Speeches by Woodcock.

“I am sorry to cut across you. What is your understanding as to why lenders will not loan or provide products for those one and two-bedroom flats? Is it simple profit?”

“I suppose some would argue that that is what the NPPF is for and then you get accused of overriding the whims of local people.”

“Sean Woodcock, MP for Banbury.”

“It is not enough; you need to move them around as well.”

“I thank farmers in my constituency of Banbury and Chipping Norton for engaging constructively with me on the issue—well, the vast majority of them, anyway. I know that they will welcome these changes, as they will welcome the record £1.8 billion investment in sustainable farming and food production provided by this Gov…”

“My right hon. Friend will be aware that the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice) recently failed to declare on time hospitality in a French villa from the wife of the former Russian deputy Finance Minister. Will my right hon. Friend assure me that the offer and acceptance of gifts and free holidays from R…”

“I welcome this strategy and pay tribute to the Minister and her predecessors for the work that has gone into it. I also pay tribute to the Banbury Youth Homeless Project in my constituency, which does great work with young people affected by homelessness, and extend an invitation to the Minister to come and visit the o…”

“The Minister has rightly congratulated Lando Norris and McLaren on their victory in the Formula 1 championship at the weekend. Motorsport brings in an estimated £9 billion to the UK economy, along with high-skilled jobs, cultural soft power and so on. Will the Minister join me in commending the sector on its contributi…”

“The Conservatives have spent a lot of this debate saying that apologies are due from the Government, yet under them £11 billion of taxpayers’ money was lost in covid fraud. Does the Minister agree that if an apology is due from any party in the House, it is them?”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“I am grateful to the Minister for his statement and pleased to hear of further sanctions. He stated that Dawn Sturgess was the victim of an utterly reckless and dangerous act. I would go further and call it a heinous crime, the responsibility for which lies with Vladimir Putin, among the many other such crimes for whic…”

“T7. What steps is the Minister taking to support small and medium-sized businesses in Banbury with public procurement?”

“I am delighted by the Chancellor’s announcement in last week’s Budget, having had decades of Tory Governments dithering and delaying while pensioners lost out. It is a great sign of what this Labour Government are delivering on pensions. Could the Minister confirm how much, or by what amounts, those affected are likely…”

“Changing your approach?”

“The largest saving you have proposed for Strategic Estates is capitalising staff costs. Could you explain how that would work?”

“Is the idea for that to bring down costs going forward? It clearly cannot deal with inflation and stuff like that, but if you are doing things more proactively, you could be doing less reactively, which means you would shift the resources that way or even remove some of them. Is that the longer-term aspiration?”

“A lot of that will be relatively small scale in terms of cost. Okay, plumbers are expensive, but they are not going to account for a large chunk of that budget. How is the budget managed? You said that things come up urgently, but with proper asset management, you can prevent things from becoming urgent. Can you explai…”

“By reactive, I assume you mean someone calling to say that the toilet or a lift is broken and so on.”

“You mentioned that you have 2,900 reactive—”

“Strategic Estates is the largest area of spend, and it has grown quite significantly. Can you talk to that, and maybe also explain how that budget is managed in terms of mitigating risk?”