Claire Young
MP for Thornbury and Yate · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“The Government rightly want to speed up housing delivery, but indiscriminate housing built by big developers with no regard for the environment or the people living nearby is not the answer.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wells and Mendip Hills (Tessa Munt) for securing this debate.”
“More than that, the council recognises the importance of homes for social rent and has been punching above its weight in their provision. With around 0.6% of the population of England outside London, it delivered 1.6% of total new social rent completions last year.”
“The danger is that pockets of land will be considered in isolation and be judged only to contribute to purpose C. Indeed, the 2022 West of England combined authority report, in the local plan evidence, showed that the primary reason for just about all the land in the local green belt is purpose C.”
“Families in rural communities may spend the next six weeks finding out that the Government’s “kids go free” scheme is not designed for them. In Thornbury and Yate, the Government are funding First Bus, but not the rural local bus companies, so the combined authority has had to foot the bill.”
“Fewer than half of the children in my constituency have seen an NHS dentist in the last two years, exacerbating health inequalities. The supervised toothbrushing programme is being evaluated for its effectiveness, but I hear uptake is low.”
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“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade) for securing this debate. Dozens of my constituents have come to me with stories of DVLA failure, each carrying a variation of the same theme: a system that has let them down, often involving delays in licence renewals or restorations related to medical conditions. Let me take the case of one self-employed constituent who, due to delays with restoring their licence, has lost more than £60,000-worth of work. For months, their livelihood, security and mental health were left hanging by a thread. Only after pressure from my office was the matter resolved. It was a medical case and the DVLA failed to justify the delay.”
“To override the outcome of the developed vetting process, the FCDO must have been under pressure from someone. Ditching a tried and tested ambassador for a high-risk one seems odd behaviour for a Prime Minister who claims to be so fond of proper process. Whose idea was it, and who was applying the pressure?”
“Q6. Yate station is at the heart of the town’s industrial area and can be a gateway to the eastern end of the West Innovation Arc. Local rail users tell me they want it improved, businesses stress its importance for attracting a workforce, and in the wake of local manufacturing job losses, its redevelopment could be a catalyst for wider regeneration. There are already proposals in the town’s masterplan, so will the Prime Minister back jobs growth by supporting the redevelopment of Yate station?”
“They should not be left unprotected and vulnerable to soaring prices. The hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central made important points about large, energy-intensive industries. The Government should take the opportunity that the instrument offers by providing support for small or microbusinesses to cover the cost of their renewables obligations to energy suppliers, lowering bills and supporting businesses with soaring prices during volatile and uncertain times. Families and business owners are struggling and are worried about what the conflict with Iran will mean for their bills. We need to see real and continued support from the Government to lower energy bills and help those who need it most.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. The extension of this statutory instrument is important to ensure that the Government will continue to be able to support households with energy costs. Given the volatility of fossil fuel prices and Trump’s reckless and illegal war with Iran, it is important that legislative tools are available to support people with their energy bills. However, the Government need to act to support such households. While the announcement in March to help households using heating oil through the crisis resilience fund was welcome, the Government need to continue to support them. My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I have consistently called on the Government to zero-rate VAT on heating oil for three months and to create a price cap mechanism for off-gas households.”
“The manufacturing businesses that I have visited in my constituency recently are clear about the importance of both the availability and the affordability of energy. The longer business waits for a plan, the worse the damage will be, as investment plans are postponed and other costs are cut. When will the Government act to support businesses, particularly in energy-intensive sectors such as manufacturing, hospitality and farming?”
“I would like to return to the issue of UK maritime services facilitating the export of Russian energy, which I raised in this Chamber three months ago. Does the Minister not see the irony that, at a time when we are all grappling with how we fund our own defence, the Government are still letting UK plc bankroll Putin’s war machine—a war machine that is mapping our infrastructure? What action do the Government plan to take to stop it?”
“Those transport authorities that delayed tendering for post-July bus services because of the lack of Government criteria for using finding are now going out to tender, but market information suggests that costs are shooting up due to the war in the middle east. Will the Secretary of State meet me and local representatives to discuss how the Government can support bus services during this crisis?”
“The conversation continues in the nuclear industry about whether Wylfa should have been reserved for gigawatt-scale nuclear, leaving Oldbury for small modular reactors. The US ambassador has spoken publicly in The Daily Telegraph about his discussions with the Government regarding Wylfa’s capacity for gigawatt-scale nuclear. I have tabled written questions on these representations, yet the Government will not acknowledge that those specific conversations even took place. What avenues can the Leader of the House recommend so that we can compel the Government to provide a proper answer?”
“The Secretary of State referred to the link between overseas aid and our security. Preventing conflicts, promoting stability and reducing migration is a classic example of when prevention is not only better, but cheaper, than a cure. Does she accept that cutting aid undermines our national security? What assessment has she made of the longer-term consequences for this country of these short-sighted cuts?”
“On a similar note, does the Committee Chair agree that the long delays in assessing people for neurodivergence is contributing to greater mental ill health? While people are waiting, they are not being properly supported and do not feel that they have the necessary understanding of themselves to be able to move forward. Was that touched on in her work? If not, would she consider that for future investigation?”
“This change cannot be delivered without the skills provision and without enabling people to access the college and the jobs afterwards. We need to get in the infrastructure, and if we are not to rely entirely on our increasingly decrepit strategic road network, we also need to be looking at rail. If we are to have any increase in line capacity and station capacity, we need Westerleigh junction to be upgraded. That is something else I have raised with the Government, but again we are not seeing the investment. Alternatively, in the short term at least, we could look at electrifying more lines, which would also increase capacity because electric trains can accelerate and decelerate faster, so there are opportunities—”
“This generation, which faces the highest unemployment in 10 years, needs to be empowered to take control of the climate change revolution, and we need to supply them with good skills and well paid jobs locally. Another barrier to all this happening is the fact that in a rural area like ours, transport is a huge problem. There is no further education provision in my constituency, and even from a town like Thornbury, there is not a direct bus to the nearest further education college, let alone from any of the smaller villages. I visited the university technical college at Berkeley, which could form part of that low-carbon energy campus that I talked about. Trying to access the college is also hugely difficult from my constituency.”
“There is a chance to employ locally and deliver great things, but it will not happen without the skilled workforce to do it. There is a willingness for further education colleges to work together—I know because I have been talking to them—but they need seed funding to support that, which is something I raised with the Skills Minister last January. There is also an identified need for a construction skills college in my area. We need to inspire the next generation. Why do we not encourage firms to sponsor trips to the science park and to local firms? When we are expanding the park, it would be fantastic if there was a space there to support that.”
“There are many opportunities in a small area, but they are not being realised because we are not getting the investment and recognition we need. I do not think our area gets the recognition that other areas, perhaps in the north or in Wales, get. There are many smaller firms delivering things, such as Fellten, a small firm that refits classic cars with electric motors, and I could mention many other examples. Our area also has a lot of demand for retrofitting. Twenty per cent of homes in my constituency are off gas, so if we trained the workforce, we could have local people delivering cleaner, cheaper energy solutions for people to heat their homes—all the more important in the wake of the oil and liquefied petroleum gas price crisis that we have seen this week.”
“It is not just about nuclear; the Severn estuary commission last year published its report pointing the way to how we can deliver tidal power from the Severn. There is amazing hydrogen expertise in our region. At the science park just outside my constituency and possibly expanding into it, there is the Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, which looks at alternatives to the traditional fossil fuels that we use to power automotive and aerospace. There is also the National Composites Centre, which, among many other things, looks at how to deliver materials that can contain hydrogen successfully. People might not think of the west of England as a former coalmining area, because it is not as recently a coalmining area as others, but it is, and there is the potential for geothermal with heat from mine workings.”
“The late and—at least by me —lamented Western Gateway partnership put together the Severn Edge proposal, which talked about having a low-carbon energy campus, which would do more than just nuclear and would link the two sites. Training would be delivered at Berkeley, and there could be a small modular reactor there directly connected to an off-taker, such as a data centre, and then Oldbury would deliver power to the grid. It is that sort of strategic vision that we need and which I am concerned that we are not getting from this Government at the moment. Having recently attended the south-west nuclear showcase at the University of Bristol, I know that the universities in our region are also supporting this through their research.”
“I thank the hon. Member for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy) for securing the debate. Climate change is the defining challenge of our time and, as others have mentioned, some are pushing a false dichotomy between tackling climate change and other important things, such as saving jobs, growing the economy and cutting bills. I firmly believe that we can meet climate change targets, deliver growth, create good jobs and ease the cost of living, and that the west of England—my region—has the potential to lead the way. In my constituency, the Severn estuary growth zone alone could deliver 15,000 jobs, including 3,000 supporting new nuclear at Oldbury. We are in the unusual position of having another former nuclear power station just up the road at Berkeley.”
“I would just like to apologise to the Minister for my over-enthusiasm earlier in extolling the virtues of my area. I would also like to ask her to visit my constituency to see the opportunities for herself and to discuss with me the barriers that we face.”
“With prices doubling or tripling, a 97-year-old constituent cannot afford her next bill and another family has no hot water. Reporting price gouging to the CMA will not help them now, so what support will the Government give those above the lowest income thresholds who cannot afford the next delivery, and what will Ministers do to stop public money allocated now simply filling the pockets of profiteering suppliers?”
“Hundreds of my constituents have written to me about Royal Mail failures. I have raised them with Ofcom, but it tells me that it cannot investigate local complaints, and Royal Mail will not act on them. Will the Minister commit to reviewing Ofcom’s powers to hold Royal Mail to account at a local level?”
“Heat batteries are the only clean heat technology certified by the microgeneration certification scheme that is excluded from VAT relief under the energy-saving materials framework. This penalises smaller homes and lower-income households that cannot accommodate a heat pump. Will the Chancellor commit to removing that anomaly, and meet me and representatives of the UK heat battery industry to discuss it?”
“My constituent is a hard-working taxpayer, but his wife and daughter remain in Iran because the family reunion route has effectively been closed since September. Does the Minister accept that failing to provide controlled, safe and legal routes not only lets down families like this one, but fuels the use of dangerous routes?”
“A constituent approached me in January having applied for his pension over six months earlier, with no resolution. He has been forced to draw on his personal savings simply to get by. Will the Government introduce a redress scheme for pensioners who were forced to deplete their savings or even take out commercial loans?”
“My constituents regularly complain about private parking companies. Recent examples include a firm passing a case to debt collectors after the constituent provided evidence that they were ill and another issuing a charge when the driver had paid but the machine failed. Following last September’s consultation on raising standards in the private parking industry, will the Leader of the House confirm when the Government will bring forward a new code of practice and compliance framework to protect drivers from exploitative parking operators?”
“On nuclear, I note that, had small modular reactors gone to Oldbury, Wylfa would still be available for other options to reduce our fossil fuel dependence. I want to ask about small businesses. On top of a rising tax burden, the fear of further energy spikes causes small businesses in my constituency, particularly energy-intensive ones such as hospitality and manufacturing, to fear for their survival. Will the Secretary of State introduce new measures to support them?”
“Small charities with excepted charity status, including many individual scout and guide groups, do not have a registered charity number. 1st Ram Hill Scouts in my constituency tell me that they reckon they are excluded from about 80% of grants because they lack a charity number. Does the hon. Member agree that that is a serious sustainability priority for small groups?”
“The Government have made some welcome commitments on education, but schools are then left to fulfil them. We have seen with free school meals, breakfast clubs and teacher pay awards that each time the funding falls short, and headteachers are left to make up the difference from budgets that are already on their knees. With the “experts at hand” service, can the Secretary of State guarantee that not a single school will have to raid its core budget to deliver this support?”
“This conflict has grounded travellers at Doha, including a constituent who has three young children waiting at home. Following the Prime Minister’s conversation with Qatari leaders, can he explain how evacuations will be prioritised, and what support is being provided on the ground to those who were expecting simply to pass through?”
“Is the hon. Lady not concerned about the possibility that if we simply ban a list of social media platforms, we will provide an opportunity for new ones to develop and cause a problem while not allowing existing ones to develop in ways that will be less harmful?”
“These are concerns that charities such as the NSPCC have raised and which a film-style age rating would address. It also means ensuring that there is flexibility to deal with future developments, such as AI chatbots, which have already been mentioned by a number of Members. We got into this situation because change in the tech world has far outpaced both our ability to adjust as a society and our legislative process. That is why I welcome the careful, collaborative approach being put forward. The 643 constituents who have written to me on this issue would expect nothing less.”
“A 2025 University of Exeter study of 2,500 children aged seven to 12 found that 34% did not play outdoors at all after school on school days, and 20%—one in five—did not play outside on weekends either. Many children do not even get the hour promised to prisoners. The years that children spend outside are crucial. To replace that with an unregulated and harmful social media environment is to actively harm our children. That is why I support stopping under-16s from accessing harmful social media and why it is crucial that we get this right. Getting it right means focusing on reducing harm. A blanket approach risks removing children’s access to helpful user-to-user platforms such as Childline. We must also ensure that we do not let young people loose at age 16 into a wild west of social media without any training in the safer foothills.”
“They are experiencing declining attention spans, disrupted sleep and a growing inability to engage with the world in front of them. Every hour spent staring at a screen is an hour not spent outside—not spent running, exploring, falling over and getting back up. It is an hour not spent in the kind of unstructured, unscripted play that builds resilience, creativity and social intelligence in ways that no algorithm can replicate. This was beginning to happen when my own children were young. At that time, a significant push factor was the fear that children were not safe roaming freely in the physical world. It is a sad irony that the very social media platforms that are providing an ever-increasing pull factor have created an online environment that puts children at risk of harm. Stranger danger is now online.”
“They socialise through social media, form their identities through social media and build their understanding of the world through social media, but what they find there is not a safe or nurturing space. Children on TikTok encounter harmful content every 39 seconds. By the age of nine, one in 10 children has already been exposed to pornography. By age 11 that figure rises to more than one in four. This is not accidental exposure; it is a predictable consequence of placing children in unregulated digital environments and hoping for the best. Beyond the content itself, the very act of compulsive scrolling is taking a toll. Children are exhibiting the hallmarks of addiction anxiety when separated from their devices.”
“As a society, we are raising the first generation of children who spend less time outdoors than prisoners do. Ministry of Justice guidelines state that all prisoners in the United Kingdom should have a minimum of one hour in the fresh air each day, yet research tells us that a worrying number of our children do not meet even that threshold—because they are confined not by bars and locks, but by screens. Astonishingly, the Centre for Social Justice found that up to 800,000 children under the age of five are already using social media. The Association of Play Industries has released a report that highlights just how little our children are moving. The research places adolescent social media use at three to five hours every single day—a figure that has grown by 50% in under a decade.”
“I, too, am a member of the all-party group for special educational needs and disabilities. Historic unfair underfunding in south Gloucestershire has made it harder for schools to support children with SEND, and parents tell me that they are concerned that these changes could make the situation worse. If those fears fuel a surge in EHCP applications in the short term, what steps will the Government take to ensure that councils are properly funded to deal with that, so that during the change children do not miss out on vital support?”
“Not only are community pharmacies in my constituency facing problems with Pharmacy First payments, but pharmacies like Abbotswood Pharmacy tell me that they are not seeing the referrals that GPs are supposedly making. Pharmacies can take pressure off the NHS. Does the Minister agree that this combination of referral failures and payment delays is forcing patients to wait longer for care, and what steps will he take to ensure that both referrals and payments are successfully made?”
“When the Government announced the local authority bus grant allocations, the use of the money was subject to conditions, particularly around social need, and the criteria were “to follow”. In the absence of those, the West of England combined authority has extended contracts only until July, leaving my Thornbury and Yate constituents fearing what will happen then. Can the Leader of the House ask his Department for Transport colleagues to publish the criteria as soon as possible, or to come to the House to explain the delay?”
“The Government’s consultation on alternative heating that ends today does not cover installation costs, yet that is what is stopping many of my constituents in off-gas areas from switching away from oil. With National Energy Action warning of an £18 billion funding gap to meet fuel poverty targets, what action will the Government take to ensure that those least able to afford alternative forms of heating are not left dependent on fossil fuels and paying sky-high bills?”
“Analysis from Spotlight on Corruption shows that only three parties have indicated that they will accept cryptocurrency donations: Reform UK, the Homeland party and the Other party. Reform UK even has a dedicated page for cryptocurrency donations. The elections Bill must cap political donations to stop foreign oligarchs from interfering. It must also ensure transparency in political advertising and prevent foreign and dark money from influencing UK elections. Past loopholes have allowed opaque and corrupt funding of political parties, enabling foreign money to distort British politics. Transparency International has said that a foreign interference review is “welcome”, but that donation caps are “the only way to break the stranglehold of big money over British politics”.”
“This is not about one bad apple; it is about systematic failures and how we protect our democracy, given how successive Administrations have failed to address fundamental weaknesses. We hope that we will soon have the opportunity to tackle these weaknesses through an elections Bill. The Liberal Democrats believe that the Bill must include a comprehensive ban on cryptocurrency donations to political parties, building on the policy paper that the Government published last year, which proposed tighter rules on political donations. Crypto creates the perfect vehicle for hostile states and foreign oligarchs to funnel money into British politics while evading scrutiny. Transparency International UK has warned that the anonymity that can come with these donations provides a “backdoor for foreign interference”.”
“The investigation should look into potential ties between other members of Reform UK and Russia, which has been a recurring concern in the debate. The Reform UK leader, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), was paid to appear on “Russia Today” until it was banned in the UK, and he once declared that Putin was the world leader he admired the most. We must move with urgency. The inquiry should be completed and laid before Parliament before the next general election, avoiding a repeat of the last Russia report, which the Conservative party shamefully suppressed until after the country went to the polls. Voters deserve to know about threats to our democracy before they cast their ballots, not after.”
“Despite that recognition of Russian influence in the UK, successive Governments have failed to act decisively to protect our democratic process. The threats are real and documented: Russian money has flowed into UK politics; foreign oligarchs have bought property and influence; Chinese surveillance operations target our institutions; and, as has been mentioned repeatedly, Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales, was jailed for accepting bribes from a pro-Kremlin operative to make pro-Russian speeches and statements. That is utterly shocking. That is why, following Gill’s conviction, my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I are calling on the Intelligence and Security Committee to launch a new probe to investigate Russian interference in British politics.”
“I welcome any scrutiny of foreign interference, but the review falls short on the transparency and information that the public deserve. We need a thorough and independent inquiry to understand fully the extent of foreign interference in the UK’s political system. Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy previously warned that the UK has faced a sustained pattern of attempted interference from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. That assessment was reinforced by the Government’s 2025 strategic defence review, which concluded that the UK is subject to daily hostile activity, ranging from espionage and cyber-attacks to manipulation of information. The review called Russia an immediate and pressing threat.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) for setting out the issues so clearly. Protecting democracy must be a national security priority for all of us in this place. Many of us across the country recognised that by signing the petition, including 208 from my Thornbury and Yate constituency. Over recent years, these concerned citizens have watched Russian interference in democracies across the world—in the United States, across Europe, and here in the United Kingdom—and now they are demanding answers. The petition calls for an inquiry into the depth and breadth of possible Russian influence in our country. Although in December last year the Government launched an independent review of foreign interference, led by Philip Rycroft, that is not enough.”
“Few things can be more urgent than protecting our democracy. We call for a wide-ranging and properly funded public inquiry into potential Russian interference, including in the 2016 EU referendum, with the report to be published as soon as possible. A public inquiry with the power to compel witnesses to appear and documents to be released is the only way to get to the bottom of these serious allegations. Transparency must be prioritised.”
“It is extremely concerning, and that is why we would ban cryptocurrency donations. Alongside the new elections Bill, we must address the issues that the previous Conservative Government created and restore the independence of the Electoral Commission, as it had pre-2022. We must also ensure that the commission has real enforcement powers and the resources it needs to deploy them. As others have mentioned, we must also reform our electoral system. We must take a robust stance towards hostile states, such as China and Russia, and recommit to international partnerships that promote democracy and stability, including working with European and other democratic allies to co-ordinate our response to Russian interference. The Government hold a substantial majority in the House, so they can push through legislation rapidly when they choose to.”
“I have not, but there is still time. This issue is about more than the failures and corruption revealed in the Nathan Gill case; it is about a system that has long been unfit for purpose and establishments that want to keep things the way they are because that suits their interests. Foreign states are now looking to exploit the situation, with potentially catastrophic outcomes. There is a danger that citizens will stop believing that their vote matters at all. We should use the situation to drive the changes that our country needs, that trust in politics demands, and that all our constituents deserve. I urge the Minister to announce an inquiry today. The threat to British democracy from foreign interference is clear and present, and must be addressed urgently.”
“I draw the attention of the House to my membership of the all-party parliamentary group on flooding and flooded communities. Protecting homes from flooding is vital in communities such as Pilning, Severn Beach, Yate and Chipping Sodbury, yet the CIRIA C790 code of practice for property flood resilience seems to be a well-kept secret. Will the Minister work with the construction and insurance sectors to raise public awareness of the code, and will she consider formalising it through legislation, ensuring that my constituents have the protection and the lower insurance premiums that they deserve?”
“The Minister indicated that Mandelson assured the Prime Minister that his relationship with Epstein was of a different nature. Can he explain what sort of relationship with a convicted paedophile would be acceptable in that role? Will the Prime Minister come back to the House to make a specific statement on the advice he received regarding Mandelson’s conduct?”