Speeches by Blake.

“Outside London and the south-east.”

“There are alternative uses of what you present as comparatively tiny. That is the function that we are trying to drill into.”

“The median house price in my constituency is £1 million.”

“There will be people in my constituency who are not able to buy their first home within, it is important to say, communities that are just minutes away from here. How could you make the case for value for money with such a significant median house price?”

“The median house price in my constituency is £1 million.”

“Are there other categories that might help, for example bedroom numbers, that could be equivalent caps to use for the fund?”

“Ms Olufunwa, we are thinking about the price cap and the impact that that is having. For great swathes of London and the south‑east, this product is essentially irrelevant. You have talked about wanting to increase the property cap. What impact would that have on opportunities for people who want to buy their fi…”

“The Government are spending £500 million on this. Is this the best thing that they could do? There are other things that the Government can do with that money. I am interested in whether it is the right thing that they should be doing.”

“The Government are spending £500 million on this. Is this the best thing that they could do? There are other things that the Government can do with that money. I am interested in whether it is the right thing that they should be doing.”

“Ms Olufunwa, we are thinking about the price cap and the impact that that is having. For great swathes of London and the south‑east, this product is essentially irrelevant. You have talked about wanting to increase the property cap. What impact would that have on opportunities for people who want to buy their fi…”

“Are there other categories that might help, for example bedroom numbers, that could be equivalent caps to use for the fund?”

“I am not going to push you to quantify the impact that it has had, but you have just mentioned devolution and devolved authorities and a more devolved approach to policymaking. Could you give an example of how it has changed thought within the Treasury?”

“And did it?”

“I wanted to ask about growth and the conditions for growth in the co-operative and mutual sector. Do we have the right policy environment for that sector at the moment?”

“So the sector is on the radar, but the full assessment of any barriers to growth in the sector has not been completed. Is that fair to say?”

“I might have an opinion about the scale of the visitor economy in central London and the impact on local government finance. To pursue that, could you characterise or explore with us the policy benefits of that wider and, we would all argue, more thorough perspective on the stakeholders?”

“There has been a discussion about the policy benefits of being here. You have talked about going to Westminster City Council a bit less—”

“But if you were to just look at that line, you would establish that it was not really generating much growth or investment, so you have to look at that line in the context of the longer-term challenges.”

“I will give you an example of something that is hugely costly in the short term, but in the long term, investment could change it. Temporary accommodation costs £4 million a day in London. It cannot all be moved through one zero-based review because those are homes and roofs over people’s heads. What would the zero-bas…”

“I have a quick follow-up. Would the Darlington Economic Campus have got through the Green Book?”