Speeches by Rayner.

“I would be very hesitant to put a figure on it, but we really want to see an impact. Part of the problem is not just the fact of plugging the hole—it is also the amount that is coming in. There is a lot of work that is going on that is preventing, but then with the sheer volume that is coming in, you are not really see…”

“As I say, in November I wrote to local authorities reminding them of their duties in terms of out-of-borough placements and housing, and making sure that people get the support they need. Within that question is a real tension and a challenge. I see this every single day. At the moment, people’s housing needs are not a…”

“I totally acknowledge that point. More than seven years after the Grenfell tragedy, the remediation has begun or has been completed on only 48% of those buildings that we have identified. That is why we felt it was completely unacceptable and that we needed to have a plan. That is now covered by 95% of those developers…”

“However you like.”

“The short answer is yes, and I will consider bringing legislation forward. We will need further legislation from phase 2 of the Grenfell report. We are committed to making sure that we do everything we can to meet the targets that we need to meet, to ensure that people feel safe and that remediation happens. If we cann…”

“Yes. We were looking at this in opposition, around how we can make sure that elections are transparent and that funding and donations are transparent within our system. We continue to look at that, making sure that we have the systems in place that people have confidence in. The one thing I would say is that all the re…”

“It was not in the King’s Speech this time. You will have noticed that quite a lot of the King’s Speech legislation was in my Department this time. I want to say a huge thank you to all the civil servants, the Ministers and everybody else who has been working with us on the task we took on since the election. I certainl…”

“I will chase that, Chair.”

“The main thing for me is that I want to see not a patchwork of devolution but the whole of England having devolution deals. I have been really up front about that and have said that I want to see collaboration. I said that at the Local Government Association conference and I have said it to local authorities. I do not …”

“I think so, but I also see some really good opportunities. One example is local healthcare and matching people’s healthcare needs. Healthcare, schools, skills, education, transport and connectivity are different challenges in some of the rural areas to what you would get in an urban area, for example. Them having more …”

“It is an opportunity to do that. Part of the challenge back is that, rather than pitching against, by actually collaborating and working together you can meet that. I alluded to it—two different boroughs could have local plans that integrate with each other, which can deliver their joint housing target. If you have 10%…”

“What happened there was an absolutely awful case. One of the challenges is that councils are very clear around their safeguarding, children’s services and their statutory obligations. They should be ingrained. The recording mechanisms and also the way in which they are inspected are the same. There should be no deviati…”

“We have set a benchmark. We would consider it to be around 500,000. We have not said it has to definitely be 500,000. There are a number of factors. We are saying it to local authorities, to give them a ballpark: “We want you to come together. We want to find that efficiency.” We think that 500,000 is a benchmark figur…”

“Not really, no. We have said 500,000, but if a local area came to us and said, “We have these district councils here, here, here and here, and we want to come together. We think this is the right area for us and this is why we think it, because we can deliver on education, we can deliver on social care outcomes and so …”

“We are part of Greater Manchester Combined Authority. We already collaborate. We collaborate on social care. Andy Burnham, as our mayor, has a significant number of devolved powers. We collaborate on our housing plans, for example. We collaborate on our transport services. We have seen some significant benefits in our …”

“We are asking people to collaborate and we are looking at how we can deliver the economies of scale so that people can deliver better outcomes for people. We have been very clear about that. Collaboration is what I have said is a driving force of this Government, not competition, not pitching one against each other. I …”

“We are not dictating, first of all. The Minister for Local Government and English Devolution wrote to councils in two-tier areas and their neighbouring small unitary authorities on 16 December, to set out the next steps for delivering devolution and reorganisation. The letter indicated that we would be willing to postp…”

“We continue to work with high street businesses. The Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade have been really clear on making sure there is cross-Government effort to support those high streets. We are addressing strategic issues on areas including high street regeneration. You will have seen the t…”

“The English devolution Bill also has the right to buy for valued community assets. Again, that feeds into that process as well.”

“Like I say, there are a number of things we have done, such as the new homes accelerator, to unblock sites. There have been issues around neutrality and nature offsetting. Again, we are coming forward with the planning and infrastructure Bill later in the spring to make sure that we can address some of those issues as …”