Politics

We aim to keep you informed of all relevant Westminster parliamentary business, including select committee activity and early day motions. Members and associates can also track key bills as they pass through the legislative process, and keep up to date with our public affairs work through our activities page.

Highlights of parliamentary business for the week beginning 30 June -

• The Treasury, FSA and Bank of England have published further proposals to strengthen the framework for financial stability and protecting depositors. Building on their consultation in January, this is the final consultation before the introduction of legislation in the autumn.
  
• The Treasury have also published their annual report for 2007/08.
  
• There have been a number of announcements from the Department for Communities and Local Government, including:
  • New measures aimed at maintaining the delivery of new affordable housing, including a further £270 million allocated to the Housing Corporation for an additional 3,800 homes for social rent and 1,500 shared ownership homes over the next three years.
  • The recruitment of Robert Napier as chair of the new Homes and Communities Agency, and Peter Marsh as the chief executive of the Tenant Services Authority.
  • An agreement on how councils and the Homes and Communities Agency will work together on housing and regeneration.
  • A consultation seeking views on a number of practical steps for making energy performance certificates more accessible.
    
• The Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform laid regulations which will require all residential estate agents to belong to a redress scheme by 1 October 2008.
  
• The Ministry of Justice have laid regulations in relation to land registration.
  
• Commons select committees have also been busy this week:
  • The prime minister was in front of the Liaison committee during which he was questioned on managing the economic slowdown. Answering a question on the banking system, Mr Brown stated that the regulatory system needed to be able to detect off-balance sheet financing methods, financial reporting needed to be more transparent, and credit rating agencies needed to perform better.
  • The Treasury committee held one-off hearings with Lord Turner on his appointment as chair of the FSA, and with Professor Charles Bean on his appointment as deputy governor of the Bank of England.
  •  The Environmental Audit committee heard from housing minister Caroline Flint on its inquiry into an environmental analysis of the government’s house building plans.
  •  The Public Accounts committee published a report on the housing market renewal programme which found that the scheme has demolished more houses than it has built.

Full details of relevant parliamentary business can be found in Week in Westminster below. Sign up to our website updates and we will email you each issue as it's published.

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