Speeches by Hinchliff.

“Thank you. Dr Sayers, off the back of that comment, are there particular techniques that you would encourage to be used either in collaboration or as an alternative where it is not the right option, where we are seeing dredging at the moment that could be used instead?”

“To follow up on that point then, are there specific locations where you would suggest across the country where dredging is a particularly relevant technique for continuing to manage flooding risk and how do you think that relates to the specific flooding risks that are arising as a result of climate change?”

“I do not know whether the Dr Sayers wants to feed into that before I move on to my next question?”

“I will go quite quickly because I am afraid I have some other business I need to shoot off to. My questions are in the first instance to Professor Hall and to Dr Sayers. There has been some quite some public debate over the role that dredging can play in reducing the impacts of flooding and it is certainly an issue tha…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that the appalling situations faced by migrant labour in the social care system, as highlighted by UNISON, emphasise the need for urgent structural reform of the system, to create a national care service that resolves workforce insecurity, alongside the many other problems arising from our soc…”

“Thank you. A final question to both of you. The Environment Agency has come into a fair bit of criticism for some of its approach to dredging from people who would like to see more of it. Do you have any recommendations that you would like to see us consider in our report for how the Environment Agency deals with the p…”

“Thank you. Dr Sayers, off the back of that comment, are there particular techniques that you would encourage to be used either in collaboration or as an alternative where it is not the right option, where we are seeing dredging at the moment that could be used instead?”

“I find myself, once again, in wholehearted agreement. Ensuring that solar panels are installed on the rooftops of new buildings specifically could deliver a generating capacity over six times greater than that of Sizewell C. Clearly, if we start applying a strategic approach beginning with the provisions in the Bill, w…”

“I agree that speed is of the essence in multiple ways, and I encourage the Government to move as quickly as possible. Empowering households to generate the electricity that they use will help families to lower their bills far more rapidly than commercial schemes that feed into wholesale energy markets influenced by int…”

“I begin by making a declaration of interest: my former employer, CPRE, the countryside charity, is a supporter of the Bill. Many of my constituents are also passionate supporters of the proposal for mandatory rooftop solar on new buildings; it is one of the issues on which I have had the most correspondence in recent m…”

“I wholeheartedly agree. As I was saying, we could suffer from the potentially profound impacts of competing demands for space for the homes we require, our commitment to protect 30% of our land for nature by 2030, and our fragile food security. Government figures show that with an industry average of 5 acres per megawa…”

“Okay. The final question from me relates to the stronger tilted balance in favour of the presumption of sustainable development. Does anyone on the panel have anything they would like to comment about whether there are any specific areas of England that could be particularly affected, either positively or negatively, b…”

“Again, would you like to see that explicitly stated within the definition?”

“That, presumably, would be a recommendation you would like to see this Committee make?”

“Can I just interrupt briefly. Would you like to see it explicitly laid out rather than just implied?”

“Thank you. Following on neatly from that, in a previous session of this inquiry Dr Hugh Ellis from the TCPA told us that the previous NPPF framework was not fit for purpose on nature and the environment and urged us to encourage the Government to go back to the beginning and give a proper definition of sustainable deve…”

“In recent years, my constituency of North East Hertfordshire has experienced a lot of building that is palpably unsustainable. Given the changes within the NPPF towards a stronger-tilted balance in favour of the presumption of sustainable development, do you believe that these changes to the NPPF will lead to better or…”

“I want to push a bit further on a couple of points. Mr Trew and Mr Smyth, I think there is a unanimous agreement about the urgent need to tackle homelessness and affordability crisis for housing. We have heard from both of you about the urgent need to build. Given the pressures that 1.5 million houses could potentially…”

“Okay. The final question from me relates to the stronger tilted balance in favour of the presumption of sustainable development. Does anyone on the panel have anything they would like to comment about whether there are any specific areas of England that could be particularly affected, either positively or negatively, b…”

“Again, would you like to see that explicitly stated within the definition?”