Speeches by Cocking.

“I congratulate the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson) on his Bill. I do have some reservations about it, which I will go into shortly, but I am minded to support it today because this is a much better policy than the current Government line about having large-scale solar farms on all our farmland throughout the…”

“I was about to mention battery technology, so I ask the hon. Gentleman to wait just a few seconds. The Bill does go quite far in that its ambition relates to all houses, but I think we should go further. If we are putting solar panels on houses, we should require those houses to have battery storage as well, which migh…”

“I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. In the devolution White Paper, the Government set half a million people as the appropriate size for these new councils. Can the Minister therefore rule out creating big super-councils that represent more than a million people? Will h…”

“I had a meeting with a state school in my constituency that said the changes will be damaging because it gets a grant from a private school, which will have to be cut to deal with the impact of VAT. That state school, which is in a genuinely working-class community, will be £200,000 a year worse off under this policy. …”

“The Government have said time and again that they want to smash the criminal gangs that illegally smuggle illegal migrants into the UK, yet the Government cannot even smash the gangs that smuggle drugs and phones into our prisons. How can my residents trust the Government to smash these gangs?”

“I am Lewis Cocking, Member of Parliament for Broxbourne. I live in a shared ownership property with a housing association.”

“I have one quick follow-up question, if I may, to the housing associations. How much do you all have in reserves? Please do not tell me that you do not know. You have come here to talk about finances today. You are saying that you need more money. How much do you all have in reserves? Fiona Fletcher-Smith: I will start…”

“How many homes that are perfectly up to normal standards and environmental standards of today do you estimate are being turned down by housing associations because you do not want to retrofit them later? I do not know many homes that are not still built with a gas boiler. Does that mean that housing associations go, “I…”

“The private sector costs X to build exactly the same home as you and you cost Y. I am assuming that it costs you guys more to build exactly the same as the private sector. How much more and why?”

“Why are you sitting here saying, “We need more grants. We need more grants”? Where does that fit in? Fiona Fletcher-Smith: Generally, the sector is very well funded, but our priorities at the moment are to invest in existing homes. In the past, we would be able to invest in existing homes and use spare money to go into…”

“Going back to housing association assessments and health checks, so to speak, where do you report it to? You do an assessment on the housing association. Where does that information end up? Fiona MacGregor: We grade providers on housing associations on three elements. We grade them on governance, viability and consumer…”

“There is no obligation for you to send that to local authorities or tenants. Fiona MacGregor: It is very well used. Anyone can sign up, and every time we publish anything you will get an alert. Anyone can sign up and get the alerts whenever we publish a new judgment. They are widely available.”

“With all due respect, you do not go out of your way and send it to anyone such as the local authority, a key stakeholder or tenants, you just expect people, first, to know about it and, secondly, to sign up on the website. You see that as your job done: “We have put it on the website. We have told enough people”. Fiona…”

“5. What steps she is taking to help prevent road closures when roadworks are not taking place.”

“I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Drivers in my constituency are sick to death of the endless road closures and temporary traffic lights when no works are taking place. Will the Minister demand that utility companies do everything in their power to get roads open as …”

“You are reorganising the Conservative counties. What are you doing about the small London councils? Your own local council is 231,000, according to the last census. Are you saying to them, “You have to merge with the council next door, because you are not quite big enough”? Lambeth, for example, is 317,000. Are you say…”

“What does “slightly less” mean? Does that mean 300,000 or 350,000?”

“I draw everyone’s attention to my register of interests as a local councillor. On the seven years, you seem to be saying that local councils are not doing enough to build. What about developers? Sometimes developers do not play ball. They do not show councils that they are willing to listen, are willing to do 106 agree…”

“The devolution White Paper talks about unitarisation, and it talks about 500,000 people. What does that mean in reality? Does that mean creating super-councils of a million-plus? Does that mean creating councils of 200,000? Can you tell us your thoughts around how fixed that 500,000 is?”

“You will ask small Labour metropolitan councils to consider merging as well, then.”