Sir Julian Lewis: Does the Secretary of State accept that there is an intimate link between local government reform and the successful carrying-out of major house building programmes? One of the reasons I warmly welcome her return to office is the failure of her predecessor, the right hon. Member for Streatham and Croydon North (Steve Reed), either to confirm or deny on 16 July the report in The Times on 18 June that senior civil servants and lawyers in three separate Departments had been overruled when they advised him not to make local government reorganisation decisions merely at the behest of Labour-led councils. Will the Secretary of State undertake to look at this issue again, particularly in the light of the number of boundary changes involved, and given that her colleague, the hon. Member for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton (Jim McMahon) – now mercifully back in action – had originally promised that boundary changes would be rare exceptions, and that particularly strong reasons would have to be put forward in justification?

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Angela Rayner): Without straying too much into that area, I will just say to the right hon. Member that my principle with local government reform is that it is about the best services for the people in a local area. That is the only way that we get buy-in from people to deliver that, including through our local representatives – local councillors, many of whom are doing a fantastic job of addressing the challenges that local government faces. To me, local government reform is about making sure that areas can deliver on things like transport, education and health in a way that is best for those people. I will look into the issues that the right hon. Member has raised.]