailed answer, and I want to make sure that I have understood it correctly. Are you saying that it is not up for you to say when there is eno…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I have great respect for the Minister. I hope that he remains in post or gets a promotion in the upcoming reshuffle. I did not plan to speak today but, although I have heard some good points made in this Committee, I have also heard some nonsense. This is …”

“I am Lewis Cocking, the MP for Broxbourne.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. The Government are bringing forward logical proposals to deal with new councils, but my concern is that I am not sure that this measure goes far enough. It talks about protecting new councils from existing councils’ decisions about their finances, but what …”

“Thank you for your guidance, Mr Vickers. This is an important piece of legislation that the Government are bringing forward. I wonder whether the Minister could explore some of the points that I have raised in this debate.”

“Did you feed back any observations?”

“Could you give us a bit of a flavour? Let us say that you are successful and get put in post, and this happens to an authority—they have a couple of good audits and suddenly issue a section 114 notice. What approach would you take?”

“Mr Butler, you are currently chair of the Public Sector Audit Appointments company. You appoint auditors to carry out audits on local government finances. We have had a number of councils over the relatively short to medium term declare section 114 notices. Did you take any action? A council has had an audit and has th…”

“Finally, can we be assured that you share some of the concerns that I have outlined and that, under this new organisation, you will be more involved in the process of trying to solve some of those issues, so that councillors and constituents get an earlier flag about the risks and options that they have picked for the …”

“It is about getting more credibility in the audit system. It is very frustrating if you are the resident of a council and you can look back over the audits and see that it passed the audit, but then was suddenly issuing a section 114 notice. Most councils do not go bankrupt overnight, so within that audit process the a…”

“I am Lewis Cocking, the Member of Parliament for Broxbourne.”

“To expand on that, we are talking about councillors specifically. The Government have brought forward legislation to ensure that if you sit on a planning committee now, you have to undergo planning training. In your professional opinion—this is not to diminish any local councillor at all; scrutinising and asking questi…”

“But should it be mandatory?”

“The Minister should also consider the impact of the conveyancing process on this important issue. I have heard many complaints from older people in my constituency about the lack of transparency from solicitors, with families then hit with huge fees at the worst possible time. I am sure if people knew what they were si…”

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like millions of people across the country, I am a leaseholder. We have been waiting nearly two years since the Government promised to improve the system. While the Government dither, leaseholders are being ripped off with higher service charges from companies such as FirstPort. We need action, …”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“Broxbourne is an important commuter area when travelling into London. Millions of journeys start and end at stations in my constituency every year, and more than double the national average number of people use the railway to get to work. The line that I and my constituents rely on—Greater Anglia—was one of the first t…”

“I thank the hon. Member for supporting the point I was making. The Elizabeth line was a new line with new trains going along it, but currently, planning applications are submitted and the response is: “This development is next to a railway station. We will grant the planning permission.” There are no new services. Ther…”