Speeches by Ellis.

“Yes. Fiona MacGregor: There is a real balance for providers, for housing associations, in how they use their money. We have heard some of that in the last session. They are constantly trying to trade off choices between their two essential agendas, one of which is investing in their existing homes to make sure that the…”

“Can you tell me what elements of the financial viability assessments housing associations struggle with the most? Fiona MacGregor: Is that in terms of meeting our requirements?”

“My question is aimed at Fiona mainly. Our predecessor Committee found that there were a number of challenges to the economic regulation of the sector, including an increasing reliance on borrowing and large-scale mergers. Do you find that these are still challenges and, if so, what are you doing to address them? Fiona …”

“To close out the for-profit point, I am interested whether there is anything that any of you think you want to see more from the regulators to ensure that, where there is that for-profit involvement, we are keeping an eye on that.”

“Are there any other examples from the other organisations of approaches you have taken? Fiona Fletcher-Smith: We run 15 joint ventures, so we are sharing that with lots of people. The other thing that we are doing in London that is quite innovative is that we are building for local authorities, which we think is really…”

“I will move on to devolution, which we had a number of questions on, but we will focus on some of the things that may not be talked about as much. First, a lot of the devolution deals that have happened so far have been in metropolitan areas, but there are opportunities going forward for a lot more shire areas and coun…”

“Do you see any more specific different challenges for those more shire areas than we have seen so far in some of the more metropolitan devolution deals?”

“T8. As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on babies, I am delighted that the announcements on Thursday included a one-year continuation of the Start for Life programme, which provides funding for 75 local authorities. We would, however, very much like all authorities to be able to access this funding in future …”

“I am sorry, but I will not. The motion tabled by the Conservatives today is not clear or specific on what they would do differently to fix the economy. That, along with the continual lack of clarity and consistency on rural and farming policy when they were in power, suggests that they never had a vision of how they wo…”

“If the hon. Lady will allow me, I will come to how we can help the farmers who will be affected by the measures. To finish my point about devolution, as an MP in an area with huge extents of rural economy, it is critical to me that devolution reflects our rural areas as much as our metropolitan ones. I look forward to …”

“As the Minister pointed out, many farms will not be affected by the measure and it will not have the impact that Opposition Members are leading people to believe. We have an opportunity to support our farmers, as I touched on in my response to the hon. Member for Upper Bann (Carla Lockhart). I have sat down with farmer…”

“I will come on to opportunities to increase the prosperity of farmers, which should be our mission. The second opportunity for farmers is around procurement and trade, and using the Government’s own purchasing power to back British produce, so that 50% of food brought into hospitals, Army bases and prisons is locally p…”

“I represent Ribble Valley in Lancashire, one of the most beautiful constituencies in the country and one of the most rural. There are 820 farms on my patch, including 121 dairy farms. I single out dairy farmers as probably the most passionate and dedicated farmers I have encountered. The problem with this motion is tha…”

“I will not, as I want to make progress. Just look at how farmers have led the way in restoring biodiversity and are diversifying into all sorts of new business ventures. The industry is not scared of change or opportunity, but much of it relies on and is driven by what Government determine is important through subsidie…”

“I am sorry, but I will not. I spoke earlier about the strength and efficiencies in family farming. From everything that I have seen and heard from farmers so far, it is clear that while valuing embedded ways of working and learning is important, there is also much appetite for innovation and doing things better.”

“How are you going to ensure that those golden rules for green-belt release are delivered on?”

“There is no mention of open countryside within the NPPF, but have there been any representations about that in feedback from the consultation and any discussion?”

“Maya Ellis, the Labour MP for Ribble Valley.”

“I want to pick up on green-belt and grey-belt issues. First of all, could you talk about the extent to which pockets of green space in the green belt could be considered grey belt under your proposed definition of grey-belt land?”

“Have you done any impact assessment of how many additional new homes grey-belt land will deliver?”