Gideon Amos MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 9 Oct 2024 · Renters’ Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  Does that mean there will be more funding for the courts?

• 9 Oct 2024 · Renters’ Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Member. We must make sure that the courts are properly resourced so that the grounds that are in the Bill to provide for eviction, where it is justified, can work effectively. That is surely the way forward, rather than some back-door approach in which no-fault evictions are used for a multitude of reasons, many of them not justified. While it is right to legislate to end no-fault evictions—measures that Liberal MPs such as the former Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, Simon Hughes, vehemently opposed from these Benches back in 1988 —we surely cannot think that the private sector alone is the answer to solving our nation’s housing crisis. The Government must be more ambitious, immediately banning no-fault evictions, building 150,000 council and social rent homes per year, a comprehensive programme to insulate all housing, a planning use class to control second homes and allowing councils to halt the right to buy, so that when we build council houses we are not trying to fill the bath with the plug taken out. Those are the priorities that the Liberal Democrats will be campaigning for and working to see on the face of this Bill. I urge the Minister and the Government to take on as many of our suggestions as they possibly can.

• 9 Oct 2024 · Renters’ Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  I have congratulated the Secretary of State on her position, but I also congratulate her colleague, the Minister for Housing and Planning, on his. He follows a long line of Ministers—the first, arguably, being Christopher Addison, the great Liberal and Labour Minister, who delivered not only the great Housing and Town Planning Act 1919, but more than half a million council houses. I am sure that the Minister will be delivering just as many over the next two or three years. As the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich, the Minister also follows former Housing Minister Nick Raynsford, with whom I had the pleasure of working. I was going to say that something in the water of Greenwich and Woolwich produces great Housing Ministers, but unfortunately, following the legacy of the last Government, there is far too much in the water—and we really do not want to dwell on that. Seriously, the Minister is taking on an important portfolio, as is the Secretary of State, of course. Housing and planning have the power to touch every single person in the country and make up one of the most important roles in Government. My own experience is limited to being a tenant and landlord—only ever a landlord of registered social housing; I am happy to declare that interest today. The Government face huge challenges, but we must not shrink from the overall objective of ending homelessness, which was enshrined in both the Liberal Democrat and Labour manifestos. The Government will have the full support of my colleagues on the Liberal Democrat Benches of the measures that they bring forward to that end. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey) has made clear and demonstrated, when opposition is needed it will be constructive and positive. In that spirit, I am pleased to generally welcome the Bill, which will give tenants the security that all other residents already have and that tenants surely deserve, and put right the scandalous delay in bringing an end to no-fault evictions. We must encourage the majority of landlords out there, who are responsible, as are the majority of tenants. When those interests go together, we can deliver the thousands of private rented homes that we need in this country—we cannot do without them. It is right also to dwell on elements of the Bill that can support the supply of private rented housing.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Onshore Wind Energy · Hansard source

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  When will the Secretary of State bring forward proposals for community benefit for those living alongside wind and solar farms to greater incentivise the permitting of wind and solar farms, including Ham solar farm in my constituency? Will that include a minimum level of compensation for the communities affected?

• 8 Oct 2024 · Onshore Wind Energy · Hansard source

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  3. What steps he is taking to help increase levels of onshore wind energy production.

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend recognise that thousands of children do not have EHCPs? My hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) referred to the deluge that would surely come to local authorities in the form of applications for EHCPs. That will be just when, because of the legacy of the Conservative Government, local authorities are on their knees and cannot cope with the level of demand. That will further disadvantage the already most disadvantaged children.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Exemptions · Hansard source

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  I appreciate the point the hon. Member is trying to make, but given that children simply cannot get an EHCP, how does he expect them to get the support they need?

• 8 Oct 2024 · Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Exemptions · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Bradley Thomas) on securing this important debate. In my constituency, Taunton school, Wellington school, King’s college and Queen’s college make a massive contribution to the local economy. Beyond that, they also cater for many children with special educational needs and disabilities. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Minister should consider resources for local authorities to cope with the wave of applications for support from SEND children currently being supported in independent schools? They are not applying for EHCPs now but will doubtless need to in future, if they are no longer able to get the care and support they need at their schools. Does she also agree that the Minister should secure a rise in the armed forces allowance to cope with the 20% increase?

• 10 Sept 2024 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman has expressed the principle that means-testing could be accommodated. Does he agree that many of those who have written to us as Members of Parliament also sympathise with the principle that means-testing could and should come in at some point in the future? The manner in which this proposal is being brought in, before the 880,000 pensioners who are eligible for pension credit are registered for it, is the problem that particularly affects the 21,000 pensioners in Taunton and Wellington.

• 5 Sept 2024 · Great British Energy Bill · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that the Secretary of State should take on board one of the emerging technologies that could deliver the most for Great British Energy: the potential for tidal range energy? In a previous life, I was responsible for the consenting of the Swansea tidal lagoon, which unfortunately the previous Government failed to fund. It is the second biggest tidal range in the world and could be a massive success story for Great British Energy and the UK. Does she agree that the Secretary of State should take that on board as a key objective of Great British Energy?

• 5 Sept 2024 · Great British Energy Bill · Hansard source

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  I am sure that a Member with the experience of the hon. Gentleman will know that Britain returned to being a net exporter of electricity last year, so assuming that there will be additional costs from importing electricity due to the transition to renewables simply does not stack up. Does he also recognise that when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow, the tide still rises and falls twice a day, 365 days a year? A future resting on renewable energy is possible, and we need to have that ambition for the United Kingdom.

• 5 Sept 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Wellington in my constituency, a town of 15,000 people, has had no post office for several years. The threat to post offices is a concern shared across the House. Imagine the delight of the people of Wellington when they heard that a hub was being opened by an organisation called the Post Office, with a Post Office logo on the outside, only to find later that it will not be providing any Post Office services. Does the Leader of the House agree that that sounds like something out of “Yes Minister”? Will she grant time for a debate on the roll-out of banking hubs and the provision of postal services alongside them in towns that do not have any post offices?

• 2 Sept 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Over 10,000 people, many of whom are in really desperate conditions, are on the housing waiting list in Taunton and Wellington and in Somerset as a whole. Will the Secretary of State allow councils to borrow at low interest rates to build the council houses that we need across the country, and support councils such as Somerset council, which is pioneering the first council houses for a generation in some parts of the county?

• 29 Jul 2024 · Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill · Hansard source

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  I rise to give my maiden speech. I congratulate you, Mr Speaker, on your position and the Transport Secretary and the Front-Bench team on their positions. It is a privilege and a pleasure to follow the maiden speeches that we have just heard, including by the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean), who, along with my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Josh Babarinde), significantly increases the Josh quotient in the House. If I contribute nothing else, I clearly increase the Gideon quotient by the massive number of one new Member of Parliament. I also thank the hon. Member for South Ribble (Mr Foster), whose public service has been enduring. He has had my congratulations on that already. Their speeches will be a hard act to follow, but I have the advantage of representing Taunton and Wellington, so it should not be too much of a problem. I give credit to the former Conservative Member for Taunton Deane, Rebecca Pow, who will, I am sure, continue her enthusiasm for gardening and wildlife. She was, of course, a Minister with responsibility for water and for our rivers. I am partial to a dip in the river from time to time, so I was pleased to successfully apply for bathing water status for a stretch of the Tone in Taunton to get the improvement in water quality that we desperately need in our rivers down in Taunton. The River Tone is the silver thread that joins Wellington to Taunton to the levels, close to where the famous cakes were burned near the King Alfred Inn at Burrowbridge. I also pay tribute to the former Liberal Democrat MP Jeremy Browne, the Member of Parliament for Taunton Deane from 2005 to 2015. He served as a Home Office and a Foreign Office Minister, and remains incredibly well liked in the constituency. He was the first Member to propose a new railway station for Wellington, and I am delighted to have had the Chancellor’s assurance in the previous debate that that project will go ahead. I am the eighth Liberal to represent Taunton in Parliament since some guy named Disraeli was defeated by the first one in the 1835 general election. Of course, nothing further was heard of him—at least not in Taunton. Taunton’s parliamentary tradition is very deep-rooted. As the county town with a castle, which today proudly houses the Castle hotel and the superb Museum of Somerset supported by our dynamic town council, its parliamentarians held out in siege after siege. Today, the hard work of so many people in Taunton at the Brewhouse theatre, the Southern Sinfonia, the Bluebirds Theatre Company, the Tacchi-Morris, the Willows and Wetlands visitor centre, the Creative Innovation Centre, Arts Taunton, GoCreate Taunton, groups such as Amici and Voce, and the Bradford Players—I have many more—the Taunton Thespians and the @2K Theatre; and in Wellington at the Arts Centre, the Wellesley Theatre, the operatic society, and the Gaumont theatre, which once played host to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and is now home to the bingo, all comes together to mean that not only do we have a Mecca, but our area is a cultural mecca to which people come from far and wide. Then, of course, there is the magnificent Somerset county ground, graced by the towers of St James and the minster, where I married Caroline just 28 short years ago. I thank her and our children, Emily, Fraser and Fenner and Felix, from the bottom of my heart for their support. Our schools from North Town and Minerva to Bishop Fox’s, Court Fields, Castle, Pyrland, Selworthy and Monkton Wood feed into our nationally renowned Richard Huish College, Bridgwater & Taunton College and University Centre Somerset, which now offers degrees like nursing, in support of the superb staff at Musgrove Park hospital. Funding is urgently needed for the hospital’s new maternity unit, because buckets are currently used to catch the rain in the corridors of a building built for the US army—as a temporary building—in 1940. Similarly, King’s and Queen’s, Taunton and Wellington’s independent schools, make a massive contribution to our area’s local economy. We also have a successful home education community that inspires an innovative generation of young people. To all our area’s children, I say: “Be yourself. If your name is Gideon, for example, there’s no need to change it to get elected to Parliament.” That is something I once tried to discuss with the former Member for Tatton. I confess that it has taken me a little time to get to this Chamber—if I had not had to deliver all those bibles to hotels, I would have got here a lot quicker. All those institutions, together with the UK Hydrographic Office, make Taunton the ideal location for new research and innovation entrepreneurs. It is only 104 minutes from Paddington, so they should all come and enjoy the amazing quality of life that we offer. When they come to Taunton, they will find a ticket office at the station that is still working. I was amazed to hear the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) apparently still advocating the closure of ticket offices—a policy about which I can say only “good luck”. To encourage people to come to Wellington, I look forward to working hard on the Wellington station project that I mentioned earlier. I invite the right hon. Lady the Transport Secretary, and the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Wakefield and Rothwell (Simon Lightwood), to visit the project. On their visit, I hope that they will enjoy a glass of famous Sheppy’s or Taunton cider—or, to pronounce it correctly for Hansard , zyder — at the Ring of Bells, the Green Dragon or the Pump House in Tonedale, in a Rocket and Bird glass with some Somerdale cheese and perhaps some Bumblee’s relish, followed by a meal at Guddi and Gikki, Maliha and Taj, the Little Wine Shop or Augustus. They are ideal for planning visits to key organisations in the constituency, like WPA, Pritex or indeed the 40 Commando Royal Marines at Norton Manor camp. I was delighted to support the Royal Marines, with the help of former Royal Marine Paddy Ashdown—raising an ultimately successful petition to gain a U-turn on the previous Government’s shocking proposal to close down the entire facility. In his maiden speech the other day, my hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury (Cameron Thomas) drew attention to the huge sacrifice that previous generations made so that we are all free to sit in this Chamber today. My service in the Territorial Army was pretty minimal, but my father, FJC “Jim” Amos CBE, and my mother, Geraldine Amos MBE, both served in world war two, following their fathers who served in the trenches. I remember discussing it with them all. When I was growing up, hon. Members will not be surprised to hear that the atmosphere and the memories of war loomed large in discussions around meal tables. Is it not that generation’s courage and bravery, not only in rebuilding Britain but in defeating fascism in the first place, that demand our respect? They demand that we do everything we can to defend the liberal and democratic values that make this country so great. Their bravery surely also demands that all hon. Members, on both sides of the House, always say no to those who would stir up division, despair and hatred for nothing more than votes, because they have nothing positive to offer people. It is the greatest privilege of my life to serve the residents of Taunton and Wellington—from Hatch Beauchamp, Helland and North Curry in the east to Whiteball, West Buckland, and Sampfords Moor and Arundel in the west; and from Bishopswood, Churchinford and Stoke St Mary in the south to Pickney, West Monckton and Kingston St Mary in the north—in this House. I am here to do one thing: work for them and stand up for them to those in power whenever that is the right thing to do. I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to begin that duty today.

• 29 Jul 2024 · Public Spending: Inheritance · Hansard source

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  I congratulate you on your post, Madam Deputy Speaker, and the right hon. Lady on her position as Chancellor. Does the Chancellor share the anger of the people of Taunton and Wellington in finding that not only is the whole new hospital promised by the Conservatives not funded, but that apparently, as we now discover, even the maternity unit might not be funded. On the restoring your railways programme, will the cancellation of projects also apply to those, such as Wellington station, which have already begun funding and have had GRIP—governance for railway investment projects—stage 4 approval?