Speeches by Buckley.

“I was really interested to hear you talk about that complex arrangement or that array of different partners, because that is exactly how residents feel—that it is highly complicated. They do not know who does what and they do not know who to turn to. You also talk about the need for more investment and better value for…”

“We often represent rural areas where we have a small number of houses that are flooded frequently rather than a considerable number flooded once every 10 years. How do you feel about proposing changes so that instead of grants being allocated on the basis of scale—so the number of properties—another factor in there oug…”

“Very helpful. We have a final question, but we will write to you to ask whether you have any examples from other countries that we could learn from in terms of the grey infrastructure. Thank you for your responses.”

“Excellent. We are catching up with ourselves.”

“So you think there are some specific areas that could be regulated at national level? If you could that information to the note that you are going to be sending, that would be helpful.”

“Thank you. Thanks for your time.”

“Finally, do you see any of the risks or consequences if local authorities do not have adequate resources? Do you see any problems or dangers there?”

“Thank you. Did you have anything to add, Mr Trew?”

“Would you suggest that that should be a key recommendation to come out from today, that the Government look at increasing capacity around strategic planning and not just reactive officers?”

“Do you have any comments, Alistair Smyth?”

“So you think there are some specific areas that could be regulated at national level? If you could that information to the note that you are going to be sending, that would be helpful.”

“It is a local council officer who will go out with the building reg form and sign it off. It goes back to your local councils, which have had budget cuts of 40% over the last 15 years. So you are still on a waiting list. Do you not see any consequences or implications if there is a deficiency at local council level?”

“Can I take you back to the existing requirements? You can think of the existing requirement to sign off on those planning applications and the Section 106s but we are talking here about a larger scope, aren’t we, a larger scale coming through the same funnel? Do you see a problem there if local authorities currently do…”

“You have referred throughout the session to the role of local authorities in this process. We often hear about the challenges local authorities have around capacity, in particular thinking about how they provide adequate assessments of environmental implications from proposed developments, building applications and so …”

“Thank you. We have heard Pippa Heylings talk about how at the end of a big planning application, sometimes it is the affordability that is squeezed out on viability. From my background as a local councillor, I know that sometimes resourcing is a factor in that decision because after many years of negotiating with an ap…”

“Thank you. Thanks for your time.”

“Finally, do you see any of the risks or consequences if local authorities do not have adequate resources? Do you see any problems or dangers there?”

“Thank you. Did you have anything to add, Mr Trew?”

“Would you suggest that that should be a key recommendation to come out from today, that the Government look at increasing capacity around strategic planning and not just reactive officers?”

“Do you have any comments, Alistair Smyth?”