Calum Miller MP: speeches

Speeches

• 10 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T2. On 21 May, the Government published their working paper on community benefits, but contributions are unlikely to be made mandatory before a decision is made about the huge Botley West plant in my constituency. Does the Minister agree that a responsible developer would offer my constituents a level of benefit in line with that proposed by the Government?

• 9 Jun 2025 · Planning and Infrastructure Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister and the members of the Bill Committee for their hard work on this legislation. I regret, however, that the Minister has been so resistant to amendments from my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) and from others on the Liberal Democrat Benches, which I now rise to support. My constituents in Bicester and Woodstock want to see a planning system that delivers decent, affordable homes for those excluded from housing, that recognises that investment in infrastructure must come before housing development and that does not create a false distinction between development and protecting nature. Linda and Gary live in my constituency. Gary has complex needs and Linda is his carer. Their property is not suitable; Gary cannot shower or get to the garden by himself. Linda and Gary have been bidding to West Oxfordshire district council for a property suitable to meet Gary’s needs for more than a year, but they have been continually unsuccessful. As many hon. Members have stated, we have a crisis of social housing in this country. That is why Liberal Democrats want to see an additional 150,000 social homes built every year through amendment 15, and why new clause 112 is so important, preventing developers from ducking the delivery of social homes. We also need developers to develop the buildings that have been consented. In Cherwell district council in my constituency, more than 8,000 homes have been consented but not built. That has led to a crisis, with villages such as Ambrosden and Launton at the mercy of opportunist developers who have hoovered up sites not contained in the local plan. New clause 3 would put an end to the land banking of consented sites, forcing developers to use them or lose them.

• 26 Feb 2025 · British Indian Ocean Territory · Hansard source

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  Before I address the position of the Government, I feel obliged to respond to the comments of the shadow Foreign Secretary, who has so kindly spent her evenings reviewing the proceedings of the Mauritian Parliament for all our benefit. She has pressed the Government on why they have advanced this deal, yet she had no answer to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) on why her Government began talks with Mauritius. The pronouncements of the right hon. Lady about lawyers and the judiciary are consistent with a party that has long since given up on upholding the rule of law. The right hon. and learned Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) is a lone voice in standing up for the force of law. He rightly observes that the UK does not subject itself to the rulings of the International Court of Justice in respect of contentious cases with Commonwealth countries, yet he raises two points that the right hon. Lady did not address. First, the UK has subjected itself to the jurisdiction of the ICJ and its predecessors since 1929. Secondly, as this discussion flows from an advisory opinion of the ICJ, which she now says is unjustified or irrelevant, why did the Conservative Government feel compelled to begin talks and conduct more than 10 rounds of negotiations? The Liberal Democrats, unlike the Conservatives or Reform, believe that the UK is stronger when it works co-operatively with other countries, stronger when it supports the rule of international law, and stronger when it takes action to support international institutions. That is why we believe that the UK should take seriously the advisory opinion of the ICJ and other legal opinions on this question and why the Conservative Government were right to open negotiations and the Labour Government were right to continue them. All that said, the process of agreeing a treaty over the past few months has been nothing short of shambolic. There are three critical issues in this sorry tale and I regret to say that the Government have failed on each of them. First, on the security of the United Kingdom, for decades, Diego Garcia has been a key strategic asset. Its importance has only increased over time, in light of the changing threat picture and the increasing aggression shown by China. The chaos of this negotiation has not given any reassurance that our security is being safeguarded. Secondly, on the rights of the Chagossian people, since the 1960s, they have been displaced and decisions taken about them without them—to use a phrase that the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister have recently adopted. In October, outside Parliament, I met Chagossians who live in the UK and want to have a say in the future of their islands. They were highly critical of not being a part of the negotiations. Thirdly, on the role of Parliament in the negotiations, Liberal Democrats have long argued that international treaties should come to this House before signature so that parliamentarians can scrutinise the Government’s proposals. In this case, the Government rushed to an agreement with Mauritius that promptly unravelled. Why have the Mauritian Parliament and Donald Trump been given a say about British sovereign territory, but this Parliament has not? The Government have repeatedly obfuscated and refused to provide detail of the deal to Parliament. If it is true that the cost is in excess of £9 billion, UK taxpayers will want to know how the Government have found that funding when winter fuel payments have been scrapped, family farms are being threatened and charities and health providers are being hit with national insurance increases. Will the Minister please answer the following questions? What security guarantees are contained in the draft treaty? Will Parliament be given a vote on the treaty before it is signed? How much will be paid to Mauritius as part of the deal? Finally, will Chagossians be included in the future process of agreement?

• 17 Dec 2024 · Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme: Living Standards · Hansard source

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  I was pleased to see the Secretary of State saying last week that those who host clean energy infrastructure should benefit from it. When landowners and developers in my constituency are cashing in on building new solar, my constituents in Bicester and Woodstock think that it is only fair that benefits are shared. Will the Secretary of State tell me whether he will follow the model of other Governments in setting a mandatory—

• 16 Dec 2024 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  My constituents do not understand why they may be facing a 50% price increase from Thames Water, partly to service a £3 billion loan. The Secretary of State talks about resetting the water industry. Will he consider taking Thames Water into a special administrative regime, so it can be properly reset and the inappropriate debt built up under the previous Government written off to the benefit of taxpayers and consumers?

• 11 Dec 2024 · Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects and Local Road Networks · Hansard source

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  I am delighted to have secured this Adjournment debate. I thank the Minister for attending and for the engagement that we have had prior to the debate. I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, as I am a county councillor in Oxfordshire. In Bicester in my constituency, the delivery of East West Rail will lead to the closure of London Road. That is the only road joining the south-east with the centre of town. Closing it without providing a replacement will cut the town in two. I have secured this debate to highlight the problem and to seek the Minister’s support in finding a suitable solution for our town that will keep London Road open to pedestrians, cyclists and car users. Given that the frequency of rail services is set to double from 2025, I hope that she will recognise the urgency of the issue. The general point, which I suspect may be of relevance to other Members, is that when there are projects that bring national benefit, local communities should be directly compensated for the impact on them.

• 4 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source

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  If there was one phrase that occurred repeatedly on the doorstep in Bicester and Woodstock during the general election, it was, “I’ve always voted Conservative, but I’m never doing that again.” Voters talked about a cost of living crisis, high interest rates raising mortgages and rents, and stealth taxes hitting low-income pensioners, all of which they blamed on Conservative Ministers who were more interested in holding office than governing well. I am in no doubt that this new Labour Government inherited a poisoned chalice and have, as the Chancellor said in her speech, faced some tough choices. Today’s debate is focused on protecting working people. My constituents in Bicester and Woodstock have shared their views on how well the Chancellor’s choices have met that goal. Most prominent in the Chancellor’s tax changes were the increases to employers’ national insurance contributions. I spoke to the owners of a small café and leisure business in my constituency. They employ a small team of staff, many of whom have been with the business for years. Few of them work full time, and some are students or school pupils who work one shift. Given the increase in employers’ NICs and the failure to reform business rates, the owners told me that this Budget will take them to the edge financially. I regret that the Chancellor did not listen to the Liberal Democrats’ recommendations to raise taxes from those with the broadest shoulders, reverse the tax cut that the Conservatives gave to the big banks, and levy a modest tax on social media companies. The Chancellor said there would be no tax rises for working people, but small business owners in my constituency would disagree. Two weeks ago, the National Audit Office reported that the SEND system was broken. In the urgent question on that report, I spoke about Zak, who lives in my constituency and whose young life has been deeply affected by the shortcomings in the SEND system. Both of Zak’s parents have had to stop work and move on to universal credit so that they can care for and educate Zak at home. I welcome the £1 billion in new funding to help local authorities address SEND deficits, but we need to do more. We need a much more ambitious approach to improve the support we give young people and their families. The Liberal Democrats support the Chancellor’s commitment to public sector investment after years of neglect under the previous Government, so I welcome her confirmation that she has committed to funding the East West Rail project, which runs through my constituency. However, the documents provided by the Treasury and the Department for Transport do not clarify whether a share of that new funding will be ringfenced to keep open London Road in Bicester, which connects our town. Since 2021, as a county councillor and now as an MP, I have been pressing East West Rail and Ministers to commit to funding that. In that time, there have been four Prime Ministers and five Rail Ministers. I hope this new Government will now commit to finding solutions that will avoid Bicester being cut in two.

• 15 Oct 2024 · Renewable Energy Projects: Community Benefits · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire (Mr MacDonald) for securing this debate. My constituency of Bicester and Woodstock has had multiple applications for solar farms, but they are dwarfed by the enormous proposal by the Blenheim estate and its development partners for an 840 MW solar plant, the so-called Botley West proposal. We need to make the transition to more renewables in our energy mix. The Liberal Democrats support that transition—we want to see 90% of our energy coming from renewables by 2030—but that high ambition makes steps to increase community benefit from any new scheme essential. We must bring people with us on this journey by sharing the benefits. As with other aspects of renewable energy policy, the current framework is incomplete and hands too much control to the landowners and developers, often at the cost of local communities. We urgently need an approach to renewables that has a strong presumption in favour of meaningful community engagement and sustained community benefit. Botley West has not met that standard. That is one of the many reasons why I and many of my constituents object to the current proposal. Originally, the developers offered the community a benefit fund of £50,000, amounting to £59.50 per megawatt of annual capacity. It is derisory. The £5,000 per megawatt of capacity recommended by the community benefits protocol would instead deliver £4.2 million each year to the local community if the scheme goes ahead as currently proposed. I urge the Government to put in place a framework for new renewables that will place renewables schemes at the heart of community discussions and place our communities at the heart of debates on renewables schemes.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the Minister on the speed with which you have got up to speed in this fiendishly complex area. That in itself demonstrates a point. Do you not agree that this has been a premature decision, which has left many of our constituents deeply anxious about how they will heat their homes this winter? If you as the Minister are telling us that it is complex and not straightforward, and a difficult set of issues to navigate, how can we expect people worrying about illness, caring for their partners, or living on the poverty line because they are just above the pension credit limit, to get through this winter? Do you not agree that it would have been better to consider the issue in slightly slower time?