Speeches by Pennycook.

“What deadlines?”

“It does all depend on bids. The Committee will know that the way the affordable homes programme works is on the basis of strategic partnerships but then continuous market engagement. In terms of our 10-year new social and affordable housing programme, it may well be the case that we get bids through that strategic part…”

“Then we would have much more certainty. There will be an element of which bids are coming in under continuous market engagement. It does depend on what comes in after we publish the prospectus and the new scheme is operating, and what registered providers themselves are saying their appetite is, but we are getting very…”

“It is important to say that, as a point of principle, alongside our commitment to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation, we are absolutely committed to driving a transformational change in the safety and quality of housing. The action that we have taken today attests to…”

“I would simply reinforce—perhaps you take issue with this—that we have acted urgently by laying regulations on Awaab’s law, which, as I have said, will require landlords to address hazards, including damp and mould, within strict time periods.”

“I receive them too, Chair.”

“What is not the situation on the ground?”

“They have not come into force yet.”

“I would strongly take issue with your assertion that we are not giving equal focus to quality and safety as we are to supply. I think the actions we have taken to date would attest to that. We are consulting on minimum energy efficiency standards and an upgraded and modernised decent homes standard. We are laying the r…”

“I would expect nothing less.”

“It is a good question. You are right to draw attention to the fact that the Building Safety Regulator, to the extent that it is impacting on the supply of new high-rise buildings across the country, is affecting particular parts of the country more acutely than others, for obvious reasons. There are usually more high-r…”

“I would not fundamentally—let me phrase it differently. I am not going to sit here and propose a new height threshold for the BSR. We inherited many regulations across the board from the previous Government. Our focus is ensuring that the BSR is operating effectively. As I say, it is balancing that requirement to ensur…”

“The hon. Gentleman will know that housing is a devolved matter. When it comes to affordability, we are taking steps not only to boost housing supply significantly, as I have set out, but to ensure that more first-time buyers can get access, not least through the permanent mortgage guarantee scheme, on which the Chancel…”

“My hon. Friend will have noted the £39 billion allocated at the spending review to our new 10-year social and affordable homes programme, which, as the Deputy Prime Minister has made clear, we think will deliver about 300,000 affordable homes over its lifetime, with about 180,000 for social rent. He will also know that…”

“If the hon. Lady writes to me about the issue, I will certainly respond to her.”

“My hon. Friend raises a matter that I know is of concern to hon. Members across the House. It is precisely to protect residential freeholders in Hethersett and other freehold estates across the country from unfair charges that we will consult in the near future on how we implement the consumer protection provisions in …”

“The hon. Gentleman draws the House’s attention to an important point about freehold estates, and I direct his attention to the report by the Competition and Markets Authority on the matter if he wants to read further. There is a problem here: too many amenities and infrastructures are not being delivered to common adop…”

“Although swift brick coverage is increasing, we want to drive up swift brick installation. As I made clear on Report of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, we are considering using a new sweep of national policies for decision making, to require swift bricks to be incorporated into new buildings unless there are comp…”

“The hon. Gentleman—who I have great affection for, as we go through our tenure—is a highly experienced former councillor, and he will know that local authorities already have article 4 powers. If he has evidence that those powers are not proving effective, I would really like to have more information.”

“I say two things to the hon. Gentleman. He will forgive me if he knows this already, but we did strengthen the provision for infrastructure in our recent changes to the national planning policy framework. Beyond that, we want to strengthen the existing system for developer contributions—where infrastructure and afforda…”