Speeches by Reed.

“Yes.”

“That is right.”

“London had specific challenges. The London package was designed to address them. That came from the conversations that I conducted with developers, the GLA and housing organisations. It was very difficult to see how you could make schemes viable in London without temporarily lowering affordability. Perversely and count…”

“We would certainly want to look at that. I am not sure about mandating because there will be different schemes and applications coming forward and they will all be of a different nature. It is very difficult to say, hard and fast, that they will all apply a particular construction method. Where that is feasible, where …”

“First of all, thank you for that kind welcome. It is a very exciting role to find myself in, particularly given my history in local government. In this role, I very much see myself as building on the work of my predecessor Angela Rayner, who delivered some real change in this brief. When the Prime Minister asked me to …”

“Yes, I saw you in the corridor.”

“That is absolutely right. The relevant Departments need to make sure they are prioritising the infrastructure investment to allow those schemes to go ahead. When I was at DEFRA, we set up a water infrastructure board, which has representation from other Departments. The intention is to make sure that the £104 billion w…”

“Thank you.”

“They will be non-statutory. In the speech that I just referred to, I will also be covering what we are going to do around NDMPs. Part of that will be what you do around railway stations, but there are other opportunities where we can help to get development moving more quickly. If we are going to meet the 1.5 million t…”

“We do speak to each other. There are environmental regulations that are applicable in those areas as well as other regulations. Stations are such an interesting opportunity for development because you do not have to fund the cost of public transport to those areas. It is already there. Very often, they are relatively u…”

“Yes, that one will be before Christmas.”

“I am Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and a former ward councillor with the Chair of the Committee.”

“I was aware of it even in my old job.”

“Thank you for having us.”

“It was under my predecessor, yes.”

“I met with Grenfell United last week. This was one of the issues that they raised with me as a priority, and I committed to them to go and talk to colleagues across Government and get back to them with a response. I am very sympathetic to the concerns that they raised with me, but, if it is okay with you, I will get ba…”

“Yes.”

“We agreed in advance that, because I will be a decision maker, if the issue came up, I would defer to the Permanent Secretary.”

“Employees should be in the office as often as is reasonable, but, as I just said before, I believe in devolution and localism. It is for local management and leadership on the ground to take their own decisions. My own view is that I would want people in their departments and at their desks as often as they could be.”

“You might have seen the letter that I sent to South Cambridgeshire about a four-day week, which I do not think is offering good value for money. Indeed, there are concerns around performance standards.”