Tag: George Hollingbery

  • George Hollingbery – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    George Hollingbery – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-02-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of minor developments which will be built in the next five years; and what assessment he has made of in which towns and cities the greatest numbers of such developments will be built.

    Brandon Lewis

    We now have a locally-led Planning system. As a result the Department does not hold projections of future planning applications, nor does it publish forecasts of housing completions. However the National Planning Policy Framework requires local planning authorities to identify, update annually and publish a deliverable five year housing land supply. Local planning authorities are expected to report on progress on delivery of new homes through their Authority Monitoring Reports.

    In addition, the Department publishes official statistics on planning applications including those on minor sites, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-applications-statistics

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  • George Hollingbery – 2019 Comments on EU Free Trade Agreements

    Below is the text of the speech made by George Hollingbery in the House of Commons on 24 January 2019.

    As a member of the European Union, the UK currently participates in around 40 free trade agreements with more than 70 countries. These free trade agreements cover a wide variety of relationships, including economic partnership agreements with developing nations; association agreements, which cover broader economic and political co-operation; and trade agreements with countries that are closely aligned with the EU, such as Turkey and Switzerland. Of course, more conventional free trade agreements are also part of the package.

    Businesses in the UK, EU and partner countries are eligible for a range of preferential market-access opportunities under the terms of the free trade agreements. Those opportunities can include, but are not limited to, preferential duties for goods, including reductions in import tariff rates across a wide variety of products, quotas for reduced or nil payments of payable duties, and quotas for more relaxed rules-of-origin requirements; enhanced market access for service providers; access to public procurement opportunities across a range of sectors; and improved protections for intellectual property.

    For continuity and stability for businesses, consumers and investors, we are committed to ensuring that the benefits I have outlined are maintained, providing a smooth transition as we leave the EU. The Department for International Trade, the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development are working with partner countries to prepare to maintain existing trading relationships.