Speeches by Billington.

“All I would add is that in some cases the way the system works, particularly in Kent, is actually driving up costs. People are not being allocated to maintained schools and are ending up in private provision because they are successful at tribunal. Arguably, Kent’s budget is being bust because of the way they are appro…”

“If we talk to them, what might the timetable be for securing a debate?”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Jane Austen mentions not only Cromer but Ramsgate—in “Pride and Prejudice”—although certainly in a less salubrious way than she may have referred to Cromer. Ramsgate and Wells-next-the-Sea share the concerns that the hon. Member mentioned about short-term holiday lets. Does he support the calls that many colleagues and…”

“I declare an interest as chair of the coastal parliamentary Labour party and co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for coastal communities, alongside my hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Alison Hume). We are in danger of violently agreeing with each other, so I will not repeat much of what has …”

“Will my hon. Friend confirm that this Government understand that there is a clear distinction between the challenges in rural communities and those in coastal ones? I noticed that the Liberal Democrat spokesman used the words “coastal” and “rural” almost completely interchangeably, and we know that the levels of depriv…”

“Indeed, we need a place-based approach with that active state. If we want economic growth that reaches all parts of the country, invest in coastal communities. If we want public services that really improve the experience of people who are most alienated because of state failures, invest in coastal communities. If we w…”

“I would like to commend my right hon. Friend for all the hard work he has been doing to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, and indeed for maintaining accountability to this House, as he has done today, in so much detail. It is devastating that Israel has resumed the indiscriminate bombing of Palestinian civilians. While the c…”

“The Minister is clearly aware of the foolhardy decision by the Opposition to abandon the political consensus on net zero, but has he made an assessment of the cost to the consumer of pursuing that disastrous path, which would lock us into our dependence on polluting fossil fuels, volatile oil and gas prices, and the wh…”

“My right hon. Friend will know that the Tory legacy in coastal communities such as mine in East Thanet is a broken welfare system and a broken economy. The number of people claiming PIP has more than doubled in my constituency since 2018, and the statistics on young people claiming for mental health conditions are part…”

“Yes. I was just going to follow up slightly on a couple of those points. First, I am interested in understanding, if we were to incentivise shared ownership, how that would accelerate the deployment of clean energy generation at a scale for us to hit the 2030 target. How much would this particular set of recommendation…”

“Can I follow up on that? I have always been interested in the idea of shared ownership because of my scepticism that developers are nice guys—funnily enough, I just don’t think that is necessarily the case. Why should a community be confident in going into shared ownership with a developer that has big, fat lawyers, lo…”

“Can I have one more question before I move on to the financing issue? I am particularly interested in the equitable nature of community energy, especially since we have talked about the difference between municipal energy and community energy, and especially when we talk about raising money and stakes in it and so fort…”

“Great. That comes on to my point about financing shared ownership. How should the Government and Great British Energy help communities to access finance to participate in shared ownership? Should, for example, Great British Energy be doing that early-stage development work that you are talking about?”

“If it was not compulsory?”

“What conditions would you think it would be worthwhile putting on, to make sure that the British taxpayers’ money in GB Energy is being used for good purpose on good outcomes?”

“I am going to be a bit rude here, but I cannot imagine Whitehall being particularly good at making those judgments. What do you think?”

“You are almost as polite as I am.”

“Zoë, go on.”

“Is that a bit like your idea, Jake, that Great British Energy should temporarily act as a buyer of last resort? Can you explain that a bit more?”