Speeches by Blake.

“I have been working for months with residents of the Quadrangle, the Water Gardens and Connaught Village on the scale of their service charges. They have managed to reduce their service charges by 10%. Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating them on their hard work and agree that they should not have had to work …”

“3. What steps the Church is taking to improve the maintenance of the Hyde Park Estate.”

“Is it spent every year?”

“To your number one priority, closing the tax gap, it has gone from 7.4% in 2005-06 down to 4.8% in 2022-23. How much further can HMRC go in closing this gap?”

“We are going to come on to digitalisation, but I am really thrilled to hear you talk about metrics. When we spoke to the Perm Sec, Jim Harra, earlier on, I asked about progress towards closing the tax gap within this financial year, because there is £350 million additional to bring in. We did not get to the answer in t…”

“On that basis, if they are not successful in bringing this forward—we will get a stocktake at the end of January and then again at the end of March; there is additional revenue of £815 million next year—will there be a consideration of their headcount? Is there complete confidence in this metric that these staff genera…”

“It is in the ballpark of £300 million.”

“This is really helpful information about the metrics. Do you think that we can get closer to 2% or 3% in closing the gap on this trajectory?”

“Thanks, Minister. Priority one is closing the tax gap. Priority two is reforming the system. Priority three is improving customer service. Where does anti‑money laundering supervision come in?”

“Really key sectors, particularly in terms of how this affects the housing market, are estate agency businesses and letting agency businesses, which are part of the statutory responsibilities. You have referenced how well it is resourced. We have heard previously about the range of government bodies responsible for inve…”

“You have to protect the businesses so that they know what they are supposed to be declaring, and then support them and consider sanctioning. What assessment have you made of the potential money laundering gap—you talked to the tax gap—so how many people you might not be observing breaching the rules?”

“Is it ringfenced to spend annually?”

“May I thank the Chancellor for raising the case of my constituent, Jimmy Lai? I know it will mean a lot to him and his family. Does she agree that it is because of the profound differences that it is vital we maintain this strategic engagement?”

“I will come on to some of the incredible work that advice agencies do in my constituency. Funding will need to be met with an active approach by local authorities to recruit the right individuals with the appropriate skills to act as inspectors for the regime. Additional funding may be needed for the immediate recruitm…”

“I must declare an interest: my husband works for an organisation that funds the Renters’ Reform Coalition, which has been referred to today. It is a privilege to speak in this debate after serving on the Bill Committee, which took a thorough approach to each element of the Bill. This topic is of great importance to me,…”

“I thank the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) for securing this debate. I speak today as the constituency Member of Parliament for many of the assets we are discussing. It is easy to throw around the many billions of Russian-owned wealth across the country; for that reason, when referencing the luxurious we…”

“My questions are for the Post Office. In your own evidence, you recognise that so long as deposit services are easily available, businesses would continue accepting cash. You talked about how the framework ensures that businesses are not turning customers away. The British Independent Retailers Association said that mo…”

“You have talked about access to cash. In terms of acceptance of cash in businesses, we have established, in both your evidence and that of other small businesses, that the network is really important for that. How will cash acceptance, given that it is not a direct function, affect your decisions on those franchises?”

“I agree with you that this is a really exciting opportunity for lots of small businesses in their communities, yet so many places are losing post offices and fearful of losing post offices. Why are more people not taking up this opportunity?”

“I wanted to put some questions to Mr Lowman. Your members both work within the network and rely on the network because of the nature of your members’ businesses. What more could be done to maintain post office services within your membership?”