Speeches by Cocking.

“I draw the attention of Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I have a school in my constituency that is very good at helping students with education, health and care plans—so much so that it is struggling with the number of students who have EHCPs. Will the Minister meet me to discuss th…”

“I often say that I would not like to be a teenager growing up today in an environment dominated by social media. It was bad enough that by the time I got to secondary school everyone had a phone, and by the time I left everyone had a smartphone. There is no doubt that the threats to children have been utterly transform…”

“The hon. Lady is making an impassioned speech. Does she agree that in some cases social media has made bullying 24 hours a day, because it means that it can happen at any point, even when a child is no longer at school?”

“You have all mentioned planning as an issue, so I want to touch on that a bit more. You are all basically saying, “It is too hard to get planning permission. It takes us too long”. In my experience of when I was on a planning committee, the only reason why it takes too long is that the developer tries to put in absolut…”

“My question has kind of been answered in many different ways, so I will piggy-back on Lee’s. Some of the time it takes to get through the planning system and to discharge those conditions is because developers do not play ball. I have been on a planning committee. I have sat with loads of developers looking at design a…”

“You are not answering my question. There are thousands of planning permissions that are granted out there that could be started tomorrow. You have all mentioned that the planning system is a blocker. These are sites that have planning permission.”

“I am Lewis Cocking, Broxbourne.”

“My hon. Friend makes an important point. I go out and speak to farmers and small business owners, as he does in his constituency, and I have met not one who thinks the Government are on the right path. I do not know who Labour Members speak to in their constituencies because—”

“Businesses in my constituency are putting off investing and employing local people because of the jobs tax and the Government’s proposed new regulation. I hope that when the Minister winds up, he will say what the Government will do to create the next generation of entrepreneurs. We could turbocharge the education syst…”

“The hon. Gentleman’s party is actually cutting the capital budget for transport. I have made this point time and again, but the Government could take on the utility companies that endlessly dig up the roads so that my constituents and many others across the country have to sit in traffic. That costs the taxpayer and th…”

“I am proud to represent a constituency with so many fantastic small businesses, and employers in Broxbourne are more likely to be small businesses than under the national average. Entrepreneurs in the towns and villages I represent are working hard and taking risks day in, day out, growing our local economy and creatin…”

“What my hon. Friend says from a sedentary position is probably correct. Businesses and farmers in my constituency think that the Government have sold them down the river and led them up the garden path—they are doing things that they did not think they would do when they were trying to get into power. We have not heard…”

“What is the lower limit, then? You are saying, “If you meet all of the other criteria, but you do not meet this criterion”. You must have in your head, “We will accept 200,000”, or, “We will accept 300,000”. What is the lower figure?”

“I am sorry, but that is not what the Minister said.”

“What is going to happen to all of the other unitaries that currently exist? Your own council, Oldham, is 242,000. What is going to happen to them? Are you saying that that is a bad council, that it is not efficient and that it needs to be abolished or merged with something else to get it to 500,000 people?”

“Why are you looking at size, then, in terms of population? It makes no sense. If you want local councils to be efficient, you are saying that they have to have 500,000 people to be efficient, effective and all the rest of it. Why are you not asking the question about what you are going to do with the existing small uni…”

“Do you think your local council is a good local authority?”

“There is a reason I ask that. Why can you not allow other proposals to come forward with a similar population to your own council?”

“Will, you just said that the bigger you are, the more efficient you are. Birmingham is the biggest one in the country. That has to be one of the most inefficient councils that we have. They cannot collect the rubbish. They have had loads of issues. They have nearly gone bankrupt a couple of times. I would not call that…”

“I am concerned that you may be putting too much of a focus on how much money is going to be saved by doing all of this. Pre-2009, there were probably billions to save, but lots of councils now—district councils, county councils, unitary councils and all the rest of it—have loads of joined-up services. Some have shared …”