Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2020-12-17
Topic: Health
Paul John Holmes (Conservative, Centre-right): I am pleased to speak in this debate to mark the Christmas Adjournment. I am particularly delighted that my hon. Friend the Deputy Chief Whip is on the Treasury Bench. He is a very close friend of mine and I have known him for many years, but I do not get to interact with him much in the House, other than when he tries to tell me off—or does tell me off—in the Whips Office. I look forward to giving him a slightly hard time this afternoon, with lots of long lists of what my constituents need—but not too long, Madam Deputy Speaker Perhaps in this debate my hon. Friend will be tempted to give me some positive news, although I do not expect that to continue for the rest of my career, particularly not good news from a Whip. None the less, I hope that this afternoon he will be able to give me good news on some of the things I want. He will not be surprised to hear that I have a few things to raise with the Government about what is going on in my constituency Of course, the first subject I have to talk about is the covid pandemic. It goes without saying that I pay tribute to all the health workers and businesses in my constituency who have struggled and worked really hard to make sure that the people of Eastleigh and Hampshire have the health services they need in my constituency and the wider region. The Health Secretary’s announcement this morning on the further tiers was welcome. I am pleased that calls from colleagues from across Hampshire for a splitting of geographical regions in the county were followed through. However, Eastleigh is sitting at 50 to 60 cases per 100,000 people and is the only place in Hampshire not currently seeing an increase among the over-60s, so may I gently say to the Deputy Chief Whip that I expect my region and constituency to remain under constant review? We need to drop a tier, and my constituents expect that to happen as soon as possible That brings me to the businesses in my constituency, which have invested thousands—hundreds of thousands —of pounds in making their businesses and their premises covid-secure. Of course it was welcome when, a couple of weeks ago, the Government announced further assistance for the hospitality sector, in particular wet-led pubs and small breweries, but businesses in my constituency such as the Steam Town Brew Company, the CrackleRock Brewing Company and the Botley Brewery need more support. The £1,000 was welcome, but they need further support, especially those that had previously invested to make sure that their businesses could continue. Perhaps the Deputy Chief Whip might like to speak to the Treasury in future so that we can see whether we can continue small brewery business rate relief as we go forward. [Hon. Members: "Hear, hear!"] That sounds very popular, so perhaps it might happen My constituency is not different from any other constituencies in the country, and we desperately need infrastructure. The Deputy Chief Whip will remember that I raised this issue in my maiden speech. My Liberal Democrat council has not had a sustainable housing local plan for over a decade, and the Liberal Democrat council in Eastleigh personally buys land and develops it itself. I do not have a problem with that, but when there is a lack of a sustainable local plan, it is open to speculative developments, often put forward by the borough council. I am raising the possibility of the Deputy Chief Whip asking the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government about this so that his Department starts to take a stronger line on local authorities that are not developing local plans. It is fair to say that there is a local plan process in place. The local plan that was proposed by the Liberal Democrat council was found to be unsound, and 5,000 houses were taken out of ancient woodland in Bishopstoke, which is welcome, but the local plan process is painfully slow. The council is not delivering on that local plan and speculative developments are being accepted on green belt right across the constituency While I welcome housing and want it to be built, I just say to the Deputy Chief Whip that I did get an early Christmas present when we heard that there was a change in emphasis on the housing algorithm going forward. He will acknowledge my feelings on the housing algorithm, and it is certainly welcome, but tougher interaction from the Department on local plans would be very welcome When houses come, there has to be further infrastructure, and there are two particular things that I want to raise today on behalf of my constituency. The first is the levelling-up fund, which is incredibly welcome. I strongly welcomed that emphasis from the Chancellor when it was announced, but can I ask for a reassurance that southern constituencies will receive equal weighting if they bring forward a bid to Government and the Treasury on infrastructure projects—