Speeches by Lewin.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss energy and climate change, although I am still reeling from the speech made by the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for East Surrey (Claire Coutinho). By my count, she talked more about mushrooms than about climate change. The debate comes just weeks after…”

“I want to build on that, because there is no doubt that that £39 billion has really been welcomed. I have talked to people in councils and housing associations who have told me that. My key question is this: how can we use some of that money to help develop the capacity of councils and housing associations to build dir…”

“Good afternoon. I am Andrew Lewin, MP for Welwyn Hatfield.”

“That means yes to elections next year, as scheduled.”

“She might enjoy them even more than we do, but there is a serious point. This is true in Hertfordshire and other places across the country. At the moment, in Welwyn Hatfield, we have a district council and a county council, and we elect by thirds. What that means practically is that we have had elections every year sin…”

“Can I come back, Secretary of State, very briefly to your exchange with Will on elections next year? We all enjoy elections around this table. We would not be here if we did not. Sarah might be the exception.”

“The last question from me, Chair, is on shared ownership. Colleagues will not be surprised that I come back to this subject. It is one of real interest to me. I was fortunate in that I benefited from shared ownership. It is how I got on the housing ladder. In the data that we have just been talking about for 2023-24, a…”

“That is very welcome. Just briefly, is there similar guidance for housing associations? As it stands, they build significantly more homes than councils, but I am in a position, as are most of this Committee, I suspect, where we need both to build more at scale.”

“I want to come back to Timothy’s answer to Sarah’s very good question. We are on the record here, so I want to make sure that I understood correctly. We have been talking for about an hour this morning about some shocking conditions in private rented homes. In part of your answer you said that there is too much focus o…”

“There were some really powerful testimonies there, so thank you. As a brief follow-up, I am interested in areas of the country where you think this problem is at its most acute. I would assume cities, because we hear that often, but that may not be the case. This is a panel of parliamentarians who represent constituenc…”

“I am pleased that you have clarified that there are lots of instances where this is unacceptable. As a member of the Committee, I think that all the Committee would welcome seeing good practice and seeing what we could learn from it, but let us not dismiss the suffering of tens of thousands of people.”

“The latest English Housing Survey estimates that one in five homes in the private rented sector are non-decent. That means that, if you are a private renter, you are more likely to live in a non-decent home than in any other tenure. That being said, 20 years ago the figures were even worse. It was almost half of homes …”

“Good morning. I am Andrew Lewin, MP for Welwyn Hatfield.”

“There is a last quick question from me. I am interested in whether you think this is fundamentally driven by a lack of choice. If the Government succeeded in, for example, increasing the number of people who own their own home, and built substantially more homes for social rent, would one result be to drive up standard…”

“It is an honour to serve on the Select Committee with my hon. Friend. As she knows, I am biased when it comes to the importance of new towns. I represent two fantastic new towns: Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City. What she said this afternoon about the new towns of the future and how we get the balance right was really i…”

“In one of the first contributions I had the privilege of making in the House, I raised the case of the Blake family. Their son Stuart was infected aged six, and he died at the age of 27, back in 2006. I have been in regular contact with the family, and it was my privilege to show them around this place just a few weeks…”

“Let me start by saying that I welcome a debate on how we incentivise home ownership. I am a Labour MP who wants more of my constituents in Welwyn Hatfield to have a secure home of their own and to build a life in our community, and people’s ability to buy a home should not be so dependent on their access to the bank of…”

“The shadow Chancellor talks about the huge advantages of his proposal. Is he aware that someone who owns a home worth £2 million would benefit to the tune of £150,000? This is a tax cut for millionaires. Is that what he wants?”

“Does anyone else have anything to add on the merits or otherwise of shared ownership? I am conscious of time.”

“Stanimira, you raised shared ownership. I would say to the panel the same that I said to the former Deputy Prime Minister a few months ago: I am perhaps an unusual case in that I benefited from shared ownership. It so happened that I was able, living by myself, to get on the ladder in that way. I then met my partner, n…”