argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Giacomo Lopresti (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate the hon. Lady on her excellent speech, with which I broadly agree. Does she agree that while, from a moral point of view, we obviously need to build more houses in the public and private sectors, we also need to radically reform the planning system, which takes far too long and is a big roadblock to getting the homes we need for people?
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is making a great speech and I totally endorse everything she has said. I am really worried as to what the heck the shareholders are doing. Do they not question this when they have their annual general meeting? They are meant to bring the companies to account on such matters.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Richard Michael Bacon (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with almost everything that the hon. Lady has said, but I ought to point out—I declare an interest, because as part of an Industry and Parliament Trust fellowship I spent a day at Berkeley—that the main shareholder of Berkeley is Tony Pidgley, who started that business himself. He left school at 15, unable to read and write, and he has employed thousands of people, created a great deal of wealth for this country and paid a huge amount of tax. Moreover, he would deny—and he would be right to do so, unlike some of the others the hon. Lady rightly mentioned—that Berkeley produces poor quality. It does not; it produces extremely good quality. Berkeley refuses to be a member of the Home Builders Federation because it does not consider itself a volume house builder.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Gareth Alan Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the hon. Lady agree that one way forward would be to increase the opportunities for self-build? It is incredibly difficult at the moment. If an individual wants to buy a plot of land and find a builder to construct a house for them, they find so many obstacles in their way. Does the hon. Lady agree that that may be a way forward to improve on the current situation?
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): It will be obvious to Members that we have very little time left—not surprising in the current circumstances—and that lots of people want to speak. We will try to manage without a time limit. Let us see whether we can be courteous and consensual. If everyone takes around five minutes, we will get there.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Richard Michael Bacon (Conservative, Centre-right): That is very helpful, Madam Deputy Speaker May I start by congratulating the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) very sincerely? I realised how strange times are in this particular area of housing debate when I attended a lunch at the Institute of Economic Affairs, where the hon. Lady was the guest speaker. I realised that it is the case not so much that there is political cross-dressing going, but that many of us are searching for solutions outside the traditional parameters; and that is because, as the title of the White Paper from January 2017 said, we have a broken housing market. We might have some differences about the causes of the situation she accurately describes, and about the best prescriptions for solving it, but it is absolutely clear that supply does not rise to meet demand. She used the word "market" in her last couple of sentences, which rather implies that we have a market for housing, but we have no such thing; we have a tightly controlled oligopoly, and actually supply does not rise to meet demand, because most suppliers do not wish to damage their own profit margins by oversupplying the market so that prices fall. We would not expect that in any other area of business and we should not expect it in housing Fundamentally, we need to change the model. If we have a broken housing market, we need to create a different ecosystem, and one of the fundamental things we need to do is increase choice for consumers. It is by far the single biggest thing people spend money on —whether renting or buying, it is the thing that people spend most of their monthly income on—but it is the thing over which they have the least choice. In any ecosystem in which the consumer had any say, it would be the thing over which they had the most choice As well as increasing choice, we have to lower barriers to entry, and that is where I want to bring in my favourite subject, mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Gareth Johnson), namely self-build and custom house building.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. We really do need to keep aiming for the limit of five minutes, because I am sure that people will want to hear what the Minister has to say. She has been asked many questions, and the answers must be heard, too.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Andrew Iain Lewer (Conservative, Centre-right): I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, and I thank the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) for securing this debate. I have spent much of my working life taking an interest in this core topic, and after becoming a Member of Parliament, housing has continued to be a passion of mine. I have been involved with the housing sector since I served on a planning committee for 12 years, and then as leader of Derbyshire County Council and director of a housing association. As an MP, I sit on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, and I chair the all-party group for SME house builders. In both roles, I have had the pleasure of working with people from across the private and social housing sectors. In particular, my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Mr Bacon) has made fantastic progress in championing self-build homes, and I hope he has continued success in that area Another area of success can be seen in the excellent work of Northampton Partnership Homes. Its chairman, David Latham, and chief executive, Mike Kay, have laid out ambitious plans for the future of social housing and tackling homelessness in my constituency, but national support from the Government, and local support, will be required to get those plans advanced. I have been encouraged by the Government’s commitment of £1.2 billion funding to tackle homelessness through to 2020, and by the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. I know that has been hugely beneficial in Northampton, and I hope it can help to get people back on their feet and with a roof over their head. Is there more to do? Of course there is, and I look forward to hearing about that from the Minister I was pleased to meet Sir Edward Lister, in his then capacity of chairman of Homes England, at a recent meeting of my all-party group. I was thoroughly impressed by what he said and I was encouraged by the approach he had been taking. It felt like there has been a shift and a change of culture at Homes England, or at least the start of a shift. The change needs to be seen primarily in money allocated by Ministers going to where it is needed most and by SME housebuilders getting that access. The sector does not feel that it is anywhere near as straightforward yet as it should be for SMEs in particular I am encouraged by the steps and the commitments the Government have already taken in this area, but I hope my right hon. Friend will make reference to, and address how, money from Homes England will get not only to the private and the social sectors, but to the shared ownership housing sector, a sector with a lot more potential than it has yet been able to realise.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Esther Louise McVey (Conservative, Centre-right): Companies and businesses should work towards what their purchasers and customers want. Therefore, they should be listening if they want to be the best company they can possibly be. Equally, we are listening as Members of Parliament. We have all shone a light on that bad practice and we will be taking that issue forward We are also looking at what housing associations are doing. My right hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) has brought forward what is happening with Sanctuary Housing. We have a Green Paper setting out the principles that will underpin a new fairer deal for social housing residents: safe and decent homes, swift and effective resolution of disputes, empowering residents and ensuring their voices are heard Although we talk about the industry, we really want to support the people who are living in those houses; we are talking about homes, safety and security. We do not want people in temporary accommodation. We do not want people to be homeless; we want them in permanent accommodation, and that can only be brought about by fixing the market and making sure we build more homes, which is what we are doing.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Esther Louise McVey (Conservative, Centre-right): We are and will be building more affordable homes. We have put in a significant amount—billions of pounds—for affordable homes and have also removed the cap so councils are able to build homes, too. That is what we have to do. We are a party that believes in choice. I come from a council house. I believed in the right to buy in the 1980s to make sure people could be in charge of their own home. Homes were not being repaired properly. People bought them and looked after them. Now we have to make sure we build more homes, so there is a virtuous cycle and there are more homes. We are a nation that believes in home ownership. We need to enable people to have their own homes. We know that 80% of people want their own home. What are we doing? We want to offer an array of choice and support. As my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk said, this is also about the ability of individuals to build their own homes.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Esther Louise McVey (Conservative, Centre-right): Through an array of support. Obviously, I have been heartened by the fact that first-time ownership has increased for the first time in 11 years. People are getting on the housing ladder. We have helped more than 500,000 people through Help to Buy and the right to buy, and we intend to continue to do that.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Richard Michael Bacon (Conservative, Centre-right): May I draw my right hon. Friend’s attention to the £25 billion a year housing benefit budget, which represents 3% of all public spending? It will be £0.25 trillion over the next 10 years, and it has been £0.5 trillion over the past 20 years or so. The permanent secretary in her former Department, Peter Schofield, who used to be the director of communities in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, came with us to Berlin to look at more creative and innovative ways of delivering housing. May I suggest that my right hon. Friend talks to the Department for Work and Pensions about trying to use some of that housing benefit budget —admittedly it is helping some housing associations, but it is also propping up private landlords—for capital investment in a greater quantity and quality of housing stock?
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Esther Louise McVey (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend will not be surprised to hear that that is exactly what we intend to do. How do we enable people to get on the housing ladder and to be homeowners in an array of homes they would like and need? How do we best use housing benefits to enable that to happen? As I have said, we have built more homes in this last year than in every one of the last 31 years. We are correcting a market that has been undeniably not supported for the last 31 years. We are getting it right. We have built more houses. Where we see the misuse of leaseholds, we will gett rid of that. We will be supporting people with an array of opportunities.
British House Building Industry — House of Commons, 2019-09-05
Topic: Housing
Esther Louise McVey (Conservative, Centre-right): I did understand what my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk was talking about. He talked about the £24 billion that was going into housing benefit and asked how we could best use that to help to build more homes, which could include social and council homes. I understand that but, at the same time, we have to ensure that more people can get on the housing ladder We are at the start of building 300,000 homes a year. That is not just about the homes; it is about reshaping an industry. At the same time, we want to be a global visionary centre of expertise in building. Let us think about all the jobs that that will provide, if we have the commitment to do it together. That is why we will have a centre of excellence in the north of England to look at the best ways forward for construction and engineering. That is what a determined Conservative party is going to do. We are going to build the right houses, champion home ownership and make a centre of excellence for building.
Speaker’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I remind Members that the private Members’ Bill ballot book is open in the No Lobby today until the rise of the House, when the ballot for this Session will close. The ballot draw will be held at 9 am tomorrow in Committee Room 10. I also remind right hon. and hon. Members that the ballot for the election of the Chair of the Treasury Committee, which is now being held in Committee Room 15, closes at 1.15 pm.
UK Elections: Overseas Funding — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: What recent discussions his Department has had with the Electoral Commission on the effect of overseas funding of political (a) parties and (b) campaigns on the conduct of elections in the UK.
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): I appreciate the constructive tone with which the hon. Gentleman has put his question. We look to publish the consultation itself over the coming months. We will be engaging with a range of stakeholders, including political parties, because we need to make sure that the system we come up with is not only robust, but fair, while also allowing those who just want to stand up for their own community and engage in our democratic process to do so without having to consult lawyers to take part.
UK Elections: Overseas Funding — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: What recent discussions his Department has had with the Electoral Commission on the effect of overseas funding of political (a) parties and (b) campaigns on the conduct of elections in the UK.
Michael Louis David Fabricant (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend will be aware that Facebook has recently withdrawn four different networks that were thought to have interfered with elections in the United States and Israel, and perhaps—we do not know—the United Kingdom. Does he think that is a good move or an irrelevant move by Facebook?
UK Elections: Overseas Funding — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: What recent discussions his Department has had with the Electoral Commission on the effect of overseas funding of political (a) parties and (b) campaigns on the conduct of elections in the UK.
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): We certainly welcome any moves being taken by the social media giants to try to remove those who are looking to distort information or inappropriately influence elections. As part of the consultation we are taking forward, we will try to achieve some consensus about how we can have a modern and up-to-date set of rules that ensures people cannot go online to sidestep rules that are very strong in the physical world.
UK Elections: Overseas Funding — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: What recent discussions his Department has had with the Electoral Commission on the effect of overseas funding of political (a) parties and (b) campaigns on the conduct of elections in the UK.
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): I must say that perhaps it would have been better to ask that supplementary on the next question, but I will just say that in building confidence in our electoral system, it is vital that we tackle a range of issues. If the hon. Gentleman wants to see what happens when people’s democratic rights are stolen via electoral fraud, he should talk to his hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Jim Fitzpatrick).
Voter Identification — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment the Government have made of the potential effect on the number of enfranchised people of the provisions on voter identification in the proposed legislation on electoral integrity.
Oliver James Dowden (Conservative, Centre-right): Voters deserve to have confidence in our democracy, so we will legislate to introduce voter ID, in line with Northern Ireland and many other nations, and to provide greater security for postal and proxy votes. The pilots and the experience in Northern Ireland showed no adverse effect on turnout.
Voter Identification — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment the Government have made of the potential effect on the number of enfranchised people of the provisions on voter identification in the proposed legislation on electoral integrity.
Oliver James Dowden (Conservative, Centre-right): My wife is Canadian. When I first went to vote with her, she found it extraordinary that people could turn up at the ballot box without any form of identification. Voter ID is what happens in Canada, Switzerland, France and other advanced democracies As to the point about lower turnout. In the pilots we undertook, over 99% of people who wished to vote were able to do so.
Voter Identification — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment the Government have made of the potential effect on the number of enfranchised people of the provisions on voter identification in the proposed legislation on electoral integrity.
Oliver James Dowden (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend raises an important point, and it is why local authorities will provide voters who lack the required ID with an alternative ID, free of charge, to ensure that everyone eligible to vote has the opportunity to do so.
Voter Identification — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment the Government have made of the potential effect on the number of enfranchised people of the provisions on voter identification in the proposed legislation on electoral integrity.
Oliver James Dowden (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not understand why the right hon. Gentleman is worried about a measure that is designed to enhance the integrity of our voting system. Any member of the public needs to produce identification to pick up a parcel, for example, or to pick up a book from the library, so why should they not produce identification to engage in the act of voting?
Voter Identification — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment the Government have made of the potential effect on the number of enfranchised people of the provisions on voter identification in the proposed legislation on electoral integrity.
Oliver James Dowden (Conservative, Centre-right): We are not following the example of the United States; we are following the example set by the last Labour Government, who introduced photographic voter identification in 2003, and it had no discernible impact on turnout.
Strength of the Union — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Civil Rights
Oliver James Dowden (Conservative, Centre-right): I find the approach of the nationalist party quite extraordinary—really quite extraordinary. I voted remain. I accept the outcome of the referendum and have supported it at every stage. The hon. Gentleman’s party appears to want to do two things: to ignore two previous referendums and to have two further referendums next year, 2020. It is the last thing the people of this country want.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Questions: With the Government being the largest client of the construction industry, will the Minister support a private Member’s Bill—similar to the ten-minute rule Bill that I introduced in the last Session—to outlaw the abuse of retentions?
Simon Anthony Hart (Conservative, Centre-right): I know how much work my hon. Friend has put into that issue. The Government have consulted on ways to prevent the loss of retention payments due to abuse or supplier insolvency. We continue to work with the industry and its clients to develop measures that will achieve that aim, and I very much hope that he will help us in that process.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: With the Government being the largest client of the construction industry, will the Minister support a private Member’s Bill—similar to the ten-minute rule Bill that I introduced in the last Session—to outlaw the abuse of retentions?; One hundred and eighty-one victims have died since the start of the contaminated blood inquiry, so when will this Government accept the responsibility for the worst scandal in the NHS and pay compensation to surviving victims and bereaved families?;   The Mayor of Greater Manchester is the police and crime commissioner and has responsibility for the Greater Manchester spatial framework and for health and social care devolution. London has an Assembly to challenge the Mayor. What mechanism is there in Greater Manchester?; The withdrawal agreement will have the most profound effect on devolution, and I do not trust the Tories with devolution. Does the Minister agree with the First Ministers of Wales and Scotland, who are meeting across the road, that they must give legislative consent?
Michael Andrew Gove (Conservative, Centre-right): It is very interesting to hear from the hon. Gentleman. He does not believe in devolution; he believes in smashing up our United Kingdom, so I will take no lectures from him on making our UK institutions work in the interests of all.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-10-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: With the Government being the largest client of the construction industry, will the Minister support a private Member’s Bill—similar to the ten-minute rule Bill that I introduced in the last Session—to outlaw the abuse of retentions?; One hundred and eighty-one victims have died since the start of the contaminated blood inquiry, so when will this Government accept the responsibility for the worst scandal in the NHS and pay compensation to surviving victims and bereaved families?;   The Mayor of Greater Manchester is the police and crime commissioner and has responsibility for the Greater Manchester spatial framework and for health and social care devolution. London has an Assembly to challenge the Mayor. What mechanism is there in Greater Manchester?; The withdrawal agreement will have the most profound effect on devolution, and I do not trust the Tories with devolution. Does the Minister agree with the First Ministers of Wales and Scotland, who are meeting across the road, that they must give legislative consent?
Simon Anthony Hart (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for her reference to Derby. We recognise the strength of the east midlands, and we are working with stakeholders from her local enterprise partnership—D2N2—to explore opportunities for role relocation in this area.