Chris Curtis

30 Jun 2026   Draft Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026

To prove that point, the hon. Gentleman would need to prove that the types of applications currently going to either officers or planning committees are effectively random, but they are not. We know that different types of applications go …

30 Jun 2026   Draft Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026

I have taken up too much time; people really want to get off. We all accept that we should be focusing on smaller sites because, as the Minister set out, the bigger sites should be decided and focused on by the planning committees. This…

30 Jun 2026   Draft Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026

I thank the shadow Minister for making that point because it was the last point I was going to briefly make before wrapping up. This is the key point: it adds not only uncertainty, but delays. If uncertainty has costs in the housing system…

30 Jun 2026   Draft Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026

I do not believe that democracy is changing it. It is fundamentally the incentives of certain local politicians to do this when they can have a veto power over a development that has a wider gain, often outside their local constituencies. …

30 Jun 2026   Draft Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026

It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I would like to make a couple of additional points, adding to the really important comments made by the Minister about why these changes are important. It is worth dwelling o…

22 Jun 2026   East Midlands Railway Collision

I join the Secretary of State in offering my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the driver, Shaun Burton. I thank her, the Rail Minister and staff at East Midlands Railway for keeping us updated in what I am sure were very di…

3 Mar 2026   Spring Forecast

Economic policies introduced by the previous Government piled more and more pressure on my generation, adding to intergenerational unfairness, and nowhere is that more clear than with plan 2 student loans; to declare my interest, I still o…

2 Mar 2026   Representation of the People Bill

I do not think I will get the time to say this at the end, so I want to put on the record that the Government should set up a national commission to look at our voting system. Whatever our views on it, we no longer live in a two-party elec…

11 Feb 2026   Woodland Creation

I thank everyone who has contributed, including my hon. Friends the Members for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (Alex Mayer), for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury), for Thurrock (Jen Craft), for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff), for Ca…

11 Feb 2026   Woodland Creation

I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of woodland creation. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I am grateful for the opportunity to open this debate on woodland creation, which my hon. Fr…

27 Jan 2026   Business Rates

I welcome the engagement from the Minister and today’s fantastic announcement, and invite him to come and have a pint at the Dolphin in my constituency, where I used to pull pints. Just down the road is William Cowley, a business that has …

22 Jan 2026   Local Government Reorganisation

I should make it clear that local elections will be going forward in full in Milton Keynes and that I look forward to continuing to work with my brilliant, hard-working Labour councillors locally. One of the reasons for delaying the electi…

19 Jan 2026   Local Elections: Cancellation

Local elections will be going forward in full in Milton Keynes this year, and I look forward to continuing to work with my brilliant hard-working Labour councillors. The ongoing process of reorganisation is delaying elections, but it is al…

15 Jan 2026   New Towns

I thank the Minister for being generous with his time and for reinforcing the Government’s strategic direction, which I think most of us agree with. As we move on to the next stage, many of the local council leaders who he has spoken about…

15 Jan 2026   New Towns

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch (Katrina Murray) not just for securing this debate, but for her passionate and moving speech. I will start by building on some of the comments made by the hon. Member f…

16 Dec 2025   Planning Reform

I thank the Minister for the statement, and for the support for getting our housing market going again, particularly when it comes to brownfield sites; proposals for many of them are still being held up right across the country. He says th…

15 Dec 2025   NHS: Winter Preparedness

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and for his hard work in trying to bring an end to these unacceptable strikes. When such strikes happen, particularly at this time of year, it draws attention away from the hard work that st…

3 Dec 2025   Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) on securing this debate. The limited time means that I will not focus too heavily on the importance of …

13 Nov 2025   Access to Nature

I welcome the comments about Milton Keynes, the largest economy in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, and we are very excited about the upcoming forest. The Wetland Arc, led by the Parks Trust, is another exciting project that spans the Great …

13 Nov 2025   Access to Nature

2. What steps she has taken to improve access to nature.

Parliamentary office

House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Constituency office

Constituency office