Speeches by Pennycook.

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Desmond. I congratulate the hon. Member for Wells and Mendip Hills (Tessa Munt) on securing this important debate, and I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting it. I also thank all hon. Members who have participated in this wide-ranging debate, and the h…”

“We have had this debate many times. I will come on to housing targets and the fact that if there is an up-to-date local plan in place, the housing targets do not need to be immediately revised. On the specific point about rural affordable housing, the framework makes it easier for rural exception sites to come forward …”

“That is not quite my reading of the Yatton judgment. The judge confirmed that even if a site fails the formal sequential test for flood risk, elements of the exception test remain valid material considerations that can outweigh flood risk under the tilted balance in paragraph 11(d). The High Court made a judgment in th…”

“If I remain in post after the summer recess, I will be more than happy to meet the hon. Lady. Where the sequential and exception tests have been applied as necessary and are not met, the framework is clear that development should not be allowed. I want to push back gently on the assertions made by the hon. Lady and the…”

“That was a long list of perfectly reasonable and fair questions, which I will seek to answer in turn. If I miss any, hon. Members are more than welcome to intervene on me. I will begin with the questions from the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner. The order establishes, as a corporate b…”

“That the Committee has considered the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation (Establishment) Order 2026.”

“Committee rose.”

“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I would like to correct an inadvertent error I made earlier today. During the Ninth Delegated Legislation Committee debate on the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation (Establishment) Order 2026, I inadvertently stated that a relevant powers and functions order would fall …”

“That is a very good question. In short, although I am more than happy to expand on this response, the development corporation’s boundary does not pre-empt or prejudice the outcome of the recent consultation on local government reorganisation. The Government would, of course, consider, through due process, any changes t…”

“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation (Establishment) Order 2026. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Huq. The order was laid before the House on 4 June. It will establish a centrally led urban development corporation in greater Cambridge, pursuan…”

“Resolved,”

“You can encourage in that manner. I will pass it on to the Building Safety Minister and Andy Roe at the BSR.”

“Again, I will bring in Jo and Emma to add some detail. We are very confident they will be able to comply. We have given them the time to comply and are providing lots of detailed guidance to help them to roll it out. Again the regulator has a role in terms of SRS, MEES and those consumer standards coming through. We ar…”

“Again this is where lots of the issues you are touching on are cross-departmental in important ways. The fuel poverty standard responsibility rests with DESNZ rather than MHCLG. We agree that it is right to retain the current fuel poverty measure. It reflects some structural drivers of fuel poverty, such as building qu…”

“I am sure you do. We had developed in opposition a very well thought-through, detailed and comprehensive plan with respect to housing and planning legislation and policy. I would argue we have ruthlessly executed that over the past two years. If I recount all the things we have done, they include overhauling the planni…”

“That is a tough question. I hear bandied about fairly often that as a Government we came into office without a plan.”

“Let me take those in two parts, with a caveat on the last one that I am not the Minister responsible for building regulations specifically, but I am more than happy to talk to them. Again, there is a slightly complex picture, which I can hopefully explain in a way that the Committee can follow. When I go back to the ge…”

“We have not announced a timeline for the completion of that technical review.”

“I would not say it is fair to characterise what we have done as prioritising quid pro quo leases. As I said, we need further evidence and have launched the technical consultation. We are hoping to publish the consultation on valuation rates imminently. As Committee members will know, that sits within the context that w…”

“Just to supplement that, the bar for an exemption has to be extremely compelling in my mind. Let us see the evidence as to whether or not this type of lease meets that bar.”