Speeches by Pennycook.

“Do you want to say anything on that before I come in?”

“The second point to clarify is that, even at the point when, hypothetically, the OBR brings a forecast forward alongside the Budget, although I suspect we will not have Royal Assent by that point, even if it includes the impact of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, that still will not be the final measure of reform …”

“No, I do not think—”

“I would say three things in response to that answer. First, and officials may want to add or clarify, we do not get to dictate when the OBR forecasts, but we continue to engage with it in terms of further detail that it requires about our reforms, so that it can accurately estimate their impact on net additions. We wou…”

“I would emphasise once again to the Committee that, because of the nature of the development cycle, in terms of starts you are seeing the outcome of planning applications that would have been submitted in the previous Parliament. I could not have been clearer that a series of anti-supply changes were made to national p…”

“We use the OBR forecasts. They are the main public estimate of net additions. They inform the Department’s work. You will have qualitative data of what is actually feeding through as we progress through the Parliament in terms of the statistics that are released. As I say, there are some green shoots emerging from that…”

“I absolutely understand that, but, I suppose, point your attention to other long-term targets that the Government have set. Clean power by 2030 is a good example. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is not setting interim annual targets for clean power 2030. It is not saying, “We are at 80% clean power by t…”

“I am not going to give you rough interim annual targets or precise interim annual targets. We are not setting interim annual targets. It is a whole-of-Parliament standard. On the statistics, the point that is worth emphasising is that the Government inherited a housing market downturn, exacerbated by the conscious and …”

“That is data.”

“No, Chair. Sorry if I am raking over old ground. We have not set an interim annual target of 300,000 homes per year. I do not think that this is complex to understand. The 1.5 million new homes target is a whole-of-Parliament target. We know that, because of the dire inheritance that we picked up, planning applications…”

“Thank you, Chair, for the invitation to give evidence this morning and for that opening question. It is the case that the path to meeting our hugely ambitious target of building 1.5 million new homes in England in this Parliament is clearer than it was the last time I gave evidence to you in late November last year. As…”

“I am Matthew Pennycook. I am the Minister for Housing and Planning.”

“I will happily meet my hon. Friend about that concerning development. If she could write to me with the details in advance, that would be extremely useful.”

“Those house builders have expressed their confidence, and their gratitude for the reforms that the Government have carried out. It is slightly peevish of the right hon. Lady, who stood for election on a manifesto that committed her party to 1.6 million homes, to say that our 1.5 million homes target is unachievable. We…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for raising that point. I have a vague memory of certain parliamentary questions asking much the same, and I refer her to those answers. We want to ensure that all people have accessible homes. We are considering the M4(2) standard, and we will make announcements in due course about the accessibi…”

“The Government strongly encourage broad community engagement in the planning process, and we want to see greater public participation in the development of local plans in particular. We are currently exploring new ways to increase and enhance community engagement in the planning process, including by improving access t…”

“Although I respect the hon. Gentleman and his views, we have a principled difference of opinion on this matter. As I have made clear, the Government’s considered view is that long-standing council tenants should be able to buy the homes that they have lived in for many years. I hope, however, that the right-to-buy refo…”

“The Government do not intend to abolish the right to buy, either nationally or by giving local areas discretion to do so. We want to ensure that council tenants who have lived in and paid rent on their social homes for many years can retain the opportunity to own their home. We are, however, progressing fundamental ref…”

“The Government support selective licensing as a tool to tackle the impact of poor housing management on local communities. The general approval that we granted in December gives councils full powers to introduce schemes, regardless of their size. My hon. Friend’s own authority will have heard loud and clear his call fo…”

“We do want local communities to have more of a say, particularly when it comes to the development of local plans, which are, as I have said, the best means for local communities to shape development in their areas. When it comes to the national scheme of delegation, which is the point the hon. Gentleman is really drivi…”