Matt Rodda MP: speeches

Speeches

• 4 Mar 2025 · Plan for Neighbourhoods · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his statement and welcome the overall thrust of this important area of policy, which puts communities at the heart of regeneration and investment. I have a couple of questions for the Minister. I appreciate that Reading has unfortunately missed out this time around, and I hope we are successful in the future. Could he explain how successful initiatives, such as high street action zones, will be incorporated into this sort of work? Similarly, how will the Government incorporate assets of community value and other local matters that have helped communities to rebuild and re-energise their areas?

• 3 Mar 2025 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent point and an excellent speech. He is right to highlight the importance of housing, in terms of both quality of life and labour mobility, as well as the many other benefits to the economy. I commend the good example of Reading, where many brownfield sites are being redeveloped. The hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) may wish to visit Berkshire to see how well we are rebuilding our town centres, as are many other cities and towns around the country.

• 24 Feb 2025 · Crown Estate Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to contribute this evening. I will speak in favour of the Bill and address some of the amendments and new clauses, although there probably is not time to address them all. The Bill is an important and necessary step to help the Government take speedy action to tackle the climate emergency, and to help ensure energy security. It modernises the management of the Crown Estate, as we have heard, which potentially is a sleeping giant of green energy provision. The estate is responsible for vast amounts of coastal land and seabed, which have enormous potential to deliver wind power and other renewables. Tackling the climate emergency is a significant challenge, but it is achievable. However, we need to step up to the challenge, and the Bill is part of a wider transformation of Government policy to do exactly that. As we heard in Committee, the Bill is urgently needed because although the Crown Estate has enormous potential, the rules governing its management are unduly restrictive. For example, the Crown Estate Act 1961, which governs the estate’s management of its resources, sets out rules that would now be deemed inappropriate for holding very large cash balances. That makes it difficult for the Crown Estate to work with private investors to develop new wind energy and to transmit urgently needed new power to the grid. There is a clear need for these measures. I hope that, after sufficient debate, it is time for the Bill to make further progress. I would like to support the Minister by briefly pointing out the inherent errors of some of the new clauses and amendments. New clause 5 seeks Treasury approval for the disposal of more than 10% of the Crown Estate’s assets. Clearly, that would reduce flexibility for the Crown Estate in managing its estate and business. New clause 6 would require the Chancellor to lay any partnership agreement between the Crown Estate and GB Energy before Parliament. However, as we have heard, partnership agreements are normally commercially sensitive, and there could be a risk to further business if that was carried out. Let me turn briefly to the amendments. Amendment 3, which in my opinion is misconstrued, would require the commissioners to assess the adequacy of protections against coastal erosion in areas affected by their offshore activities. However, the UK already has a whole series of dedicated statutory bodies in each of the devolved Administrations that are tasked with exactly that activity. Equally, amendment 5 is unnecessary. It would ask the Crown Estate when reviewing the impact of its work to consider the impact on net zero targets, regional economic development and energy security. However, it is clear that the whole Bill is intended to tackle the challenge of addressing and eventually reaching net zero. Referencing specific targets risks further complicating what is already an important Bill that has had considerable discussion in Committee. As my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary said at an earlier stage, this is an important Bill to help the UK achieve our climate targets, and it is a significant step forward in helping us retain energy security. It is time for the whole House to support it.

• 24 Feb 2025 · Breakfast Clubs: Early Adopters · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for her important policy announcement, and I thank her in particular for the investment in Caversham Park and St Anne’s Catholic primary schools in my constituency. Can she give any further details of the evaluation of the programme over time?

• 12 Feb 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I presume that my hon. Friend is moving on to a range of other benefits of AI. Has he considered the importance of AI in supporting medical and scientific research? There is a great deal of evidence to show that the power of AI applied to this area could speed up the development of new drugs and many other treatments. In addition to diagnostics, that is an important aspect of the benefits of AI to medicine, and is not always reported well in the media.

• 12 Feb 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  First, I offer my deepest condolences to the family concerned. In my constituency I also had a challenging case where a young boy lost his life. It is entirely appropriate that the Government are taking this forward, and I commend Ministers for their work on it and also thank the hon. Gentleman for his work on this important matter.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Youth Provision: Universal and Targeted Support · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. May I just say how wonderful this debate is? I very much appreciate my hon. Friend’s work in securing it. I also commend the work of the voluntary sector, of local authorities, and of church groups and other faith communities. In particular, they provide much-needed targeted support on very difficult issues such as mental health. That is much appreciated in many communities across the country.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

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  I commend the Minister’s approach, because it is excellent that we have certainty. The Government are supporting local councils to make wise budgeting decisions and to invest in all the crucial things that we all want to see in our communities, including more help for vulnerable people, the important work on children, and infrastructure improvements such as new cycle lanes and better parks. Those are all valuable contributions to our communities, so I thank him for that.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way on that point?

• 5 Feb 2025 · High Street Retailers · Hansard source

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  Could the Minister provide a brief update on progress towards reforming business rates? It is a popular policy with many small businesses—particularly independent retailers in my area, who appreciate the Government’s work on this matter. They would be grateful for further updates.

• 5 Feb 2025 · High Street Retailers · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Member agree that this is also about a series of relationships between local councils, small businesses and others to try to enhance town centres? For example, in my area, Reading borough council is working hard at getting improvements to paving and other visual improvements in the town centre to help to support small businesses. That is a valid initiative, which will hopefully help to attract more people into our town centre.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Charter for Budget Responsibility · Hansard source

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  It is a great pleasure to speak in the debate and something of a privilege to be the only Back-Bench speaker. I shall make a series of points, including welcoming the Chancellor’s commitment to growth and the announcements that she made today before moving on to a number of other areas. I commend what the Chancellor said this morning in Oxfordshire and, in particular, what she said about the importance of investment in infrastructure for the long term, whether in transport, new powers to streamline the planning process or indeed attracting more tech investment to the UK. My Reading Central constituency and the whole of Berkshire benefits enormously from such investment, so I wholeheartedly welcome her announcements and commend her for her work on that. If I may, I will somewhat cheekily ask the Chief Secretary to take a few points back to the Chancellor. In our area, we are looking for further investment to drive economic growth. I will highlight a couple of points of local importance. In particular, the western rail link to Heathrow scheme is supported by all Berkshire MPs and colleagues from across a much wider area. Heathrow airport is unusual in being a hub airport in western Europe without a rail link in both directions. A number of local authorities, parliamentary colleagues and the rail industry have pushed for this measure, which, compared with some points discussed in the Chancellor’s speech and more widely in the House this afternoon, would require only modest investment. A short stretch of railway line from Langley, just outside Slough, into the airport, where space for a station already exists, would significantly cut journey times for workers at the airport, commuters and many others, and attract business to Berkshire. The scheme is supported by local business groups. To give an idea of the importance to Reading, at the moment it takes around 50 minutes from Reading station to travel to Heathrow by bus, but it would be just 15 minutes with a rail link. Many of the firms relocating to the Reading area from across the country would be encouraged further by that and have far greater connectivity to international markets through swift access to Heathrow. Equally, it would appeal to inward investors coming to our part of England. There would be an additional benefit—the Chief Secretary may know well know about this—for travellers from the west of England and south Wales in vastly speeding up their journeys to Heathrow airport. I want to flag that up to him. May I ask the Chief Secretary to relay to the Chancellor my wholehearted support for the Oxford-Cambridge corridor? The area that I represent sits at the south-western edge of that corridor. Given the excellent rail and road connections between Reading, Berkshire and Oxford—it takes as little as 25 minutes to get from Reading town centre to Oxford city centre by rail—that route could extend the corridor, which will run through Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, as the Chancellor highlighted. Indeed, the rail corridor into Berkshire and through southern Oxfordshire passes Culham, an area of significant science investment that was formerly the site of the UK and Europe’s Joint European Torus project. It also runs through Didcot, which is a major centre of inward investment, as well as to Reading. There would be enormous benefit to residents and businesses in Oxfordshire and to businesses in Berkshire if that were seen as a whole, rather than the line stopping in Oxford. I hope that he will take that back to his colleagues. I appreciate that many colleagues may want to speak later on the welfare cap motion, so I will limit my remarks and not stray too far. I would, however, like to describe some of the benefits to the Berkshire local economy of the stability that the Chief Secretary outlined. We have a fundamentally strong local economy; we are lucky to have high levels of growth relative to other parts of the UK. We face the same challenges as areas from across the country, which he outlined earlier: the importance of stability and long-term investment, and making sure that businesses understand that there is stability so that they invest and spend their own money creating jobs. Let me draw out some examples from local businesses. I represent a constituency that has high tech and telecoms employment. Something like 300,000 people work in those sectors in the county of Berkshire. In Reading, there is a significant cluster near the station, which has been fostered not just by the rebuilding of the station but by Reading being the western terminus of the Elizabeth line. That has led to a significant number of employers moving to the town centre. It is a good example of the benefits of investment that the Chancellor talked about earlier, and of the importance of high-speed rail and other improvements to rail and public transport, to connect major centres of employment and allow employers to recruit from a much wider pool. That is exactly the message I have been told when visiting employers in that area. They have based themselves near the station because they can access a much wider pool of workers with higher levels of skill, and that drives productivity and growth in their business. There are strong local examples which, at microeconomic level, make the point that the Chief Secretary has made today. Let me also draw the House’s attention to the importance of education, which the Chief Secretary hinted at, to managing public finances. In my experience, having a university in the constituency is a huge driver of economic activity, particularly for creating a skilled workforce, who often wish to remain in the constituency. That is certainly the case for many places the Chancellor described in her speech, particularly the great university cities of Oxford and Cambridge. It also applies to London and many other centres such as Manchester. Higher education is central. It must be linked with employment and offer the right programmes to attract a wider range of young people into higher education. It was a privilege to meet staff at Reading University recently. They briefed me on some of their work to encourage young people from families who traditionally might not have thought about going to university to consider higher education at their local university. That is an important part of the bigger picture. I commend the Chief Secretary for his wider approach on the importance of investment and stability linked to investment, in transport infrastructure, as well as IT and tech infrastructure such as data centres, and a range of other forms of infrastructure. Let me move on to some of the points made earlier. It is important to note that we are at a turning point. We have had a long period of low growth. The Government are right to make growth their top priority, to move on from 14 years of historically low growth compared with the UK average over the past 40 or 50 years and going back to the industrial revolution. The Chief Secretary rightly made the connection between growth and investment, and so did the Chancellor today. I welcome and wholeheartedly support the Chancellor’s emphasis on releasing pension savings to drive economic growth. That has been a successful policy both in Canada and in Australia. Although they are much bigger countries and have more natural resources, they have significant similarities to the UK—the benefit of English common law and many other historical advantages of our system and history. There are some important points to be made on that front. Above all, we must avoid the mistakes of recent years—the instability, the disastrous mini-Budget, the gambling with public finances and the lack of transparency. The Chief Secretary is right to commend this charter today. I will draw out two particular points to flag to the House that I think are vital. The first is reporting on capital investment, which is an important measure in the charter. The second is in-year pressures, which, from the point of view of managing public finances, is vital. As he rightly said, it will allow policymakers much greater insight into what is happening in near-real time, which is important in avoiding future problems. I commend those measures. In summary, the macro-level changes that we have described today will do a great deal to support my local small business, as well as larger investors coming into my constituency. I wholeheartedly support and welcome the measures set out today, and I am grateful for the opportunity to speak.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Charter for Budget Responsibility · Hansard source

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  I should like to ask my right hon. Friend some further questions on the points he is making. The Elizabeth line demonstrates the case that he is making for the importance of place-based investment and the way in which houses, flats and businesses have been built near stations. There has been a combination of public and private investment in the project, which is arguably part of its success. So I welcome the points he is making about the longevity of the infrastructure investment, the role of the joint investment or co-ordinated investment with the private sector and, above all, the place-based nature of this. The role of Patrick Vallance, in particular, is an important one in that corridor. I would also urge my right hon. Friend again to look at the far ends of the corridor, both at the Oxfordshire and Berkshire end and also possibly towards Norwich and further into East Anglia. I know that a former Minister in the previous Government has been highlighting the potential benefits of investment along rail in East Anglia.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Charter for Budget Responsibility · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is making an excellent speech. Will she also reflect on the disastrous impacts on pensions savings, and particularly on people who were drawing their defined contribution pensions at that point in time? Some of my constituents had awful experiences, which they relayed to me.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Road Safety: Schools · Hansard source

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  I commend the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth) for her work on this important issue, and I offer my condolences to the family of her constituent. My hon. Friend is making an excellent point, and there are examples of such schemes around the country. There are several in Reading, and we have certainly benefited from exactly that type of measure. However, I gently suggest that the wider area needs to be considered. There can sometimes be a build-up of traffic on the edge of the school streets zone. My experience of the Reading examples is that integrating such schemes with other measures, such as the 20 mph zone, can help to reduce the risk of accidents and pollution. Does my hon. Friend agree with that point?

• 28 Jan 2025 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. Her comments on this point will be welcomed by many of our local residents. Will she provide further information about the greater powers for Ofwat?

• 28 Jan 2025 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for securing today’s debate. Is he suggesting that the Ministry of Defence needs to completely change its culture and processes in the way it liaises with these important and innovative companies? Certainly that appears to be the issue in my constituency, where there are many very innovative SMEs.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Public Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  In my constituency, there is an excellent small renewable scheme, and I wish to raise that with the Minister and perhaps point out the need for further similar schemes elsewhere. It is a low-head hydro scheme on the River Thames in the village of Caversham, where several hundred users benefit from cheaper electricity. However, there were significant obstacles to setting up the scheme. May I meet my hon. Friend to explain those issues? There are many other weirs along the River Thames. Most of them are not used for such schemes, yet almost all of them are potentially suitable sites for this type of wonderful renewable energy, which offers residents in rural areas a cheaper form of energy.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Public Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent point about rural bus services in Oxfordshire. My seat of Reading Central has a boundary with Oxfordshire, and we have noticed in our area that the complete withdrawal of services by Oxfordshire county council was a terrible mistake. Luckily, Reading Buses, a council-run company, serves some of the neighbouring parts of Oxfordshire, near Reading, including villages like Sonning Common, but I have enormous sympathy for his residents in the northern part of the county. I offer my support to those local companies that are obviously doing a very good job.

• 21 Jan 2025 · Armed Forces Commissioner Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent point about both independence and the need for flexibility. Does he agree that the recently discovered serious problems with service housing might have been addressed better and sooner if there had been an independent figure whom service families as well as serving members of armed forces could approach?

• 21 Jan 2025 · Environmental Protection · Hansard source

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  It is always a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). I wholeheartedly support the Minister and the Government on this important matter. I want to highlight a few brief points in the time I have available, and underline the points made by many other Members about the importance of tackling litter, tidying up, making communities seem loved and helping local residents, as well as the important complementary point about protecting wildlife. Bottles and other packaging are a menace to small mammals, fish and other wildlife, and an eyesore in rivers and on the coast. That needs to be tackled, so I wholeheartedly welcome the measures. I will cover three points: I will discuss an aspect of the difficult work under way to tackle the problem of litter, highlight the growing scale of the challenge of litter, and underline the importance of behaviour change, which is rightly at the heart of the Government’s policy. May I, like other Members, say a few words of thanks to the wonderful volunteers and organisations in my area that carry out admirable work to deal with litter? Much of that work is completely unpaid and unrewarded in any financial way, but it gives people a huge sense of wellbeing, and they have the support and understanding of their communities for tackling litter. Keep Caversham Tidy is a local group set up by a group of friends during the pandemic. Since then, it has flourished, and I had the pleasure of going out to help the group. Its work illustrates the practical problems that local authorities and voluntary groups face. When we were clearing up in Christchurch Meadows in Caversham, near the River Thames in Reading, we could see a lot of deeply embedded waste, including drinks cans and bottles, buried behind park benches and logs in the large park. That litter could have caused damage to wildlife, and it was an eyesore and a menace to residents using the park. There was also a risk of it getting into the River Thames, and once waste is in a river, it can travel out to sea and cause untold damage there. Good work is undertaken by many local groups in the Reading area, particularly by Katesgrove Community Association, which has dealt with two fly-tipped piles of rubbish in the last couple of days, despite the cold weather. The work of those volunteers supports the enormous amount of work undertaken by landowners and local authorities. That work is unrelenting. Our council takes the issue extremely seriously. It has driven up the recycling rate to well over 50% and introduced food waste recycling, along with other measures. It will shortly introduce doorstep glass recycling, although some glass will not be covered by the scheme. However, the council struggles enormously because of a whole series of practical problems; I will come to that later. It even has a lorry that drives round Reading constantly picking up fly-tipped waste that is reported. That is the scale of the problem that it is trying to tackle. To give an illustration, I was recently talking to residents in Waldeck Street, near Whitley Street council estate in Reading, and we could see piles of fly-tipped rubbish, including household waste, bottles and other forms of packaging. There is a link, as was highlighted earlier, between fly-tipping and drinks cartons and containers. The Minister is on the right path in giving people an incentive to recycle, so that waste does not get into the illegal waste stream, including through fly-tipping. The evidence from around the world is really clear. I remember the tail end of the scheme that the hon. Member for Strangford describes; there was an incentive in the UK to return bottles as recently as the 1980s or ’90s. Let us go back to that.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Farmland Flooding · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for securing this debate, which is important not only to rural communities and farmers, but to people living downstream in larger towns. Does he agree that the sort of discussions that he describes need to be held with landowners quite far up the catchment area, towards the top of a large river catchment? For example, for our area in the Thames valley, the ideal position would be that farmers in the Cotswolds or in the northern part of Oxfordshire are consulted about this, rather than farmers further downstream in the central part of Berkshire.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Farmland Flooding · Hansard source

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  The Minister makes an excellent point. In my area, a major flood prevention scheme in Caversham, which is part of the Greater Reading area, has unfortunately been deferred. However, there is some good news regarding the point that she and the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew) made about landowners working together. I visited Kennet meadows and Fobney meadows, and saw three different landowners working together to rewild a flood meadow to enhance the land’s ability to soak up water. Much can be done if central Government and local government play a leading role in co-ordinating work with landowners, and build a team approach at a local level.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Farmland Flooding · Hansard source

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