Speeches by Buckley.

“Do you feel there is any danger that nature and biodiversity are seen as second order priority to net zero considerations in house building expansions, or do you think there is a synergy between the two?”

“We heard from some previous speakers that the enforcement is not quite so strong and when we asked about penalties nobody could scratch around and find any. Is it perhaps the case that although the legal words might be there, the follow up enforcement and penalties is not quite in place and, therefore, it does not nece…”

“That is very helpful. Could I ask you, Ben Kite, the same question about whether those two compete or whether they are in synergy, the net gain and the zero?”

“That is such a fantastic example. Could I ask you to write in with more details about that? We are looking for examples exactly like that to help us understand. Could I quickly ask you the same question, whether net gain and net biodiversity are in synergy or are competing demands on housebuilders?”

“It does feel as though that might be quite voluntary. You are providing availability of a dataset, you are asking applicants to tell us first about biodiversity net gain and then secondly to tell us about carbon, and they can access this database if they want to, to apply it. Is there not then opportunity to put all th…”

“Thank you very much, that is great.”

“On the same point, I was quite appalled to hear how low the percentage is of housebuilders that are delivering these sites. It was a quite shocking statistic. You talked a lot about enforcement. What is the penalty if housebuilders don’t deliver these sites?”

“Could I just come back in? If we can go back one question to the recruitment and retention issue, I am hearing from quite a few of you that the problem is around the inadequate resource for growing demand. I am just thinking about my previous career in local government, where if you think about other mandated requireme…”

“Largely developers now have a kind of tick box, where they know they will have to tick these three boxes to get approval, especially to get into a local plan, so they will just tick those boxes because they don’t want a delay, because a delay is a cost to a developer. Maybe there is a space there around ring-fenced req…”

“Your example of the combined authorities, where they perhaps have a pool of people, some of those might be consultants that could be capitalised, but you also need the option for direct employees. Last, on your point about retention, through EDI—equality, diversity and inclusion—policies, you should be able to get addi…”

“Do you feel there is any danger that nature and biodiversity are seen as second order priority to net zero considerations in house building expansions, or do you think there is a synergy between the two?”

“We heard from some previous speakers that the enforcement is not quite so strong and when we asked about penalties nobody could scratch around and find any. Is it perhaps the case that although the legal words might be there, the follow up enforcement and penalties is not quite in place and, therefore, it does not nece…”

“That is very helpful. Could I ask you, Ben Kite, the same question about whether those two compete or whether they are in synergy, the net gain and the zero?”

“That is such a fantastic example. Could I ask you to write in with more details about that? We are looking for examples exactly like that to help us understand. Could I quickly ask you the same question, whether net gain and net biodiversity are in synergy or are competing demands on housebuilders?”

“It does feel as though that might be quite voluntary. You are providing availability of a dataset, you are asking applicants to tell us first about biodiversity net gain and then secondly to tell us about carbon, and they can access this database if they want to, to apply it. Is there not then opportunity to put all th…”

“Anything that could encourage or enforce that consistency of measure could help to make sure you are all using the same units?”

“Thank you very much, that is great.”

“I thank all Members who have taken the time to listen and contribute to the debate, and I thank the bereaved families and campaigners for their time and for listening again to stories that can only be upsetting. I also thank the Minister for her time. I could hear in her summing-up that she was clearly listening to the…”

“I could not agree more, and I think that particularly affects young people living in rural areas. It is not surprising that between 2019 and 2023, nearly half of casualties in young car driver collisions occurred on rural roads. Each of those numbers is a person—a young person with their whole life ahead of them, a son…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered road safety for young drivers. Thank you for chairing this Westminster Hall debate on road safety for young drivers, Sir Desmond, and for allowing me to present the opening statement to our Minister for the Future of Roads, my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (Li…”