Topic Archives: Housing and planning

All Calm on the Westminster Front

Baroness Murphy 03/03/2012 – 11:39 am

Were you wondering where I’d gone? Well I’m back now from Central America and the Caribbean and mightily pleased I missed all that cold weather. I was in some remote spots and got news from Britain only intermittently. But the health bill figured in almost every bulletin. Turmoil, Coalition falling apart, political storms at Westminster, doctors and nurses noisily opposing the reforms and […]

The Benefit Cap and Child Support

Baroness Murphy 27/01/2012 – 2:10 pm

No-one who has been reading this blog for a while will be surprised that I voted with the Government on the Benefit Cap last Monday night and also for the Changes to the Child Support Agency on Wednesday. There is however a good case for compromise on the benefit cap in one respect. The cap is the same for the whole of England and Wales, and yet we know that of the 67,000 families or so who are r […]

Council Governance

Baroness Murphy 04/09/2011 – 11:23 am

Most of the noise about the Localism Bill has been generated over changes to the planning regime to enable development to occur quicker and more responsively to local housing and development needs and opportunities. It’s very hard to tell what the outcome will be…we certainly need more home building and local business development and I am sure it is possible without ruining the rural landscape […]