Speeches by Olney.

“I congratulate the hon. Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon) on securing this important debate and sharing her own family’s story. I dedicate my speech to a close and dear friend, a councillor in Richmond upon Thames, who lost her adult son in a road traffic collision on the A31 in Hampshire just before the new year. I am t…”

“Thames Water’s typical metered charges increased by 40.7% this financial year, and prices will rise again each year until 2030. While our water companies have been mismanaged and reform to bring down the cost of bills is needed, more can be done to encourage customers to meter their water usage. The average non-metered…”

“5. What steps she is taking to help reduce water bills.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for South Shropshire (Stuart Anderson) for securing the debate and for his excellent opening speech, which highlighted so many of the everyday frustrations and difficulties experienced by people who are not getting their post. I tha…”

“My hon. Friend is right. We have talked a lot today about the implications for individuals and I particularly want to highlight the example from my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (John Milne). That was really appalling and I send my best wishes to his constituent who suffered that unacceptable incident. My hon. Fri…”

“T4. One of my constituents is the director of a small property company that commenced the eviction process nearly a year ago against a tenant who had not been paying their rent, but due to court errors, enforcement has not yet taken place. The delays have cost my constituent over £6,000. During a housing crisis, we sho…”

“You talked about big infrastructure projects and people who can afford to employ agents, but I am concerned about smaller businesses—perhaps people setting up for the first time. If you were in their shoes, Ms Spain, do you think your organisation would be easy to deal with? Are you thinking about it from that perspect…”

“Ms Spain, what more are you at Natural England doing to make it easier for businesses to engage?”

“Presumably there are limits to what can be done digitally to fix that, with forms and that very structured approach. Paragraph 12 of the Report points out that there have been “reductions in local expertise and knowledge within the regulators”. Notwithstanding what you were saying earlier about how many more staff you …”

“We have been talking a lot about regulation and how extensive it is. The National Audit Office Report points very clearly to how this can be a real problem for businesses and farmers, and we have heard that evidence. One of the issues is how difficult it is for individual businesses or organisations to find the correct…”

“It is phrased better, which is good, but is it easy for people to find? Is it easy for somebody who needs that guidance to know they need it, and to find it quickly?”

“The heavy burden of Labour’s national insurance contributions rise, compounded by high energy costs and the business rates increase, has raised alarm about the affordability of hospitality businesses’ monthly employment costs. Some 84,000 jobs in the hospitality sector alone have been lost since the NICs rise was intro…”

“Still! That would cut red tape for businesses across the country, boost growth by more than 2.2% and raise at least £25 billion a year in tax revenue. The Prime Minister’s chief economic adviser has recommended a customs union with the EU as one of the most effective ways of generating growth, the Health Secretary has …”

“Liberal Democrats are calling for a new UK-EU customs union—”

“I can’t.”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There are groups of young people who are facing specific barriers to entering employment, and we need to do all we can to provide them with sustained support to get into and stay in the workplace. Much of the UK’s current workforce challenges are due to the mistakes made by the curre…”

“The hon. Gentleman always makes constructive interventions. He is absolutely right that we need to look at what works. We need to focus on this issue not just for the health and benefit of our young people but for the economy as a whole. Although we should continue to invest in technological breakthroughs, I am concern…”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her intervention. She speaks very passionately about businesses in Scotland and the situation they are facing. I am sure she is correct to say that it is even more challenging in Scotland. I am concerned that the Government’s sole focus on pubs and live music venues ignores the other…”

“Youth unemployment has risen since Labour took power. The rate is now above 15%, which means that more than one in seven 18 to 24-year-olds are not in employment. That is a really troubling statistic, but it has its roots in the Conservatives’ dismal economic record. The economic challenges we face did not develop over…”

“My hon. Friend is right. Young people face so many barriers to accessing both education and employment, and that is very much a legacy of the last Conservative Government and their mismanagement. Young people are increasingly concerned about the fact that the links between education and employment have become weaker an…”