Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alok Sharma and Richard Graham

Wednesday 20th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

I know that my hon. Friend is a great champion of green energy and, in particular, hydrogen in his area. I wish him luck with the plans and of course I will raise this matter the Business Secretary.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

As has been pointed out, previous programmes to improve insulation in homes, under either this party or the Labour Party, have not delivered what any of us would have hoped. Does my right hon. Friend agree that if this was targeted effectively at the homes of those who suffer most, many of whom will also be paying unacceptable increases in their energy bills, we could have a very effective way of improving insulation, reducing energy use and improving energy efficiency?

[Alok Sharma]

I agree with my hon. Friend; this measure will not only lower bills, but reduce demand for energy at this critical point, where energy security is so important around the world and also in our country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alok Sharma and Richard Graham

Wednesday 14th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

I have seen at first hand, when I was Secretary of State for International Development and, indeed, in other roles, that UK support continues to transform millions of lives for the better across the world. The hon. Gentleman will know that we will continue to spend over £10 billion this year in aid, and of course we now have certainty that we will be returning to the 0.7% target.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

What assessment he has made of the opportunities through COP26 for potential exports in energy and renewables to emerging markets. [R]

Energy White Paper

Debate between Alok Sharma and Richard Graham

Monday 14th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

I do not know whether it is possible to place eggs in a hydrogen basket, but the hon. Gentleman makes an important point. We need to level up across the country and we will do just that.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

This energy White Paper is bristling with good things. Let me highlight two of them. The Secretary of State alluded to the negotiations with Sizewell C. May I highlight for him the importance of this project not just to the nuclear energy sector or to that part of the country, but to my constituents in Gloucester, where the operational headquarters of EDF Energy at Barnwood are extremely important? Can he confirm that access to Government financing will be the key to reducing the risk and costs of this project? The second great bit of news is his commitment to considering the role of wave and tidal energy. As chair of the all-party marine energy group, I thoroughly support this initiative, which I hope will end with some pots for marine energy and the contract for difference in November, before COP26.

[Alok Sharma]

I am delighted that my hon. Friend thinks that this paper is bristling with ideas and energy. I know that for a long time my right hon. Friend the Minister has been bristling with energy getting this thing put together. On Sizewell C, we are going to look at the financing model and that will be part of the discussion, but one of the other key points is that it will be creating jobs during the construction phase and indeed beyond. A number of colleagues have asked what is the connection between this and the lives of people in our constituencies, and the answer is that it is very much about jobs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alok Sharma and Richard Graham

Tuesday 3rd March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

We met the first two carbon budgets, and we are on track to meet the third. Of course, I recognise the need for further action: 2020 will be a year of climate action, as I have said, and we have new plans to decarbonise key sectors in industry.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

I congratulate the Department on its far-sighted announcement yesterday that sets the tone for COP26 by allowing onshore wind and solar projects, which have local support, to bid for funding. The announcement also floated a further pot for less developed technologies, such as tidal stream and wave, some of which the Energy Minister and I met last week. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we should pursue this opportunity to develop diverse sources of green energy and look closely at the innovative tax credit proposal, innovation power purchase agreement, to help some of these technologies get off the ground?

[Alok Sharma]

I make the general point that innovation is vital in all sectors of industry, but particularly in the renewables sector. As my hon. Friend will know, the proposal that we set out will help the UK to achieve its 2050 net zero ambition. Ultimately, this is about achieving value for money by driving further cost reductions in renewable electricity.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alok Sharma and Richard Graham

Monday 19th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

As we have pointed out, under universal credit people are able to get the one-to-one support with their work coach that was not possible under the legacy benefits system. Again, I reach out to the hon. Gentleman. If he has concerns in his own constituency, I am very happy to have a discussion with him and his local jobcentre, because we want to support absolutely every single person who is in the welfare system.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

The welfare system undoubtedly encourages our constituents into work and rewards them in work, but the system does not always capture that because of the anomaly of the claimant count being used as a proxy for unemployment, whereas in fact many people who are on universal credit are working. What can the Minister do to try to improve the statistical way in which this is recorded?

[Alok Sharma]

My hon. Friend raises an important question. As he will know, we had a consultation on this particular point. We have published our findings, and I would be very happy to share those with him. Perhaps it would be appropriate for me to write to all colleagues setting out the changes that we are proposing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alok Sharma and Richard Graham

Monday 4th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

One of the key issues in our consultation on local housing needs, which closed on 9 November, was viability assessments. We will of course review what comes forward, but we have made it very clear that we want developers to build affordable homes.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

19. After 13 years of Labour MPs in Gloucester in which not a single new social housing unit was built, we now have built some new social housing, but we want to do much more through a master plan involving the Government’s estate regeneration programme. Will my hon. Friend confirm that money may be available through the new national productivity investment fund to help to bridge any potential funding gap caused by low values?

[Alok Sharma]

I commend my hon. Friend for the work that he is doing in his constituency to encourage more building of homes, including social homes, and I am delighted by the progress that is being made in estate regeneration. My hon. Friend’s constituency has received £1.25 million of capacity funding. More detailed eligibility criteria for the national productivity investment fund will be announced in due course, and I shall be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss the matter further.

Draft Regulation of Social Housing (Influence of Local Authorities) (England) Regulations 2017

Debate between Alok Sharma and Richard Graham

Monday 6th November 2017 General Committees

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Alok Sharma)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Regulation of Social Housing (Influence of Local Authorities) (England) Regulations 2017.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. The regulations, which were laid before the House on 14 September, are the final part of the legislation that is needed to reduce unnecessary public control over housing associations. Local authorities currently exercise this control through their ability to directly appoint housing association board members and hold share membership of these organisations.

Before I get into the details of the regulations, it may be useful if I give some context. In October 2015, the Office for National Statistics took the decision that private registered providers—more commonly known as housing associations—should be classed as public non-financial corporations for the purposes of national accounts, because the level of control exercised over them by the social housing regulator and local authorities was too high. Although the ONS’s decision was a statistical matter with no direct bearing on the management structure, ownership or legal status of the housing providers, it added approximately £70 billion to the Government’s debt.

We have been clear that we are committed to reducing public borrowing. If the ONS classification remains in place, any future borrowing by housing associations will add to the Government’s debt. Equally important, housing associations need a stable investment environment in which they can play their part in fixing the housing market and get on with building new homes, and the fact that they are classified as public sector for the purpose of technical accounting is providing an unnecessary distraction. To that end, provisions in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 that came into force on 6 April 2017 have already removed the majority of controls that the ONS highlighted as a concern.

We also took the power in the 2016 Act to use affirmative regulation to limit local authority control. Our reason for not limiting it from the outset was to consider fully the ONS’s concerns. As a result of that consideration, we believe that the regulations represent a good balance between limiting local authority control over business operation and maintaining the ability of local authorities to work with housing associations to prioritise and deliver the social housing that their communities need.

The regulations will specifically remove two areas of local authority control over housing associations. First, they will exclude local authorities from holding a shareholding membership of a housing association. In the associations affected, shareholding will generally have been divided equally between local authorities, independent shareholders and tenants. Such rights may allow a local authority to block major changes being made to a housing association’s constitution, and this is seen as control over the body. The regulations will redistribute the local authority’s shareholding in equal proportions among the remaining parties. As a result, we expect that tenants will have a greater proportion of the shareholding and therefore more influence over constitutional decisions.

Secondly, the regulations permit local authorities to directly appoint up to 24% of board members, with which a local authority will be able to influence the board. They also specify that a majority decision cannot be set at more than 75% of board membership, which means that local authorities will not have the power to block decisions taken at board level. By preventing local authorities from blocking housing associations’ constitutional changes, both those measures will limit the control that a local authority can exert on a housing association. It must be right that private sector organisations should not be controlled in such a way.

That is not to say that local authorities should have no interest in housing associations; nor should the regulations prevent them from continuing some of the excellent partnership work that goes on up and down the country. Importantly, the circumstances in which they apply will generally be limited to those in which a local authority has transferred housing stock to a housing association. We estimate that approximately 100 of the 1,500 currently registered housing associations will be affected.

The devastating events at Grenfell Tower reinforce the need for sound oversight of organisations responsible for the safety of people’s homes. I assure hon. Members that the regulations will do nothing to undermine or minimise the current regulatory regime, under which the social housing regulator has overall powers to regulate the sector and sets economic and consumer standards. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has announced a Green Paper to provide a wide-ranging review of social housing that will explore not only safety issues, but the quality of social homes, the rights of tenants, service management and the wider issues of community and the local economy. To support that review, I am undertaking a series of events across England to listen to the concerns of social housing tenants. Those conversations will help to frame the Green Paper, which will influence both Government policy and the wider debate for many years to come.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

I welcome the fact that all housing associations will be classified as private bodies, while being enabled to recruit the right skills to their boards. Will the Minister confirm whether local authority representation on housing association boards will be capped at 24%? Will it have to be kept precisely to that level if both the housing association and the local authority agree otherwise?

[Alok Sharma]

The regulations say that local authorities will have representation of up to 24% of board members. In many cases, that will mean reducing the number of board members they appoint. Ultimately, this is about demonstrating that local authorities no longer exercise the same level of control over housing associations.

In developing the regulations, we have taken views from the National Housing Federation, the Local Government Association, the National Federation of ALMOs and a selection of housing associations and local authorities. The overall message from their responses was the importance of reclassifying housing associations as private sector as soon as possible. Housing associations and local authorities have a wide-ranging relationship, and we want that relationship to be maintained. The regulations will not change that.

The regulations will give local authorities and housing associations six months to make the necessary changes. In that time, local authorities will need to reduce their board membership to 24% of the directly appointed members by choosing which members should remain and which be removed. Housing associations will need to amend their constitutions to reflect the changes required by the regulations. After the six-month period, if action has not been taken, the regulations will overwrite contracts and constitutions to reduce local authority board membership to the required level and remove shareholding membership. The shareholding membership is to be distributed pro rata among the other shareholders, meaning that tenants will hold a larger share in the association.

In summary, the regulations go only as far as is necessary to allow the ONS to consider the reclassification of housing associations as private sector.

Pensions Bill [Lords]

Debate between Alok Sharma and Richard Graham

Tuesday 18th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

rose—

[Richard Graham]

rose—