Transgender Equality
The Government is committed to achieving equality across all aspects of our society, including for the LGBT community and transgender people. The UK has a strong record in terms of LGBT rights and human rights and I am keen for us to make the case across the globe to ensure that LGBT people, wherever they live, are safe to go about their lives without fear of crime or harassment.
I welcome the progress we have made as a society in advancing equality. I know my colleagues in the Government Equalities Office are committed to ensuring transgender adults are free to live their lives without fear of persecution.
I understand that colleagues in the Government Equalities Office will be in a position to publish the response to the Gender Recognition Act consultation this summer. I do not wish to pre-empt the consultation response but will take the time to study the detail of it in due course.
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Planning White Papers
I have submitted my responses to the two planning consultations: “Changes to the current planning system’ and “Planning for the future’.
These planning changes are one of the most significant events to affect the Cotswolds since WWII. I think that both papers contain positive proposals, in our case commitments to protect the AONB. The proposal to abolition Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) should speed up the planning process and it is important that the money is retained locally so that the infrastructure can be built at the same time as the development.
Too often we see a development being built long before the supporting infrastructure, which I know can cause significant issues for existing residents. The proposals to simplify and speed up local plan-making and retaining neighbourhood plans where possible are welcome, in that design codes can be specified so it should be possible to protect our unique Cotswolds vernacular.
I spoke in the planning backbench business debate on the 8 October and called for a change to the algorithm the Government uses in its planning White Paper which fails to take account of local variations and concentrates all new house building in the south-east and central south of England.
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