Speeches by Ryan.

“Burnley is a premier league town once more. I am sure the whole House—though perhaps not the hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Hussain), who is not in his place—will join me in congratulating Alan Pace, Scott Parker, Josh Brownhill and all the lads at Burnley football club on their ascension to the premier league. They are…”

“T6. What is the Chancellor doing to support businesses and boost wages in towns such as Burney, Padiham and Brierfield, which were forgotten for 14 years under the previous Government?”

“As many Members of this House will recognise, road maintenance is something that deeply resonates with all our constituents; it is a basic need. People across my constituency leave their homes every day in cars that they pay tax on, to drive on roads whose upkeep they pay tax for but that are just not up to standard. I…”

“I do not want to make this too political, but I think it should be noted—although I am not a Bradford Member—that £350 million of revenue funding has been cut from Bradford council since 2010. The council is doing an awful lot under difficult circumstances brought about by 14 years of the hon. Member’s Tory Government.”

“The hon. Member has mentioned a couple of figures, including one from 2006, when I was nine. To quote a more recent figure from the annual local authority road maintenance 2025 report, when the Conservatives left office they left us with a backlog of £16.8 billion-worth of pothole repairs. What does he say to the peopl…”

“I rise in solidarity with the hon. Members for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) and for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed)—two sisters of this House—and I am disgusted by their treatment at the hands of the state of Israel. However, all too many of my constituents have suffered similar treatment when they have tried to …”

“Some of this stuff is huge. How confident are you that you have the capacity within the Department to run all of this at the same time and get it done to a high enough standard? On the point about local government reorganisation, there are time windows that are already set out, but why can we not do that faster in area…”

“I am also a vice-president of the Local Government Association and a member of several trade unions that represent local government workers, as in my declaration of interests. Although not now a councillor, I was previously, and a member of the LGA economy and resources board when it was just the resources board. I was…”

“If you need to do one particularly quickly, Lancashire would be worth looking at. You let us know if we can help.”

“There is a lot of context, but it is building to a point. I put to the witnesses, that as much as we are looking at reform of things such as finance and reorganisation, what we probably need is big change. As set up, the system across England and Wales at least is not fit for purpose. Services for adults and children p…”

“We do a few of these hearings, and we have people in from different Departments. I am cautious of the idea that there is always some reform or measure over the hill that will save us, but for the time being, the system does not work. It feels like we are accepting that for the time being it does not work, but if we can…”

“Mr Heslop and Ms Healey, I want to talk about service quality, accessibility and democracy, and what that means. Of the £72.8 billion of revenue spent by councils this year, £42.3 billion was spent on adult and children’s services. As a median figure across councils, 77% is spent on statutory services at the statutory …”

“I am coming to a question.”

“To follow up on that, what is the timing and sequencing of the funding reform, local government reorganisation, local audit reform, service reform and some of the other reforms you have talked about in council tax and business rates? What is the sequence?”

“Do we just accept that, because of local funding decisions that have been taken, service quality and accessibility will fall?”

“As you know all too well, Mr Speaker, Lancashire has a proud defence manufacturing pedigree at the cutting edge of our British sovereign capability—you think manufacturing and you think Lancashire. Will the Minister for Defence Procurement continue to champion Lancashire’s defence jobs? Will she commit—I understand tha…”

“My hon. Friend talks about manifesto commitments, and it was a clear manifesto commitment of this Government that we would provide the triple lock throughout this Parliament—something that was only ever suspended under the Conservative party. Does she agree that the £1,500 increase to the state pension that pensioners …”

“Will the hon. Lady make it clear whether it is the policy of the Conservative party to reintroduce a universal winter fuel payment at the next election?”

“Sir Jim, are you moving to another job or retiring?”

“This is a much more general question. On the basis of all of that, some of the answers that you have given today and the talk we have had about the simplification of the tax system, in your view, relative to the cost versus the revenue they create, what is the most costly and time‑consuming element of the tax system th…”