Matt Rodda MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  The Minister is making an excellent series of points, and I commend him on behalf of 4,000 vulnerable children in Reading for the fantastic support he is offering them and their families. It is much deserved and appreciated by our community. I point out other significant benefits, such as the freezing of rail fares, continued bus fare subsidies, and economic measures that will drive growth across this country.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  The Minister is making an excellent point. May I commend him on his work on the loan charge? Many IT consultants in my constituency and across the Thames valley are grateful to the Treasury for looking into this matter. Many of them felt they were sold schemes that they did not always fully understand, and they are also grateful for the action to tackle inappropriate schemes being marketed at professional people. I thank him for his work on this matter.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Creative Education · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Does he agree that the role of community-based arts organisations is central to supporting our schools? I hope he will also support my campaign to turn Reading Gaol into an arts and heritage hub, which, one day, in showing the possibilities of an arts-based education, may be able to support local schools across the Reading area.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State is making an excellent speech on a very important matter of policy. May I thank her for the outstanding work to reduce the cost of rail travel for my residents in Reading, and residents in many other parts of the country? Will she say a little more about the benefits of contactless, and the significant benefits for residents of smoothing out the very complicated ticketing regime?

• 3 Dec 2025 · Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) for securing today’s important debate. I want to make three brief points in the time that is available to me. First, I will provide some support for the wider principle of investment in rail infrastructure, based on my experience of the benefits of the Elizabeth line in Berkshire. Secondly, I will talk about the potential enhanced benefits for a wider geographical area just beyond the current concept. Thirdly, I will make an appeal to the Minister on exactly that point. It is fair to say that the benefits we have noticed across Berkshire and the other 80-mile stretch covered by the Elizabeth line provide a compelling argument for investment in rail infrastructure. It had £18 billion of capital investment, and after three years, according to the best study on it, generated £42 billion of economic growth—that is in housing, business development and greater connectivity. That can clearly be seen in the Reading area. My constituency, which includes the town centre of Reading, has benefited enormously. We have had a number of business relocate to what were unutilised sites near our station. We have had over £1 billion of investment in the Station Hill redevelopment, which was opened this summer by the leader of our local council. Companies such as Ericsson have moved from out-of-town industrial estates where there are huge problems with traffic and transport into an area of better rail connectivity. A number of Members have mentioned the problem of congestion on country lanes and other related issues. It is worth remembering that one train on the Elizabeth line can transport 800 people. That is the scale of what we are talking about—and something similar is being envisaged for the growth corridor. It allows large numbers of workers to move between different employment centres—whether that is a university or an industrial complex—and from an employer’s point of view, it provides an appealing pool of skilled workers. Ericsson specifically told me they moved to Reading and away from a site in Surrey because of the greater connectivity and the greater pool of skilled workers to work in telecoms. That is a very important point. I strongly support this debate, and I think it is absolutely wonderful to have so many hon. Members here. The one thing I regret is that we are not sat in the order of stations that would benefit, which would have been quite nice—I obviously would have to be at one end, and my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge would be at the other. I will briefly talk about the area south of Oxford and towards Reading. The train from Reading to Oxford takes 25 minutes. A number of my constituents work at Oxford University, Harwell, Culham and various other centres of employment along that route, and equally vice-versa. As the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) described, there is a travel corridor south of Oxford. Opening up the wider line and promoting it would have huge benefits for the wider Thames valley region, and possibly for other routes heading north towards Warwickshire. There is a wider shoulder of the main central core of this project that could benefit significantly, including as far away as Reading. It would be wonderful for that to be emphasised. I appreciate that I am out of time, so my brief request to the Minister is that when officials consider this, they talk to some of the business groups within the Thames valley and think about the wider benefits. Obviously, the core of the line will benefit most, but there is clearly an argument for areas towards the edges to also benefit from the wider connectivity and the shift towards regenerating areas around stations, where there is often a lot of brownfield land and lots of scope for new industrial and business employment. I ask for that to be at the heart of the Government’s thinking.

• 26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent point. Is she ready to move on to the importance of breakfast clubs? Last week, I had the pleasure of welcoming the Prime Minister and the Education Secretary to Reading, where they visited a breakfast club providing excellent support to many children. The programme to expand them is really valuable, as it will invest in our young people and make huge differences to families. It will also help employers by helping mums and dads to get to work earlier.

• 26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech, and I wholeheartedly agree about the appalling damage done by the Conservatives to our economy over 14 years. I wonder whether he would also mention the significant benefit to both employers and employees of the freezing of rail fares, which will make an enormous difference in my community. We have a net input of people commuting into Reading, but like Caerphilly we also have many people who commute to London and other destinations on the railway line. Many residents will benefit, and many employers will also benefit through the increased labour mobility.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill · Hansard source

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  The Minister is making an excellent speech, and I pay tribute to her work and that of the Government in showing UK leadership in this important environmental area. Could she also briefly touch on the importance of working in a multilateral way with partners from around the world, and—perhaps she will move on to this point later in her speech—could she outline how the UK will work with other countries to protect these areas and carry out other important work?

• 17 Nov 2025 · Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way?

• 12 Nov 2025 · Energy · Hansard source

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  I commend the Minister for his speech; I hope my words will reflect the seriousness of the issue in front of us. Does the Minister agree that, sadly, the last Government fell woefully short on building new solar in particular? I think the statistics are very much along the lines of more solar being approved in the first few weeks of the new Labour Government than was approved in the whole term of the last Conservative Government. Will the Minister update me on those figures and provide a little more light and less heat in this debate?

• 11 Nov 2025 · BBC Leadership · Hansard source

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  Staff at the former BBC Monitoring station in Caversham in my constituency played a vital role over many years, monitoring broadcasts from around the world. Indeed, they broke a number of important news stories over the years, including that of the Iranian revolution, which was only possible because of the public service model and the dedication of the staff and their skills. I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement today, but can I ask her to say a few words of thanks to the staff of the BBC for their continued work and for the BBC’s vital role as a public institution?

• 5 Nov 2025 · Curriculum and Assessment Review · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome the review and the Secretary of State’s statement. I am particularly pleased that the Sutton Trust is wholeheartedly behind the review. Will she say a little more about the importance of triple science, and how she hopes that will benefit social mobility across the country?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Supporting High Streets · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent point about the importance of arts and culture in town centres, and of restoring and reclaiming historic buildings to bring a sense of place, to help small traders to flourish, and to bring arts activities to the public and footfall into our town centres. I would commend the work done by Reading borough council to create a similar hub in Reading town centre. I really hope that my hon. Friend continues with his great work.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Supporting High Streets · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech and shows himself to be a true champion for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme. Does he agree that we all ought to talk up our high streets? There is a danger that some on the Conservative Benches are failing to see that, and they are doing real damage to small businesses.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Houses in Multiple Occupation: Planning Consent · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I commend and thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) for securing this important debate. Reading constituents are concerned about this issue. We are lucky to live in a beautiful Victorian town, but sadly many historical streets and local communities are blighted by HMOs. I support more housing, but HMOs are not necessarily the most effective way to provide it. Issues include antisocial behaviour, bins overflowing and parking problems on very narrow Victorian streets. I have heard dreadful reports of noise from student parties linked to HMOs. The noise often carries, particularly in the summer when windows are open at night, and it can cause disruption to many residents over a wide area. I support and commend Reading borough council for introducing article 4 directions. I should declare an interest: I was a councillor in Reading, and I was consulted on implementing HMO article 4 directions. Might it be possible for the Minister to look again at the process for implementing the directives and the way that they work in practice? My experience is that they can be very helpful—councils are often brave to take on HMOs, and I thank Reading borough council for its work on them—but there is still the possibility of HMOs being created within an article 4 direction area. Is it possible to tighten up the article 4 regime to make it even harder for HMOs to operate in such areas? I appreciate that there is a need for them in certain parts of towns, but the clustering effect, particularly on certain streets where there are serious parking and bin issues, among other issues, can be overwhelming for residents. As my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield quite rightly said, HMOs can change the nature of a settled community. Residents often know all their neighbours by their first name and have wonderful relationships on a street, and to have transient residents can cause real challenges.

• 29 Oct 2025 · Independent Lifeboats: Government Support · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I thank the hon. Member for Hamble Valley (Paul Holmes) for securing today’s important debate. I also thank all those who work and volunteer in the independent lifeboat sector, as well as those who support the RNLI. I would like to raise the issue of safety in rivers, although I pay tribute to colleagues who have raised the serious issue of safety at sea. My constituency includes a number of rivers and is densely populated. We have the River Thames, as well as the Kennet, which is one of the major tributaries, and smaller tributaries such as Holy Brook and Foudry Brook. These are all right next to large numbers of people: we have Reading festival every year, with nearly 100,000 visitors; there are people who walk along the Thameside promenade; and we have lots of boaters, and people who enjoy wild swimming and other activities on the river. Sadly, as an inland area with a major river and some tributaries, we do not have the level of provision that we would wish. There are important services provided by the emergency services, such as Thames Valley police and Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue. However, I have been contacted by a resident asking what more could be done in our context, and whether it might be possible to empower local businesses and sports clubs to help rescue anybody who got into difficulty in the river.

• 29 Oct 2025 · Independent Lifeboats: Government Support · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point. Education is a vital part of this. Where local businesses or sports clubs, such as those involved in rowing, canoeing or other activities on the river, have a supply of trained personnel available—not necessarily 24 hours a day, but certainly for large parts of the day—can the Minister look into what scope there is to support them? What more could be done to help those organisations provide a service in the first instance if they spot an emergency happening? I commend one of my constituents who did exactly that. His part-time role as a volunteer is to help ferry people to an island on the River Thames that is used by a local bowls club—it is the only bowls club in the world on an island, as far as we know. He saw somebody fall into the river and went to rescue them. I commend that type of behaviour and I believe that many more people would want to do exactly the same if they saw that happen. In our town centre and nearby areas there are three boatyards, a number of sports clubs and other businesses with access to boats, with trained people who are familiar with handling a small boat and who might be able to rescue somebody at very short notice, before other boats could be launched. I wanted to raise that important matter with the Minister and ask whether she might be able to look into it for me. I also want to mention the growing challenge of people living on boats that are not property registered, and where the Environment Agency and the police have concerns. I have had meetings and I commend our local councillors, the local police and the EA for their work on this matter. In and around our town centre, there are growing numbers of boats where people are living, and there is the danger of incidents related to them. In one of our meetings with these services, we heard about an incident where a boat that had a poorly maintained engine drifted towards a lock, which could have resulted in a tragedy. There have been other sad incidents where there have been problems relating to people living on a river or canal across the country, so I also wanted to raise that and ask whether the Minister has anything to add about trying to enhance safety for people who live on rivers and canals in boats and similar accommodation. Mrs Harris, I appreciate that time is at a premium and I am certainly grateful for the opportunity to speak today. I hope the Minister will be able to answer some of these queries and I look forward to hearing more when she speaks later.

• 27 Oct 2025 · North Sea Oil and Gas Industry · Hansard source

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  It is very important to increase the number of skilled jobs in renewables and in hydrogen. I welcome the Minister’s mention of the Government’s clean jobs plan; can he say more about that plan, and in particular about training and development for younger staff, as well as retraining for existing staff?

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making some interesting points about investment decisions. Has her Committee also investigated why some decisions have been made to bring investment into the UK, such as the recent decision about investment in Oxfordshire? As part of that, is there a parallel need to explore where more could be done to attract further investment through perhaps greater supply of trained workers, better transport, better access to land for development, and so on?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Social Housing: South Cotswolds · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is making an excellent speech and highlights perfectly the pressure on the landscape in southern England. Does she agree that there is a great deal of scope in many towns and even some larger villages for building on brownfield land? In Reading there are a number of examples of this, and I am sure colleagues have examples from their own areas. Brownfield could provide a very valuable resource to help protect the countryside.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Social Housing: South Cotswolds · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Social Housing: South Cotswolds · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Lady have anything she wants to say about the value of good design principles and linking to the existing traditional architecture in specific communities? We have had a great deal of success in our community in preserving the historical brickwork of Reading and encouraging new developments to copy that style, colour and range of bricks. I see that the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr Dillon) is nodding. He has the same local architecture with the same wonderful array of bricks and sometimes use of flints as well. Would the hon. Lady like to see that highlighted and encouraged?

• 16 Oct 2025 · Ada Lovelace Day · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Gentleman agree that there is also an important role for apprenticeships, particularly apprenticeships in the tech sector? There are some excellent apprenticeships of that nature in Reading and the surrounding area. Would he perhaps also offer a few words of support for the Government’s new policy of increasing the number of apprenticeships and setting a much higher target for both apprenticeships and university entrants?

• 11 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker—no pressure. Earlier this week, I was notified that Southern Gas Networks wants to dig up a major road in Reading for 18 weeks. This is the latest in a series of sudden and abrupt interventions by utility companies. Can we have a debate in Government time on the behaviour of utility companies and how better to regulate their activities digging up roads?

• 11 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. The £1 billion regeneration scheme at Station Hill in Reading is bringing large numbers of jobs and new housing to Reading town centre, and that is due to the Elizabeth line. Will the Minister update the House on the benefits of this wonderful railway line, both to Berkshire and across the country?