Lewis Cocking
MP for Broxbourne · Conservative · United Kingdom
“What would the Secretary of State say to my constituents in Broxbourne, who never asked for this reorganisation and are concerned that it is just a waste of time and money that will leave them with higher council tax bills and less say over local planning decisions?”
“Businesses such as hotels, ice cream parlours and fisheries have been hit hard by the increase the employer national insurance and by burdensome regulations. Business rates have increased—in some cases massively and seemingly arbitrarily.”
“They include poor or sometimes non-existent transport links, unemployment and changes to a once-reliable and profitable seasonal trade, a lack of housing supply, and large disparities in income, which mean that many people cannot afford to live in the places where they grew up.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. It is a huge privilege to wind up the debate on behalf of the official Opposition. I thank the hon. Member for Isle of Wight West (Richard Quigley) for securing this very important debate.”
“I fondly remember trips to places such as Clacton, Bournemouth, Great Yarmouth and Southend. From my visits to many of our seaside towns, and from hearing hon. Members’ testimonies, it is apparent that those places face unique challenges. Unfortunately, many of them have experienced decline in recent decades.”
“Ultimately, our coastal communities and the whole United Kingdom deserve better. We need a Government who cut rather than increase taxes, reward rather than punish aspiration and success, prioritise quality housing for local people rather than HMOs for illegal asylum seekers, and put the interests of ordinary British people first, not lea…”
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Every one of 545 lines we hold for Lewis Cocking, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 10 of 11.
“My hon. Friend is making an excellent contribution and I support what he is saying. We must get benefit fraud down and I support some of the measures in the Bill. On the point he has just raised, does he agree that this is only one side of the coin in dealing with benefits in this country? Of course, we must do everything we can to get benefit fraud down, but the other side of the coin is encouraging people to go back to work, because the best form of welfare is having a well-paid job.”
“Economies grow and jobs are created when individuals are able to take risks and invest in their ideas, so what have the Government done specifically since the general election to help more people in my constituency of Broxbourne become entrepreneurs?”
“I draw attention to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Since I was elected, I have heard countless times from parents across Broxbourne that the special educational needs system is too difficult to navigate and all too often just does not work. What action is the Minister taking to improve the confidence of parents in the SEN system?”
“Labour’s devolution White Paper also pledges to legislate to create a ministerial direction power to force such restructuring through. This is not bottom-up reorganisation. Ministers have an obligation under the 1997 resolution on ministerial accountability to give accurate answers to Parliament. I seek your advice, Madam Deputy Speaker, on whether contradictory answers are compatible with that resolution.”
“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. My point of order relates to comments by Ministers on their plans to impose local government restructuring. At oral questions on 20 January, the Minister for Local Government and English Devolution asserted: “The Government are not requiring any area to reorganise…this is a bottom-up reorganisation being requested by local councils”. —[ Official Report , 20 January 2025; Vol. 760, c. 720-721.] However, in answer to a written question on 16 January, the same Minister wrote: “All levels of local government have a part to play in bringing improved structures to their area through reorganisation, and we expect all councils in an area to work together to develop unitary proposals”.”
“I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Some of the areas that we are looking at are still two-tier areas. Will the Minister outline the Government’s approach? Can two-tier areas create combined authorities, or is it the Government’s ambition that new combined authorities will be created only in areas that are wholly made up of unitary councils?”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a local councillor. Does my hon. Friend agree that if we have more people processing these claims, and we process these claims even quicker, more people will come? That is actually a pull factor, because they can get through the system much more quickly than they have been.”
“I urge the Minister to put the words “smash the gangs” into action by getting a proper deterrent in place, ensuring that every failed asylum seeker is removed, closing all the asylum hotels and significantly cutting immigration.”
“The downward trend that was started by the last Government has been reversed, and since the general election, 14 more hotels have been taken over for the purpose. Hotels were supposed to be a temporary measure, but they are starting to feel anything but temporary to my residents in Broxbourne. The Minister has said that nine hotels are scheduled to close by March, but I have my doubts that the Government will meet that commitment. The Government have failed to take the necessary steps to deter the number of asylum seekers coming to this country illegally in the first place. Small boat crossings are up since July, and so are the number of cases awaiting a decision in the asylum backlog.”
“Ultimately, it is only by deterring people from coming to the UK illegally in the first place that we will be able to get a grip on the asylum system and the immigration system. The Labour manifesto promised to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers, but the Government have been more focused on delivering promises that were not in their manifesto: increasing national insurance on business, imposing the family farm tax and stripping winter fuel payments from pensioners. I am seriously disappointed that, in January 2025, we are discussing the reopening of hotels for asylum seeker accommodation. There were 35,651 people in hotel accommodation at the end of September, up 21% from the end of June 2024. That is a 21% increase since Labour was elected on a manifesto commitment to end the use of asylum hotels.”
“The hotel in Cheshunt has since supported one of the highest numbers of asylum seekers in the east of England, while Hertfordshire as a whole was the individual council with the most hotels housing asylum seekers in 2023. The situation we are discussing is plainly unsustainable, with millions of pounds a day being spent on these hotels across the country. My constituents have been feeling the impact on already overstretched public services. You cannot get your child into the school you want and you have to wait longer to see a GP locally. I welcomed the actions that the last Government took to reduce reliance on asylum hotels, but there is no getting around the fact that my party made mistakes. However, it is definitely getting worse under this new Labour Government.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. My comments today need to be viewed in the context of my interest as a local councillor. My constituents in Broxbourne have borne the brunt of this policy in recent years. I hear loud and clear on the doorstep how angry they feel. The Home Office took control of the Marriott hotel in Cheshunt in 2022. It was just one of three hotels in my constituency at the time. In my general election campaign, I said I would fight daily to ensure that the hotel was closed to asylum seekers; and when I was leader of Broxbourne council, I fought tooth and nail to prevent another two sites within my constituency being used as asylum accommodation.”
“Will the Minister outline her Government’s policy and what she is going to do? She has given us a history lesson on what has happened, but what are the Labour Government going to do moving forward? Can she give us a date for when they are going to meet their manifesto commitment to close the last asylum hotel?”
“We need to have a discussion about the capacity of the grid if we are going to do this. I know that the Bill focuses specifically on new build properties, but surely it is a good thing to be able to use the rooftops of all the large data centres and warehouses that are already available.”
“I am all for taking on developers and ensuring that they pay for their section 106 negotiations and do their community work, and standing up for the residents we all represent. However, during many of the negotiations when I led the council, developers told me that they wanted to put solar panels on more houses but the distribution network operator had told them that there was not enough capacity. I said that no one would be able to see the top of the data centre, so why not cover the whole thing in solar panels? Why would anyone not want to do that? Why would anyone not support it? That was my negotiating position. The developers went away and had discussions with the DNO, which said that they could have only 25% because there was not enough capacity for more and the system would not be able to cope.”
“I congratulate the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson) on his Bill. I do have some reservations about it, which I will go into shortly, but I am minded to support it today because this is a much better policy than the current Government line about having large-scale solar farms on all our farmland throughout the United Kingdom. I would much rather solar panels were put on new builds, and councils already have some powers enabling them to do that. Broxbourne council, which I used to lead, has engaged in extensive negotiations with developers, particularly at High Leigh, where we have managed to get solar panels on some of the houses. A large data centre is also being built, and we have managed to put some solar panels on that. As I have said, I do have some concerns.”
“We also need to look at distribution network operators and capacity, to make sure we can really harness the energy, but as this proposal is much better than having large-scale solar farms plastered all over our green belt and the countryside, I am minded to support the Bill’s Second Reading.”
“As other Members have said, it is increasingly frustrating when we drive past a development to see a roof with only two solar panels on it, after the developers have gone through the whole cost of putting up the scaffolding and building the house. I suspect that is because of the issues around capacity, which we definitely need to look into, but come on. If they are already putting solar panels on half the roof, they should fill the whole roof with them, because that does not just help them; if they can sell the green electricity back to the grid, it helps everybody. I have some reservations about where the money will come from. I would not want it to come from the resources that would have gone on schools, education and roads through section 106 agreements, so we need to look at that.”
“There are issues around viability, which I will not go into now, but I would not want to see developers telling their local councils and communities, “We can’t give you money for the new school or the doctor’s surgery because we’ve got to put solar panels on housing.” We need to give some thought to how that will work, because we all want the most community money possible for the roads, schools and GP surgeries that must come with new developments. There will be some homes for which solar panels are not suitable. I am fully supportive of panels being installed on buildings that have an east-west facing roof, or on a block of flats. Where it is practical to do that, of course we should do it.”
“Member for Cheltenham to consider that, because if we are taking this one step in installing solar panels, perhaps we should take one further step and require people to have battery storage as well. I am concerned about the red tape we are going to create for new development. As I said, I am all for taking on developers—I see some councillors and former councillors in the Chamber, who have probably all had vociferous discussions like the ones I have had with developers about them doing their bit—but I am concerned about the pushback we might get in discussions on section 106 agreements.”
“I was about to mention battery technology, so I ask the hon. Gentleman to wait just a few seconds. The Bill does go quite far in that its ambition relates to all houses, but I think we should go further. If we are putting solar panels on houses, we should require those houses to have battery storage as well, which might solve some of the problems involving grid connection and there being sufficient capacity. Battery technology is a bit behind solar panel technology in terms of efficiency, and it is not quite there yet on cost-effectiveness, but we are definitely getting there. For example, it is more cost-effective to use the electricity in an electric car than to send it back to the grid. I urge the hon.”
“I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. In the devolution White Paper, the Government set half a million people as the appropriate size for these new councils. Can the Minister therefore rule out creating big super-councils that represent more than a million people? Will he meet me to discuss devolution and local government reorganisation in Hertfordshire?”
“I had a meeting with a state school in my constituency that said the changes will be damaging because it gets a grant from a private school, which will have to be cut to deal with the impact of VAT. That state school, which is in a genuinely working-class community, will be £200,000 a year worse off under this policy. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is terrible?”
“The Government have said time and again that they want to smash the criminal gangs that illegally smuggle illegal migrants into the UK, yet the Government cannot even smash the gangs that smuggle drugs and phones into our prisons. How can my residents trust the Government to smash these gangs?”
“I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Drivers in my constituency are sick to death of the endless road closures and temporary traffic lights when no works are taking place. Will the Minister demand that utility companies do everything in their power to get roads open as quickly as possible, particularly when they have dug them up under the emergency procedure?”
“I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, and I thank everyone who has been out helping over the past few days. Every time there is heavy rainfall or a storm, roads all across Broxbourne flood, from Stanstead Abbotts to Waltham Cross. What action will the Minister’s Department take to decrease flooding events in built-up areas? We in Broxbourne have not always seen the good side of the Environment Agency, so what can we do to increase its accountability as well?”
“I place on record my thanks to my two district councils, which I wholeheartedly support: Broxbourne and East Herts. Page 17 of the White Paper states that the Government want to create unitary councils of “500,000 or more”. What does “or more” mean? Does that mean I could end up with a “super council” for Hertfordshire covering 1.2 million people, which is not a proposal that I would support?”
“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. When I spoke earlier on the English devolution White Paper, I forgot to alert the House to my entry on the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a Hertfordshire county councillor. I wanted to correct the record at my earliest opportunity.”
“Nothing in this statement outlines the new powers for councils to build development infrastructure—including roads, schools and GP surgeries—before new housing. What powers will my local councils of Broxbourne and East Hertfordshire get to build development infrastructure before these massive housing targets are forced upon them?”
“The data I have seen that has been shared across the sector says that about 98% of stores have a rateable value below £500,000. If the limits are set at £500,000 and £51,000, it will significantly support those. The majority of that 98% have a rateable value below £51,000 as well. I cannot remember the first question, I am sorry.”
“Q Thank you for coming in today to give evidence. You have said that the Bill is going to make smaller stores more viable, and that it will affect your bigger stores. Can you give us a flavour of what that means for your business, and whether it will put you off doing bigger stores and make you concentrate on smaller stores? You have done analysis of where the Bill is beneficial to you, but have you done any wider analysis of what it means for the totality of the high street? Paul Gerrard: In terms of broader analysis, we supply about 7,500 stores, including our own 2,500 stores. I would not term it deep analysis, but our impression from the conversations that we have is that the Bill will support those kind of shops—not just our own, but shops in local communities.”
“Q The first question was about whether it would put you off doing bigger stores and make you concentrate on smaller stores. Will you give us a flavour of what the Bill means for your business? Paul Gerrard: Thank you. We are very much a convenience business, so the average size of our stores is about 3,000 square feet. I can think of a couple of stores that are bigger, but they are very much legacy stores from many years ago. In general, our approach is to open small stores—convenience stores—so the question about how the Bill will affect our decision to open bigger stores does not really apply. We are very much a small store operator.”
“Others might have to say, “Look, the cumulative impact of the costs that we are facing is big, so we have to use that money in the space of continuing to trade.” That is starker with small business rate relief—about a quarter of the retailers say they use small business rate relief to be able to stay trading, with the changing operating environment as well. Different businesses will make different operational decisions about how they use the money. Some will try to address that cumulative burden and others will invest in other locations. I do not have a figure for the entire sector on how they will allocate that.”
“Q In answer to the first question, you said that businesses could save approximately £1,000 or £3,000 depending on size, and then went on to say where they could use that money to make investments in their business or what have you. The businesses I speak to in Broxbourne say that they will have to put that money aside for other measures in the Budget, and in your answer you alluded to businesses being worried about the other measures in the Budget. How do those two marry up? Obviously, with those savings, they cannot invest in their business and put money aside for the other measures in the Budget. What proportion of your members are saying each one of those things? Edward Woodall: That is a good observation. Some of them might take that to invest in additional service provision or the things in the Bill that I described.”
“Q Have you asked your members that question? Edward Woodall: We talk to them all the time about such questions. Perhaps it is something we can address in our written evidence to the Committee.”
“Because of that partnership between state and private schools, academic standards have been transformed. We have had new classrooms constructed, and in 2022 Haileybury Turnford was judged by Ofsted to be “good” for the first time in the school’s history.”
“But thanks to a unique partnership with Haileybury, an independent school in my constituency, the tide began to turn. In 2015 the school was relaunched as Haileybury Turnford academy, with Haileybury as the sole sponsor. A generous annual improvement grant was established worth £200,000 a year; that has gone on for about five years, so more than £1 million has gone directly into that state school in my constituency. That has enabled Turnford to recruit much-needed staff and retain high-quality specialist teachers. Haileybury also gives additional financial support for Turnford’s SEN students and provides opportunities for a wide breadth of academic and extracurricular activities, such as supporting programmes for gifted and talented pupils.”
“I am a Hertfordshire county councillor, and it is that authority that will have to pick up the pieces if parents cannot afford the VAT on private schools or if private schools close. A bit like in the farming debate, I have a specific example from my constituency that tears down the Government’s argument on adding VAT to private school fees. Turnford was a secondary school in my constituency in decline. Academic standards and behaviour were poor and the quality of teaching was inconsistent, leading to students becoming demotivated and achieving less than the national expectations. Staff suffered from low morale and there were significant recruitment challenges. The school buildings, on a poorly laid-out site, were dilapidated.”
“Ministers think that their policy will impact only the rich, but for nearly a decade a genuinely working-class community in my constituency has benefited from a state school and an independent school working together, which is exactly the kind of partnership that we should be encouraging. We should not be encouraging the politics of envy. Sadly, the changes that the Government are introducing through the Bill will bring all that to an end.”
“I thank the hon. Member. If he just waits for the next part of my speech, he may get the answer to his intervention. The Government’s plan will put all that at risk. Notably, Haileybury is planning to absorb as much of the financial hit as it can, rather than place the extra burden on parents. To do so, it must look at reducing expenditure and therefore its ability to offer financial support to Haileybury Turnford, painfully contradicting the Government’s argument that their policy will result in more spending on state school pupils. It is not just about money; greater financial pressures on Haileybury will inevitably lead to staff having less time and resources available to share with Turnford, and fewer opportunities for state school students at Haileybury Turnford as a result.”
“Thousands of them from across the country, including my constituency and the wider Hertfordshire area, came to Westminster to show their displeasure with the Government, so will Labour Members please think again, vote with us today and stand up for their farmers?”
“If this one farm had remained in the original seat before the general election, it would now be represented by a Labour Member, but it is not: it moved into my constituency and it is represented by a Conservative Member. I asked this farmer, when I went to visit them, if they are completely against this policy. They said, “Yep, absolutely, Lewis. This will destroy our family farm.” I asked them if, pre-boundary changes, they were in their old seat and had a Labour Member of Parliament, their view would still be the same. They said to me, “Don’t be so silly, Lewis; of course it would be the same.” So I do not understand which farmers Labour Members are speaking to, because their views cannot be different from the views of my farmers.”
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Broxbourne is not known for its farms, but this year’s boundary changes have seen my agricultural land increase. This tax will also affect thousands of my constituents through the supply chain and buying food at supermarkets. However, I want to concentrate on something we keep hearing from Labour Members. We are told that the farmers represented by Opposition MPs or Conservative MPs are completely against the policy, and we are told time and again by Labour Members, as a number have stood up to say today, that they have spoken to their farmers, who seem happy about it, and they are going to vote with the Government. So I thought I would go out there and put that to the test. As I have said, my seat has had boundary changes and farms have moved into my constituency.”
“In first-past-the-post elections, it is clear who will be in power and who will be in opposition. As we saw in the recent general election, it is possible for voters to change who governs them if that is the choice they wish to make. Finally, I remind the House that the British people have made clear their opposition to proportional representation. In 2011, 13 million people voted to remain—sorry, to retain. [ Interruption. ] It was less people than voted for that. In 2011, 13 million people voted to retain the first-past-the-post system, and at the last general election neither of the largest two parties proposed a change in the electoral system. For those reasons, I think it would plainly be wrong to make any changes to elections in the United Kingdom. Question put (Standing Order No. 23).”
“Voters want strong Governments who can deliver the policies in their manifestos, not the chaos of constant disagreement and repeated elections. Under proportional representation, the party that receives the most votes does not automatically or quickly form the next Government. Instead, as we are seeing now in Ireland, political parties go behind locked doors to do deals among themselves. Discussions last for months after the general election has taken place—that is plainly undemocratic—and voters are given no further say. When a coalition agreement eventually comes, it satisfies no one. Under the first-past-the-post system, each party presents its policies to the British people at the general election. That is the basis on which votes are cast in our general elections.”
“Under our current system, I can represent my home of Broxbourne. Every one of my neighbours—whether they have an issue with their housing, their pension or anything else—knows who to turn to. There is a clear link that would simply be lost under a more proportional system. Having a sole representative for a small constituency allows each of us in this place to remain grounded, and ensures that every corner of our United Kingdom is properly represented. There is also a simplicity and stability in the results that emerge from our first-past-the-post general elections. For the most part, first past the post produces Governments with clear workable majorities that can last the full length of their term.”
“In a more proportional system, such as the single transferable vote system advocated by some across the House, constituencies would be represented by multiple Members of Parliament from various parties. Clearly, that would polarise our communities, and voters might contact only the MP they had voted for, which would absolve us of our duty to represent all our constituents. It would be far too difficult for voters to get to know the several politicians representing their area, and to hold them to account at the next general election. Constituents struggling with complex issues may already have exhausted other options. We do not want to make them ask which MP they should contact as well. First past the post creates a strong connection, for good or bad, between residents and their representatives.”
“I support continuing with the first-past-the-post system. When our constituents arrived at their polling station on 4 July, they knew what to expect: if their chosen candidate received more votes than any other, that is who would be elected as their MP. There is elegance to this simplicity. In our democracy, the person who wins the most votes in each of our 650 constituencies wins the seat. It cannot be denied that voters would be confronted with a far more complicated system if any type of proportional representation were to be introduced. Crucially, after the election, every one of our constituents knew who to turn to if they wished to contact their Member of Parliament. For me, that is the most important feature of our democratic system.”
“The asylum hotel in Cheshunt in my constituency is already putting pressure on strained public services, including local GP surgeries. The Government’s manifesto committed to closing asylum hotels. Can I ask the Secretary of State when she will honour that promise, or will the list of broken promises to the British people get longer?”
“Antisocial behaviour affects all our constituencies, including my constituency of Broxbourne. Some antisocial behaviour can be very localised—down a specific street, in a block of flats or between neighbours—and some of the levers to solve that antisocial behaviour lie with housing associations. Will the Minister outline how we can bring housing associations to the table? They will play a key role in solving and tackling antisocial behaviour.”