Speeches by Cooper.

“The Government are piloting flexible options for voting in four areas at the local elections. When will you make your assessment of the success or otherwise of those pilots?”

“The Government are piloting early voting and central voting schemes. Are there other forms of flexible voting that you would like to see tested?”

“Yes, indeed. You have expressed concern about the use of bank cards, as proposed by this Government, as a form of ID. What should the Government prioritise instead, if not bank cards?”

“Such a small number of people have been convicted of it. We heard earlier that 4% of people did not vote because of the requirement to have photographic ID. That is probably around 750,000 people, if that was replicated at the last general election. Is it proportionate to have introduced a measure such as this, based o…”

“I am struck that we have been talking about deepfakes only during elections. You only have to spend a bit of time on YouTube to look at the extent to which deepfakes are operating 24/7 with regard to what the Prime Minister is saying. It feels like we are missing what is happening right now. My line of questioning is t…”

“I am Andrew Cooper, the Member of Parliament for Mid Cheshire.”

“Chloe, the Government have said that their proposal will ensure that the necessary level of accessible housing is provided, while giving local authorities the flexibility to maximise house building overall. To what extent do you think that mandating part M4(2) would constrain the supply of new homes, if indeed you thin…”

“My questions are to do with the accessibility of new homes now. The part M building regulations came in in 2010. The previous Government had a commitment that all new homes would meet the part M4(2) standard, although they did not actually make any progress towards enacting that commitment, as far as we can tell. Never…”

“The Government have not included a recommendation for a minimum percentage of new build homes that should comply with M4(3), although in the London plan they are requiring 10%. Do you think that the Government should specify a minimum percentage of new homes that should comply with M4(3) nationally?”

“This is just a quick question to you, Richard. The NHBC provides road and sewer bonds to developers to potentially cover the costs of completing construction, should the developer be unable or unwilling to complete. I have heard evidence in my area of where councils are requiring 100% coverage on the bonds. That is not…”

“Does that apply to utilities as well, so United Utilities versus Thames Water versus Severn Trent?”

“I join the Home Secretary in commending the bravery of victims in coming forward to give evidence to this inquiry. We owe it to them to make this a turning point and to make certain that the systemic failures and culture that made this attack possible are fixed and can never be repeated. Many of us in this House will r…”

“Well, perhaps you could tell us now.”

“Minister, I would like to push you a bit further on the issue of 40 years. You described how there is a range of views on that. You will have heard Lord Gove’s evidence to the Committee that he was convinced that 20 years struck the right balance, and that he convinced the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that 20 years …”

“I am Andrew Cooper, the Member of Parliament for Mid Cheshire.”

“When you eventually introduce this Bill, on First Reading will you be able to publish a draft of that secondary legislation so that it will be clear to the social housing sector and to current shared owners what you mean precisely by “specified purposes”? That way, while the legislation is going through Parliament, eve…”

“Is that separate? Is that going to be delivered in this Parliament as well?”

“Okay. Do the timescales for that align with those for this Parliament? Is it likely that those recommendations will be delivered in time for you to get an Act passed before the end of this Parliament?”

“Turning to the right to manage, you have already said that you want to produce separate primary legislation on the right to manage for commonhold, leasehold and freehold homes on private estates. Is that work already under way? Is the Law Commission working on a draft Bill for you at the moment on that?”

“Fair enough. We have heard, though, from many leaseholders about the impact that development value in particular is having on enfranchisement premiums, which they think might be a barrier to converting to commonhold for many blocks. Do you think that could specifically be carved out and addressed in the final Bill?”