Speeches by Turmaine.

“My next question was going to be how long you think it will take to implement them once you have decided on them, but you are suggesting in your answer that probably later this year is the—”

“That’s great. Can you tell me a little about how you will ensure that the new indicators will provide good early-warning signs of deteriorating performance?”

“The Government are committed to effective cross-departmental working, yet my constituent Suzi has had tremendous problems getting different agencies to work together simply to get an effective wheelchair delivered to her home. Does the Leader of the House agree that cross-agency working needs to improve, and will he ar…”

“Q10. The Government have shown that they take seriously justice and violence against women and girls. In my constituency, I have been made aware of a case in which two children of a convicted paedophile have been trying to change their surname but cannot, because both parents have to agree. They are caught in a trap no…”

“That would be great—thank you. You have touched on some of this already, Rupert, but can you just give us a little info on what evidence you have about service personnel and their families starting to feel benefits from the new Defence Housing Service?”

“Or give me a sense of what proportion of the budget you have?”

“As you say, it is obviously quite early days. Presumably most of those benefits are yet to come, because we are still at that early stage in the process.”

“Can you tell me how much of the £1.5 billion for rapid work to fix the poor state of family housing has been spent so far?”

“That would be brilliant. We would really appreciate it if you could send some of that additional information through.”

“Rupert, can you please tell us what progress you have made in developing the 10-year plan to deliver a generational renewal of defence housing?”

“You have touched on some of them already, but what are the primary targets and milestones that you are looking to deliver on in this plan? Commutability is one, and dealing with damp and size issues are others. Are there any others that you would like to surface?”

“Forgive my slight breathlessness—I have just run up the stairs. I would like to ask some questions about Annington Homes. The annual report and accounts says: “The landmark deal with Annington Homes in December 2024, to return military homes to public ownership, provides new opportunities for forces homeownership. It h…”

“Have the delays to the publication of the defence investment plan affected the plans for the estate development in any way?”

“Jim, I would like to address this question to you. Can you tell us a bit about the progress that you have made so far in delivering the action plan?”

“That is great, thank you. Paragraph 2.4 on page 26 references that the 2010 to 2015 Government did achieve driving down regulatory costs by £10 billion. It also identifies that 90% of that was down to 10 changes. Are there replicable lessons from that? Are you already looking at those 10 areas and what their impact mig…”

“Paragraph 1.14 on page 16 of the Report says that the plans are currently “off track”. Are you confident you are going to make up the progress that you need to make in the time available?”

“Q14. Last week, in my constituency of Watford, several amazing charities held their annual sleep-out to raise awareness of homelessness. People sign up to sleep outside at Watford football ground. More than 120 people raised over £15,000 of vital funding and more than 200 attended including the volunteers. Watford FC C…”

“It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Preston (Sir Mark Hendrick) for securing this important debate. I want to make a few comments about the relationship between Watford and Mainz, Germany. There was a twinning relationship between our town and Mainz for man…”

“But with the current backlog you would not expect to hit the March 2026 target?”

“That is great. Will that still be the case once the surge staff are removed and you are sort of business as usual?”