In February 2010 I was responsible on behalf of my party for a series of radical proposals for the reform of the planning system under the title ‘Open Source Planning'. Let's be clear; these reforms are designed to deliver the houses and development we need to meet the current housing crisis a...
One of the responsibilities I had in the 2005-2010 Parliament was in championing Child Poverty issues for my own party. In 2009 I sat on the Child Poverty Bill Committee - the type of committee which examines a bill line-by-line. As part of the committee we took evidence from charities involved...
Cold weather payments are important for vulnerable older people on specific benefits and help pay their fuel bills when the temperature drops below 0c for a consistent period. I've been campaigning since January 2009 to get some commonsense to apply to how we find out whether it's cold enough to tri...
A number of parents in the constituency choose to educate their children outside of school, and dedicate hours of their time to home education. These parents are committed to ensuring the highest standards of education. They make sacrifices, forgo income, put careers on hold and battle bureaucracy ...
I've expressed my support for the South Oxfordshire victims of the near-collapse of Equitable Life. There's a wrong here which needs to be redressed. Policyholders have fought a long battle for justice. Their fight seemed to have reached a crucial point with the publication in July 2008, of the Ombu...
The campaign to prevent a large area in the west of the constituency (around Benson, Dorchester on Thames and Warborough) from being dug up for gravel extraction goes on as we get closer to the county council producing its next minerals plan. It is true that minerals can only be worked wh...
Despite its relative distance from Heathrow, the Henley constituency is still one of those affected by noise from aircraft coming to and departing from Heathrow. My postbag on this subject has been large, because Henley and the surrounding area is one of those places above which aircraft bank to app...
In many ways this constituency has been fortunate during the Recession. It has had the smallest number of people on Job Seeker Allowance in the whole of the South East. But it has certainly not been Recession-proof. I've spent time talking to individual businesses across the constituency and I've m...
A study by the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) earlier in the summer showed that the Henley constituency (which now runs from the edge of Bicester to the edge of Reading) was likely to be at best only partially served by Next Generation Broadband. The broadband revolution has fo...
When Mark Twain scribbled a note in 1897 that the report of his death was an exaggeration he could have been speaking of our local shops. There's been a lot of talk about the shops which have closed but not nearly enough talk about the excellent shops that remain and the new ones which are opening. ...
With so many young people not in education, employment or training there is a great need to understand how the education and employment system supports young people. I want to understand what more can be done to build aspiration and provide the opportunities that are going to be meaningful to young ...
For over five years since I first became a county councillor in Oxfordshire I've been at the forefront of trying to ensure that there is real local participation in decisions about spatial planning i.e. how we plan for the long-term for our area. As an MP I am unable to get involved in individual ...
Rural crime has in the past often been a forgotten side of policing. But over recent years we've seen a rise in crime in the countryside; much of it of a particularly mindless and destructive nature. Theft is a major problem ranging from items of machinery of all sizes to animals. However, one of t...
The Henley constituency is a highly rural constituency. About a quarter of those on the electoral roll live in towns; the rest of us live in the small and medium sized villages which give South Oxfordshire much of its character. It is a very beautiful part of the country and in many parts an afflue...
As someone who has lived in the constituency for some 20 years, our local NHS services are important to me. I and my family and friends rely on them as we all do. At both ends of the constituency retaining and developing the services at our community hospitals requires constant vigilance. The...
It was good news that local residents won the right to a public inquiry over the proposed doubling of the tolls on the bridge but bad news that the inquiry found in favour of the increase. Both I and Martin Salter, the then MP for the Berkshire side of the bridge, pushed for this inq...
