Speeches by Khan.

“Is that from land acquisition all the way to consent?”

“I just wanted to pick up on viability. The National Housing Federation has been quite robust in some of its written evidence on this. It has said that viability assessments are frequently used purely to compensate overpaying for land or to maximise profit. I am just really interested to hear your reflections on that an…”

“What is that based on? I used to work in the industry. Certainly, 10.9 years was not my experience. Do you have a number of schemes that skew that?”

“I was just interested to hear what the basis was for that because there are lots of examples where it does not necessarily take that much time.”

“This is probably a question for Richard first, but I am happy to hear views from other members of the panel. Given the new powers for compulsory purchase under the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, how do you think that local authorities can make the best use of those changes?”

“That was very clear. Does anybody else have any comments?”

“My hon. Friend is making a powerful point, which we have discussed on the Select Committee. Does she agree that to reach the target of 90,000 social homes a year, we must set clear targets now? Otherwise, we will not be able to get a grip on the housing crisis when it comes to delivering socially rented homes.”

“I rise to speak as a member of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, and in support of new clause 50. For too long, affordable housing has become a catch-all term that means anything but. Shared ownership and discounted market schemes are products that may work for some, but for many, they offer no r…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery) for securing this important debate. Access to cash is important, but it is only one part of the story. The closure of bank branches strips communities across our country not just of access to money, but of access to advice and support services that …”

“As if this situation could not get any worse, we now have damning reports that Israeli fire is killing Palestinians trying to access aid at militarised distribution centres that are not sanctioned by the UN. It shows complete disregard for human life. Does the Minister agree that enough is enough, and that now is the t…”

“I completely agree with that, Minister. I just want to get a bit of clarity. When you say that we need to rebuild that trust, is there anything else, alongside the multi-year settlements, that you think could help us to enable councils to do that?”

“Thank you, Minister; it has been really helpful to hear some of your thoughts on that. As someone who has served as a councillor for over 10 years and also as a cabinet member, I would be interested to hear some of your thoughts on this, too. One of the things that I found during that period was that balancing the book…”

“Naushabah Khan, Labour MP for Gillingham and Rainham.”

“I thank the Minister for his statement on this deeply concerning matter. Given that he has already highlighted the friendship that this country enjoys with both Pakistan and India, will he provide reassurances that it is in that manner that ongoing conversations with both countries will be conducted? Will he detail whi…”

“I picked up on this with the previous panel, but I want to get this panel’s thoughts on planning fees. How prescriptive is the Bill’s ringfencing of planning fees?”

“A lot of what I was going to pick up on has been referred to in those answers, but I can see that a tension exists between what Victoria was saying and what Andrew has just said. We have a bit of a challenge in planning departments, where they feel like they have been under-resourced—they have been under‑resourc…”

“My question is whether there should be more mechanisms in place to ensure that there is more democratic accountability of new development corporations, but also whether these development corporations should be given additional powers to lead on building houses alongside the private sector. I would be interested to hear…”

“I wanted to ask a follow-up question on that. I am really interested to hear you reference Chatham. Being the neighbouring constituency to me, and being in the same unitary authority that I was a councillor in previously, I am really aware of how that project worked. It was really engaging and they did a lot of work ar…”

“I am Naushabah Khan, Labour MP for Gillingham and Rainham.”

“Following on from those comments, my questions are a little bit about planning fees. Do you think that the recent increase in planning fees has allowed for an improved service from planning departments?”