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  • David Morris – 2021 Speech on Eden Project North

    David Morris – 2021 Speech on Eden Project North

    The speech made by David Morris, the Conservative MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, in the House of Commons on 10 February 2021.

    I am delighted to be able to open this Adjournment debate on an issue that is close to my heart and, indeed, to the hearts of many in the north of England, and certainly my constituents. I wish to focus attention on how to persuade the Government to help us get the Eden Project in Morecambe.

    We all know that we face multiple challenges coming out of this pandemic—the most difficult of times that we have endured. While none of us has faced a pandemic previously, there are examples in our recent history of projects that we can enact to really change regions and give back hope, and that can deliver the right sort of growth and prosperity while not harming the environment around us. I am talking about projects that we can deliver on the old triple bottom line—economically, socially and environmentally.

    We are all painfully aware of the story of coastal communities and the demise of many of Britain’s fine seaside resorts, although there have been some rays of hope, with investments in places such as the Turner in Margate and the V&A in Dundee. Coastal communities that thrived as pleasure resorts in the 19th century have sadly been neglected for far too long. According to a report by the House of Lords Select Committee on Regenerating Seaside Towns and Communities, this must surely be the moment for our contribution to levelling up the covid recovery. What is required is investment in deprived regions to improve their levels of human and social capital, research and development, and innovation.

    A proven example of such a project is the Eden Project in Cornwall. At the turn of the millennium, the Eden Project team delivered a bold vision that transformed an old clay pit into a truly spectacular asset for Cornwall and the south-west. From an initial public and private investment of £105 million, the Eden Project has returned more than £2 billion directly into the regional economy—a near fifteenfold return on investment going directly to businesses and workers across the region. At the same time, the Eden Project has become a powerful green UK brand, renowned across the whole world for its pioneering fusion of world-class horticulture, art and architecture delivered through a spectacular and unforgettable visitor experience.

    Twenty years on, the same team have now reimagined their vision as Eden Project North. Set on a derelict site on Morecambe’s once grand and bustling seafront, the old Lido, it will have even greater potential to transform the community, not just in Morecambe itself but around Morecambe bay, with a world-class visitor destination and a unique educational tool to help unite and inspire the next generation in terms of our natural history and the immense environmental challenges we face as a society. This is a very strange but exciting project. We want to build an ecological park—a bubble—in a seaside resort right in the middle of the town overlooking the beautiful Bay of Morecambe, itself overlooking the foothills of the Lake District and beyond.

    As an educational charity, the Eden Project welcomes 50,000 schoolchildren a year to Cornwall and offers degree courses with local university partners. Similarly, Eden Project North is already investing in the future of the region, working with Lancaster University and other local institutions to create a bespoke education and training programme—the Morecambe bay curriculum, empowering young people to help to drive the UK’s green recovery and making the north-west a key player in delivering the Government’s net zero targets and 25-year environmental plan. Meanwhile, we are all working on eliminating educational poverty. This will be an excellent educational facility backed up by excellent educationists in the Lancaster-Morecambe district. There are 427 schools within 25 miles of the proposed site in Morecambe, and it is estimated that Eden Project North will directly engage with over 100,000 students per annum—1 million students over the next decade.

    I am sure that the Minister would agree that providing this type of sustainable education fits directly with the Government’s agenda. Given the current impact of covid on pupils and students and the need for the UK to inspire the next generation of environmental entrepreneurs, what better investment could the Government make than to support this incredible opportunity and deliver on so many policy areas at about the same price as two secondary schools? This is exemplary and groundbreaking, and Morecambe is the place to do it. We need to make Morecambe the jewel of the north-west once again.

    The health and wellbeing of the wonderful Morecambe bay is at the heart of this timely proposal as well—a beacon for lasting positive social change in one of the north’s most deprived areas. Eden Project North is a model of coastal community regeneration and long-term health benefits, which will be realised through nutritional education with reductions in obesity, diabetes and similar issues, with immeasurable reductions in reliance on many facets of modern healthcare. Eden Project North has set out its mission to improve the health of the bay through a unique ecosystem that can become a model for the 21st century of net-zero-carbon living. This is a whole-bay ecosystem of humans and nature living together.

    As we forge our own destiny outside the EU, the need for us to be responsible guardians and stewards of our unique coastlines is self-evident. We have the responsibility to support these coastal communities, allowing them to prosper while encouraging them to respect and actively care for their environment. The Eden Project has a proven track record of community-building activities, including the incredibly successful Big Lunch, which 6 million people every year take part in. A good example is Eden Cornwall’s local pass scheme whereby all Cornwall and Devon residents can buy a pass that allows them to access an all-year-round ticket that is half the price of standard admission. In addition, throughout the year, local residents and key workers such as teachers, Royal National Lifeboat Institution staff and NHS staff are invited to preview events and to access the site for free. I know that this will be welcomed in the Morecambe area as well as the Lancaster area and the whole north-west. The Eden Project engagement team has been working in the local community since 2017 and has received overwhelming support for the plans from local people, businesses and institutions. Ninety-nine per cent. of people who attended the series of consultation events said that they were in favour of Eden Project North—the kind of polling figures that any MP would be happy with.

    Social prescribing programmes have been run at Eden Cornwall since 2016, helping hundreds of people, some of whom have had their lives completely changed, from housebound elderly people who now have new friends, to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients who are spending less time in hospital. The creation of these types of projects—epic year-round ventures—can attract 1 million visitors every year to the north-west. That will have obvious employment and output benefits and advantages for the region, the visitor economy and supply chains through focusing on improving the region’s levels of human capital, research and development, and innovation. Quality-of-place investment in projects like Eden Project North can represent an important and significant levelling-up project. This will also help the Morecambe area, as the Morecambe bay link road from the M6 to Heysham port and into Morecambe itself is the quickest link from the M6 to a seaside area in the whole country; it takes less than 10 minutes to get from the M6 to the coast. It has been designed to be a catalytic investment that will provide a step change in the economic fortunes of Morecambe and will be an important economic asset to our region, contributing to the levelling up of economic performance between the north and south.

    The high levels of deprivation in Morecambe and the north-west coast are symptoms of being left behind. We do not want to see that any longer. Morecambe is on the up and we want it to flourish, as it once did about 40 years ago and before. People on the north-west coast do feel that they are being left behind. Many local areas along the coast rank in the top 10 most deprived areas of England. The area within which the site is located is one of the most deprived parts of the country. We have to turn this around and make it a better area for us to live in. Although things are getting better in Morecambe, the Eden Project North will be the catalyst that sorts out this problem, a beacon for future generations, and a template for seaside resorts to adopt.

    The project will be part of the north-west tourism zone in line with the tourism sector deal. It will be a world-class, epic destination and part of the north-west coastal arc for clean and sustainable growth. As such, it would be good to see sponsorship led by Lancaster University and building on its work with the Health Innovation Campus. Eden Project North would be an asset that can help to capitalise on the five opportunities identified in the science and innovation audit. It will be the brand that helps to galvanise investment and mobilise efforts, around which the partners can co-ordinate activity: communicating the economic importance of clean sustainable growth; improving connectivity between the region’s assets for clean and sustainable growth; enhancing support for connecting businesses to global markets; training regional talent to support and lead clean and sustainable growth; and having the freedom and flexibility to support industrial research and development for clean and sustainable growth, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises.

    Another brilliant exemplar project is the N8 Research Partnership with Net Zero North, which focuses on green collar jobs and agritech developments, enabling Eden Project North to work with the Lancashire agritech group to develop a testbed to offer for productivity improvements in food production. Together, these types of projects will surely demonstrate that the Government have a lot of commitment to levelling up. The Eden Project North is a cutting-edge facility that, through its design and operation, will contribute to meeting the UK’s net zero target by 2050—an emissions pledge that we must keep—and provide jobs for some of the 2 million projected new green collar workers nationally.

    Building on the success of the Eden Project in Cornwall, Eden Project North has now submitted its business case to the Government, demonstrating the impact that the development of an epic year-round destination in Morecambe can have. It will attract 1 million visitors a year to Morecambe and inject £200 million a year into the north-west region’s economy, while from day one opening to support 1,500 quality year-round green collar jobs across the whole supply chain. It is fully compliant and has a business case with clear benefits to society. Will the Minister confirm that these are the type of high-quality, new green economic jobs that are needed in the north, and will he prioritise investment into the Eden Project North as part of the economic levelling-up agenda?

    Eden Project North has the potential to be a key driver, and an example of socioeconomic and environmental post-covid recovery for the north. Will the Minister confirm which Government funds, such as the shared prosperity fund, could be accessed and which have already been earmarked to enable schemes that will really drive the Government’s levelling-up agenda? Is this project the true embodiment of the Government’s levelling-up, “build back better” aspirations? I think it is. This project is shovel-ready and can be open by 2024, driving the local economy and acting as a beacon to the levelling-up agenda.

    If Morecambe is not part of this levelling-up agenda, there will be very little faith among the public, given that Eden Project North has gone through every consultation one can think of. It has gone through many Departments, and this is my third speech on this particular subject of the new jewel in the crown of Morecambe. It will signal very strongly that the Government mean business, because this is a shovel-ready project, ready to be implemented and open by 2024.

    We must be seen to deliver on investment across the north. Levelling up does not mean investing only in Manchester, Liverpool or Leeds—the major cities—but levelling up all across the north-west. Can the Minister reassure the people of the north-west, and specifically Morecambe and the Lancaster region, that they will not be forgotten, because Eden Project North will have a huge positive impact across Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire? It is within easy reach of the north’s urban centres. We are only about 40 minutes away from Manchester. We are about 20 minutes away from Preston, and looking further north, we can be in Scotland within an hour and a half.

    I would like to see some indication of at what fiscal event Eden Project North will be able to attract match funding. The Eden Project has already got £55 million on the table and ready to go, and we now need some Government investment to make it happen—to get the bulldozers in there to start turning around the fortunes of Morecambe and the Lancaster district and to help turn around the fortunes of the north-west and its tourism.

  • Chris Skidmore – 2021 Speech on Essay Mills

    Chris Skidmore – 2021 Speech on Essay Mills

    The speech made by Chris Skidmore, the Conservative MP for Kingswood, in the House of Commons on 10 February 2021.

    I beg to move,

    That leave be given to bring in a Bill to prohibit the operation and advertising of essay mill services; and for connected purposes.

    Companies that encourage students, researchers and even school pupils to part with money in return for work that can be passed off as their own should have no place in a modern society that recognises the power of knowledge to improve individual lives, train young people for their role in society and achieve their potential, yet in the UK those services and their operations currently remain entirely legal. It is that unacceptable feature of the British education system that my Bill seeks to change.

    These so-called essay mills are a rot that infects the very discipline of learning and has the potential to damage academic integrity beyond repair. It is sad to say that it is a rot that is spreading, not only in higher education but across all forms and levels of education, from schools to further education colleges. The online presence of essay mills and their websites, which encourage contract cheating, is all-pervasive.

    Three years ago, it was estimated that 115,000 students at UK universities were buying essays. Then, 46 vice-chancellors wrote a joint letter calling for these websites to banned. This call is now supported by Universities UK, the Russell Group, GuildHE, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and indeed most, if not all, of the higher education institutions and organisations that I have had the privilege of working with both as Universities Minister, and now as co-chair of the all-party university group. For me, the most passionate advocates of ending essay mills have been the students themselves and student unions, which have campaigned determinedly against their operation.

    For each week that passes during the covid pandemic, the situation is only growing worse. Students have been forced to study remotely from home, away from campus welfare and support, and in taking their studies and exams online, they are extremely and increasingly a prey to essay mills, of which the number has increased dramatically. The QAA has revealed today that there are at least 932 sites in operation in the UK, up from 904 in December 2020, 881 in October 2020 and 635 back in June 2018. Their increased presence is even boasted of on a website, www.uktopwriters.com, which provides a “compare the market” service.

    It is not just the number, but the nature of the threat that is expanding. Recent research published this month by Professor Thomas Lancaster and Codrin Cotarlan in the International Journal for Educational Integrity points to the extremely concerning phenomenon of students using file share websites, such as Chegg, to request exam answers in real time and to receive answers live during the course of an examination. Indeed, the number of STEM—science, technology, engineering and maths—student requests for this practice has risen by 196% over the past year.

    In this year of all years, be in no doubt that essay mills are seeking to ruthlessly take advantage of the pandemic. One site is even offering cut-price deals for essays, declaring that:

    “to help you fight these tough conditions caused by the Coronavirus outbreak, we have reduced the price of our services by up to 50 percent—grab the offer now!”

    That website proudly boasts of offering services in 21 university towns or cities in the UK, and this is the point: essay mills and their use is not an exception to the rule; essay mills are becoming normalised.

    This point was underlined in several Zoom conversations I have had in preparation for the Bill after I put out my own call for evidence to Research Fortnight. I would like to put on record my thanks to the individuals who attended these seminars on behalf of the National Union of Students: Anglia Ruskin, Loughborough, UClan and Worcester student unions; academics from the Universities of Coventry, Leeds, Northampton, Swansea, Kent and Loughborough; and organisations such as Jisc, the QAA, Prospects, Turnitin, the Scottish Funding Council and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.

    I heard stories of students now being recruited on campus as influencers and being paid to leaflet student halls with fliers offering essay mill services. I heard tales of students being blackmailed by these companies after having paid for essays, with threats of being reported to their universities or employers, and stories of international students being targeted on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp and encouraged to sign up to academic support services before they started university without even realising that what they were doing was wrong.

    Time and again in this dark underworld of essay mills and the companies that seek to make a profit out of the insecurity and desperation of students, the common theme that emerged was of exploitation. There is the exploitation of students, particularly vulnerable students under pressure to do well in their studies, and students who are the first in the family to attend university, on whom the pressure to succeed is immense. There is the exploitation of international students away from home for the first time, not to mention the exploitation of graduates abroad, who in some of the poorest countries in the world are forced to work 12-hour shifts writing essays for $1 an hour. There is also exploitation of graduates and students at home who are so desperate for extra money that they are selling their essays for £10, which in turn will be sold on for £300.

    I wish to make it clear that my Bill would not seek to criminalise students themselves for using essay mills. Instead, I propose that universities need to look at new strategies for creating second chances and educating students about their mistakes, following the example of the courageous conversations programme at the University of New South Wales, which gives students the opportunity to own their mistakes before formal investigations begin.

    Although we need to be tough on contract cheating, we must also be tough on the causes of contract cheating, which would not exist if there were not a market to exploit. Legislation to ban essay mills and their advertisement is long overdue. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and, most recently, Ireland have already taken action to make essay mills illegal in their countries, and the Quality Assurance Agency has been in close contact with the countries that have banned essay mills to monitor the effect of the ban. The ban is already making a difference. In Australia, following legislation, the Edubirdie, EssayShark and Custom Writings websites, for instance, now all state “Our service is not available in your region”; yet, in contrast, they all still thrive in the UK.

    I know that Lord Storey has already introduced the Higher Education Cheating Services Prohibition Bill in the other place, calling for similar measures to those that I am proposing, but I recognise that the Department for Education may have specific issues with the legal text of that Bill. What I hope to achieve today is to demonstrate that there is the support of both Houses for legislation against essay mills. Indeed, my Bill is supported by: Members from all the major political parties; the Chair of the Education Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon); the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for students, the hon. Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield); and two former Secretaries of State, including the former Education Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds).

    I say to the Minister for Universities, my hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham (Michelle Donelan), who is listening today, that I would welcome a meeting to discuss how to take forward these proposals and legislation together with the Members, students and academic experts I have assembled for this task, including Professor Michael Draper, who has helped to draft similar legislation for other countries that is now in operation. I have been grateful for the dedicated work of the professionals I have worked with. Indeed, I am grateful for the work of all those who are involved in stamping out contract cheating at universities and other education institutions, and I know that they stand ready to help the Department for Education to take forward legislation that is sorely needed.

  • Patricia Gibson – 2021 Speech on Building Safety

    Patricia Gibson – 2021 Speech on Building Safety

    The speech made by Patricia Gibson, the SNP MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, in the House of Commons on 10 February 2021.

    The announcement today of an additional £3.5 billion is encouraging as far as it goes, and I am sure that the Scottish Government look forward to the consequentials arising from it. What the Secretary of State has said will offer some relief to homeowners affected by cladding issues, many of whom are already struggling with bills and simply do not feel able to take on more debt as their dream homes have become a nightmare, with mortgage valuations of zero due to unsafe cladding. As he knows, the consequences have been far reaching for those caught up in this scandal, with homes currently worth nothing that cannot be sold and in which residents feel unsafe. I very much welcome the responsibility for cladding being borne—in part, at least—by the larger players in the industry, but more details as to how that works are needed.

    Despite the Secretary of State saying that no leaseholder will ever pay back more than £50 a month in loans to remove this cladding, I am sure that he will understand that that will still be disappointing for many, since, through no fault of their own, they are still facing additional costs after buying their homes in good faith; they face debt that they do not want and which will impact on household incomes during these difficult times. Much more detail on exactly how these low interest loans will work is needed. Can the Secretary of State confirm that there will be an upper limit to these additional costs for leaseholders, or is the £50 cap only a monthly cap? He will appreciate that this matters because building work so often overruns. Will he also tell me within what timeframe he expects this remediation work to be completed?

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2021 Speech on Building Safety

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2021 Speech on Building Safety

    The speech made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Labour MP for Bristol West, in the House of Commons on 10 February 2021.

    I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement. Buying a first home should be a dream come true, but for many it has been a nightmare for years. As a result of Government choices, three and a half years on from the Grenfell tragedy, in which 72 people lost their lives, hundreds of thousands of people are still trapped in unsafe homes and many more are unable to move. Today’s announcement is too late for too many. It is a repeat of undelivered promises and backtracks on the key one—that leaseholders should have no costs to pay.

    The Chancellor said last March that

    “all unsafe combustible cladding will be removed from every private and social residential building above 18 metres high.”—[Official Report, 11 March 2020; Vol. 673, c. 291.]

    But that has not happened. Buildings have not been able to access the fund, and £9 out of £10 is still sitting where it was. At every stage, the Government under-estimated the problem, and delays caused it to grow. They still do not know how many buildings are unsafe, where they are and what danger they pose. Until we have answers to those basic questions, the Government will continue to make mistakes, offering piecemeal solutions that have to be updated when they do not deliver.

    Can the Secretary of State guarantee that the funding will cover all buildings over 18 metres? What will the consequential be for the devolved Administrations, including Wales? We cannot have a repeat of the first come, first served free-for-all, whereby the most dangerous blocks risk being fixed last. Will the Government set up an independent taskforce, as Labour has asked for, to prioritise buildings according to risk, with powers to get the funds out the door and the ability to go after building owners who fail to get on with the work?

    Ministers have now promised 17 times that leaseholders will not bear the cost of fixing a problem that they did not cause. Many will be listening to the Housing Secretary’s remarks today, and the Government have betrayed their promise that leaseholders would not pay for the building safety crisis. As I said, three and a half years on from Grenfell, hundreds of thousands of people cannot sleep at night because their homes are unsafe. The Government have today chosen to pile financial misery on them—this is an injustice.

    What does the Housing Secretary say to Julie in Runcorn, who lives in a flat with dangerous high-pressure laminate cladding? Her block is under 18 metres, so she is unable to access the funding promised so far. She lives in the same development as buildings that have the exact same cladding but are over 18 metres, so they will be able to access the fund. Why should this arbitrary 18-metre height limit mean the difference between a safe home and financial ruin? What are the terms of the loans? What will the interest rate be? Will leaseholders be required to pay the interest as well as the main cost? The right hon. Gentleman says that leaseholders will not pay more than £50 a month, but does that stay with the current owners when they move, or with the home so the new owner is forced to pay? How long does this run for? Will it go up by inflation each year? What will the Government do if those homes remain unsellable? How will they ensure that freeholders take up the loans? How will the Government speed up remediation, because the current stalemate cannot continue?

    Other properties do not have dangerous cladding but people have been charged thousands of pounds per flat to fix other fire safety issues. What does the Housing Secretary say to them? The Government should focus on securing our economy and rebuilding from covid, not saddling homeowners with further debt. When they have further debt, that means less money for our economic recovery, taking money away from local shops. It reinforces regional imbalances, and it makes young first-time buyers and pensioners pay money they cannot afford. The Government should pursue those responsible fully, to prevent leaseholders and taxpayers from carrying the can.

    The Government have announced a levy and a tax, which I welcome, because those responsible should bear the cost, but how much do the Government anticipate the levy will raise? Will they pursue others, such as cladding manufacturers, who are also responsible for putting in the dangerous cladding? The Government have missed every target for removing ACM cladding, and 50,000 people are still living in flats wrapped in it—this is the same cladding as was found on Grenfell Tower—and thousands more have other dangerous cladding. Will the Secretary of State commit today to removing all dangerous cladding by 2022?

    As the right hon. Gentleman will know, at least one first-time homeowner, Hayley, has already been made bankrupt before she was even asked to pay for remediation, just from the extra costs. She asked the Government to think about her former neighbours, so when will leaseholders start receiving funding to pay for the round-the-clock fire patrols they are being charged hundreds of pounds each month for? What about the skyrocketing insurance? How will the Government get the market moving? Their last announcement fell to pieces, and the housing market in affected homes is grinding to a halt. I have a simple question: what, on average, does he expect the leaseholder to be paying?

    Government inaction and delay has caused the building safety crisis to spiral. People cannot continue to live in unsafe, unsellable homes. Homeowners should not face bankruptcy to fix a problem they did not cause. Unfortunately, these proposals will still leave too many people struggling and facing loans, instead of being given justice.

  • Robert Jenrick – 2021 Statement on Building Safety

    Robert Jenrick – 2021 Statement on Building Safety

    The statement made by Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, in the House of Commons on 10 February 2021.

    With permission, Mr Speaker, I want to make a statement on housing and building safety. Beyond the covid-19 pandemic, the Government want to build back better—better homes, better infrastructure and better communities. The foundation of those ambitions, and the mission of my Department, is safety and fairness. We have all been moved by the stories we have heard and the people we have met—homeowners placed in difficult and sometimes impossible situations through no fault of their own. I appreciate the frustration, the worry and the despair that at times they feel. I share their anger at the errors, the omissions, the false promises and even the outright dishonesty, which were built up over many decades but which this Government are determined to tackle.

    That is why today I am announcing an unprecedented intervention—a clear plan to remove unsafe cladding, to provide certainty to leaseholders, to make the industry pay for its faults of the past, to create a world-class building safety regime and to inject confidence and certainty back into this part of the housing market. First, we will finish the job we have started on remediating unsafe cladding. After the tragedy of Grenfell Tower, the expert advice that this Government received identified aluminium composite cladding, or ACM—the material on the tower—as by far the most unsafe form of cladding. It should never have been used, and our independent expert advisory panel recommended that it should be the focus of our remediation work.

    Thanks to a considerable effort, including during the pandemic, almost 95% of all high-rise buildings with unsafe ACM cladding identified by the beginning of last year have been remediated, or workers are on site now doing the job. That rises to 100% in social housing. Guided by expert advice, the work to remove other types of cladding that are also unsafe—albeit less so than ACM—where they pose a genuine risk to life is also under way.

    It has always been our expectation—our demand—that building owners and developers should step up to meet the cost of this work. Where they have not, or where they no longer exist, the Government have stepped in, providing £1.6 billion to remediate unsafe cladding. However, it is clear that without further Government intervention many building owners will simply seek to pass these potentially very significant costs on to leaseholders, as this is often the legal position in the leases that they signed. That would risk punishing those who have worked hard and bought their own home, but who have, through no fault of their own, found themselves caught in an invidious situation. Importantly, it would also risk slowing down the critical works to make these homes safer.

    I am therefore making an exceptional intervention today on behalf of the Government and providing certainty that leaseholders in high-rise residential buildings will face no cost for cladding remediation works. We will make further funding available to pay for the removal and replacement of unsafe cladding for all leaseholders in high-rise residential buildings of 18 metres and above, or above six storeys, in England. We continue to take a safety-led approach, and this funding will focus on the higher-rise buildings, where the independent expert advisory panel tells us time and again the overwhelming majority of the safety risk lies, in line with the existing building safety fund and the anticipated scope of the new building safety regulator that we are establishing and will shortly be legislating for. This will ensure that we end the cladding scandal in a way that is fair and generous to leaseholders.

    Secondly, for lower and medium-rise blocks of flats, the risks are significantly lower and the remediation of cladding is less likely to be needed; in many cases, it will not be needed at all, but where it is, costs can still be significant for leaseholders. That is why I am announcing today that the Government will develop a long-term scheme to protect leaseholders in this situation with financial support for cladding remediation on buildings of between four and six storeys. Under a long-term low-interest scheme, no leaseholder will ever pay more than £50 a month towards the removal of unsafe cladding, many far less.

    Taken together, this means the Government are providing more than £5 billion, including a further £3.5 billion announced today, plus the significant cost of the very generous financing scheme, which will run for many years to come, to ensure that all leaseholders in medium and high-rise blocks face no costs or very low costs if cladding remediation is needed. Where it is needed, costs can still be significant for leaseholders, which is why we want to take these important steps. We want to ensure that the Government develop this long-term scheme, which will protect leaseholders with financial support. Taken together, this means that the Government are helping leaseholders to move forwards with greater certainty and more confidence about the future.

    Thirdly, while the problem is not one of leaseholders’ making, it also cannot be right that the costs of addressing these issues fall solely on taxpayers, many of whom are not themselves homeowners and can only dream of getting on the housing ladder. The Government have always expected the industry to contribute towards these costs, and some have done so. Today, I am announcing that we will introduce a gateway 2 developer levy, which will be implemented through the forthcoming Building Safety Bill. The proposed levy will be targeted and will apply only when developers seek permission to develop certain high-rise buildings in England, helping to ensure that the industry takes collective responsibility for historical building safety defects. In introducing the levy, we will continue to ensure that the homes our country needs get built and that our small and medium-sized builders are protected.

    In addition, a new tax will be introduced for the UK residential property development sector in 2022. This will raise at least £2 billion over a decade to help to pay for cladding remediation costs. The tax will ensure that the largest property developers make a fair contribution to the remediation programme in relation to the money they make from residential property, reflecting the benefit that they will derive from restoring confidence to the UK housing market. The Government will consult on the policy design in due course.

    Fourthly, I know there are many people across the country who are concerned about the safety of their home. In the actions we have taken and those we take today, we have already very clearly prioritised public safety. However, it is also important that we put the risk of a fire, and in particular the risk of a fatal fire, in context—it is low. Last year, the number of people who died in fires in blocks of flats over 11 metres was 10—an all-time low—and fire-related fatalities in dwellings in England have fallen by 29% over the past decade. By way of comparison, more than 1,700 fatalities were reported on our roads in 2019.

    Of course, any death is one too many, and the tragedy of Grenfell Tower lingers with us and demands action. That is why it is right that we address safety issues where they exist and are a threat to life, but we must do so proportionately, guided at all times by expert advice. That is the approach that we are taking through the Building Safety Bill, the new building safety regulator, the Fire Safety Bill and the new national regulator for construction products, which I announced in January. I am determined that we will have a world-class building safety regime.

    We need everyone to follow this sensible, proportionate approach so that this part of the housing market can move forward and homeowners are not disproportionately impacted. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has consulted on new guidance for valuers on when an EWS1 form should be required. The Government endorse its work to ensure that assessors have a stronger basis on which to make good, proportionate judgments about valuation risk. Lenders have welcomed the progress on that guidance, which will help to ensure that more than half a million leaseholders in blocks of flats over 11 metres will not need a separate EWS1 assessment to get a mortgage. That builds on the interventions we have already made to create and train many more assessors, and we are doing more so that they can access professional indemnity insurance to get on with the job.

    Today, in addition to providing certainty to leaseholders, we are providing confidence to lenders. Following discussions that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and I have had with lenders, we expect all the major banks and building societies to strongly support today’s intervention, which will provide greater certainty to the market and help to restore the effective lending, purchasing and selling of properties as soon as possible.

    Taken together, this exceptional intervention amounts to the largest-ever Government investment in building safety. We believe in homeownership, and today we firmly support the hundreds of thousands of homeowners who need our help now. I commend this statement to the House.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Forthcoming G7 Meeting

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Forthcoming G7 Meeting

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 14 February 2021.

    The solutions to the challenges we face – from the colossal mission to get vaccines to every single country, to the fight to reverse the damage done to our ecosystems and lead a sustainable recovery from coronavirus – lie in the discussions we have with our friends and partners around the world.

    Quantum leaps in science have given us the vaccines we need to end this pandemic for good. Now world governments have a responsibility to work together to put those vaccines to the best possible use. I hope 2021 will be remembered as the year humanity worked together like never before to defeat a common foe.

  • Robert Jenrick – 2021 Comments on Support for Renters

    Robert Jenrick – 2021 Comments on Support for Renters

    The comments made by Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, on 14 February 2021.

    We have taken unprecedented action to support renters during the pandemic including introducing a six-month notice period and financial support to help those struggling to pay their rent.

    By extending the ban on the enforcement of evictions by bailiffs, in all but the most serious cases, we are ensuring renters remain protected during this difficult time.

    Our measures strike the right balance between protecting tenants and enabling landlords to exercise their right to justice.

  • Alan Whitehead – 2021 Comments on Government’s Fuel Poverty Strategy

    Alan Whitehead – 2021 Comments on Government’s Fuel Poverty Strategy

    The comments made by Alan Whitehead, the Shadow Minister for Energy, on 11 February 2021.

    After presiding over a decade of spiralling energy bills and rising fuel poverty, it’s welcome that this Government is now taking action – but today’s announcements won’t do enough to help families make ends meet.

    The Government urgently needs to act to bring energy costs down, fix its botched Green Homes Scheme, and provide more clarity on what it will do for regions such as the North East where disproportionate numbers live in fuel poverty.

    Fuel poverty can’t be separated from other types of deprivation, which this Government has consistently failed to tackle amidst rising costs and falling incomes for families during the pandemic.

    Labour would give families security by ensuring our energy market puts consumers first, bringing in proper measures to reduce bills, and providing warm homes for all.

  • Anneliese Dodds – 2021 Comments on British Business Recovery

    Anneliese Dodds – 2021 Comments on British Business Recovery

    The comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 14 February 2021.

    Labour would rebuild Britain by backing businesses and supporting families through the crisis and then putting Britain on the path to growth.

    The Chancellor simply offers a return to the same, old policies that left the foundations of Britain’s economy weakened before the crisis. His economically illiterate plans to demand repayments next month risk crushing British business and our recovery under a mountain of debt. He would leave taxpayers on the hook for billions and other firms cash-strapped for years – leading to less investment and fewer jobs.

    Instead of pushing business to the brink, Labour’s plans would protect small firms and give larger ones flexible options to manage debt. We would help businesses get back on their feet, secure our economy and get Britain on the road to recovery.

  • Andy McDonald – 2021 Comments on Declaring Covid a Workplace Risk

    Andy McDonald – 2021 Comments on Declaring Covid a Workplace Risk

    The comments made by Andy McDonald, the Shadow Employment Rights and Protections Secretary, on 14 February 2021.

    The decision against classifying Covid as a ‘serious’ workplace risk has prevented enforcement action to keep workers and the public safe, contributing to the UK having the highest death rate in the world and the worst economic crisis of any major economy.

    It is staggering that inspectors have been denied the powers to close workplaces and prosecute employers. That the Health and Safety Executive has failed to close a single business for putting employees at risk of Covid despite more than 3,500 outbreaks at work, shows how workplace protections have been neglected through the pandemic.

    Inspectors ought to have the powers to keep workers’ safe and protect the public. Covid must be classified as a serious workplace risk.