Speeches by Ellis.

“Lastly, on dispute resolution schemes, there have been continual calls, and certainly we have heard it through evidence from our witnesses, for a national dispute resolution scheme around section 106 disagreements. Are there any current thoughts around that?”

“Lastly, I have a specific and then a broader point. Last month, we heard evidence about how the NPPF could be strengthened to encourage local authorities to plan for park-site homes to add to those 1.5 million homes because they are very easy to bring off the ground. On that and more broadly, are you planning to conduc…”

“Yes, on how local authorities are working together.”

“I just have a quick question on getting to that 1.5 million homes in non-devolved areas. I visited Preston City Council last week and saw some incredible investment it is doing in the Harris Quarter there, which will improve the night-time economy and hopefully improve the viability of potential city centre house build…”

“I am Maya Ellis, the MP for Ribble Valley.”

“Coming on to future planning reform, we are very over time, so just a quick answer would be wonderful. Last year, when you came to see us, we spoke about national development management policies and you said you were committed to consulting on them. Can you let us know where you are up to on thinking around those?”

“Do you do any assessment at a national level of how much that is happening and how effectively it is happening? Therefore, do you have a judgment on whether it is happening enough in the way that you would like to see it happen, as opposed to potentially holding things back because they are not working together? I am w…”

“To follow up on that, when you say, “We already encourage local authorities to work together”, is that something that you actively would encourage local authorities to be doing more in order to get some of these things moving, in terms of working together more on section 106 and holding developers to account?”

“There are a couple of things that have been suggested through some of our witnesses. One was around whether the new strategic planning authorities could take an advisory role. Like you say, a lot of the issues that were raised were around capacity of particularly the smaller local authorities in having even the experti…”

“Moving on to section 106, the general sentiment of a lot of the evidence that we have heard from witnesses through this land value capture inquiry has very much been that this is not the time to scrap section 106, but that there are significant improvements needed. The NAO did a report last month around improving local…”

“I thank the Prime Minister for leading from the front in promoting the importance of his role as a father and keeping time for family life. I am delighted that in the past week, the Government have launched a review into parental leave and started to rebuild the legacy of Sure Start by launching our Best Start family h…”

“I have a quick follow-up. I appreciate that you might not have the answer now, but I am aware that in Lancashire, about 10 years ago, we used to have a data insights team of about 80 staff, and that was cut—”

“You touched a little bit there on how you have been working with other Departments. How well do you feel that this mission-led Government are working, given that you are holding a core part of the legislative changes? What opportunities do you think there are to improve that working going forward?”

“We know that local authorities have been cut to the bone, and that data is so valuable, but presumably the response at the moment will be, “How do we put that capacity in?” I am just interested—potentially for a future update—in how we are supporting local authorities if we are demanding more of them in terms of data. …”

“I have a couple of questions about the broader spending review decision making, and then one big one, I guess, around devolution. On the spending review itself, what trade-offs did the Ministry make in negotiating its spending review settlement with HM Treasury?”

“I am pleased to hear your enthusiasm about building data capacity in the Department. I have raised in the Chamber how surprised I was to learn, from many written questions in the first year of being in government, how little data we have. To what extent do you already report on, or could possibly report to this Committ…”

“Do you recognise that there is a sense that the Treasury’s thinking is still focused on agglomeration; that there is devolution to the urban and city areas, but that those surrounding dispersed and county areas are not necessarily going to benefit from it? Maybe we need a bit more leadership to articulate our vision fo…”

“I am Maya Ellis, the MP for Ribble Valley.”

“On devolution, you quoted the Chancellor earlier as saying that she wants growth across the whole UK, and you talked about building communities. As a rural MP, I am incredibly grateful for those recognitions in the fair funding formula to support rural areas. As a northern MP, I am incredibly grateful for the Green Boo…”

“As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on babies, the most common refrain I hear is, “Bring back Sure Start.” I commend my right hon. Friend on focusing on learning from the past and looking to the future, and I thank her for showing the best of the Labour party by starting to restore the Sure Start legacy. Many…”