Speeches by Kane.

“Yes. I was going to ask a couple of questions about the building safety levy in particular. You say that you are going to start collecting it in the autumn. What needs to be in place to start collecting the building safety levy in the autumn? Are you on track to do that?”

“Helen, you were talking about the efforts to identify the buildings earlier, and that is a fairly hefty amount of work that you have to do. Can you give us some evidence that it is working and that you are getting through it and doing what you need to do?”

“Giles, I want to talk about the remediation code of practice. Is it making a difference on the ground?”

“Are you seeing anything positive about this? How is it making a difference? It has to be doing something—or maybe it does not.”

“David, why are not all developers signed up to this yet? Could you answer that and offer some reflections on what Giles just said?”

“So you are saying that everyone who should be signed up to it is signed up to it.”

“That would be good. Rhys, can you tell me whether all social providers are using the code?”

“David, what is being done to ensure that it is not sinking down and that it is being kept front and centre and given the attention that it needs? It is more than just words; it is an actual code of practice that needs to be put into practice.”

“Okay. I will just make the point that there is a definite disconnect between what Giles is saying and what David and Rhys are saying, and to my mind it seems to be on action rather than words. What I am hearing is that the industry is signing up to it and ticking the box, but is it taking that tick and moving into actu…”

“No—thank you.”

“Going back to social housing, David, what can we expect to see developers doing to unblock cost disputes with social providers?”

“Are you comfortable that the work and the common endeavour to get through disputes is happening? It is not nice to be in dispute—it impacts the way we all act—but as long as we are doing it with a common endeavour, we can get through it. Are you confident that members have the right mental and social approach as well a…”

“I want to move on to a question for Richard about skills and capacity. As you speed up identification of the buildings, are you assured that there are sufficient skills and capacity in the market to remediate at the new pace you are looking for?”

“This is a UK-wide problem, not just an England problem, and I want some assurance that there is some co-ordination among the home nations generally, because if you are increasing the resource in one part, you could be taking resources away from another. What I do not want to see, or would hate to see, is that suddenly …”

“Can you talk about the challenge I put to the building industry in the last session? It’s okay to say you do that; it’s okay to have a protocol in place, but the working relationships can be the difference between something working and not. Is it a good, robust working relationship among the home nations in order that …”

“Good. Thank you for that.”

“I am a former local council leader, and my alarm bells started to go there. Given where we are with needing to set resources ahead of budgets, are you confident that local authorities can do that? It is all very well for them to say, “Yes, we can do it in six months,” but are you happy with that?”

“This is obviously one where you do not need to wait for the legislation for the details of how you are going to do it. Can you give us a little bit more colour as to how this is actually going to work in practice? Also, how are you going to make sure that the developers pay it? It is all very well to have local authori…”

“But fundamentally, if they do not pay it, no one is moving into their buildings.”

“I have worked in the creative industries all my working life, from helping my father to sell radios and televisions when I was a teenager, to presenting radio shows on stations across Scotland and supporting businesses by creating content for websites. Today, I want to address the disconnect between creativity and cost…”