Carla Denyer

Party	Office	Area	Period	Began	Ended	Source
Green	MP	Bristol Central	4 Jul 2024 – present	elected	—	Party history

Latest on this tracker 219

27 Oct 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill
As we approach 10 years since the Grenfell tragedy, I thank the Grenfell community and families for the tireless campaigning that they should not have had to do. I welcome the Bill as far as it goes. It includes important measures that are needed, but there remain serious concerns that it does not do enough for those still trapped by the terrible cladding scandal. The issue of the remediation of unsafe cladding in buildings of less than 11 metres is a big problem in my constituency, but it is not just a Bristol issue. There are a number of medium-height blocks of flats in Bristol Central with flammable cladding. I am going to tell the story of just one of those flats. It is a mid-rise block that is part of a development of three blocks. The other two blocks are taller—over 11 metres. They have the same developer and were built at the same time. All the buildings have the same dangerous cladding; the taller two are eligible for the building safety fund, but the one that is under 11 metres is not. A leading specialist building surveyor has identified that the shorter building also has severe cladding deficiencies that are in urgent need of remediation. Until recently, the flat was the home of a 97-year-old woman, who eventually moved into a residential home. Because she owned a flat, she was not eligible for a council-funded care home place, so her children needed to sell the flat to fund her care—except they could not. The Conservative Government’s position was that there is no systemic fire safety issue in buildings under 11 metres. In 2022, the then Government said that they had examined specific buildings under 11 metres and found that “in the overwhelming majority of cases it has subsequently been confirmed that they do not require remediation.”—[Official Report, 26 March 2024; Vol. 747, c. 1419.] The Labour Government under Keir Starmer maintained that position, stating in September 2024 that: “the risk to life is usually lower in buildings under 11 metres, and they are very unlikely to need the same costly remediation.”—[Official Report, 11 September 2024; Vol. 753, c. 929.] The result is that buildings under 11 metres are not eligible for funding under the building safety fund. The catch? Try telling all that to the mortgage market. No lender will give a mortgage to a flat in a building with unsafe cladding, regardless of height. Therefore, the children of my 97-year-old constituent cannot sell the flat on the open market. They cannot persuade the company that holds the freehold to pay for the remediations from its own balance sheet—believe me, they have tried. That company has insisted that it will only fulfil its legal obligations and not spend a penny more, and based on the legislation, the company believes it is not liable. The building’s insurance policy will also not cover the cladding work. Even if the owners of the five flats in this small block wanted to pay for the work themselves—which would be wholly unjust, because it is not their fault—as leaseholders, according to their lease, they are not permitted to contribute more than £15,000 per flat. It is estimated that the work would cost more than £1 million. What are people meant to do? They are trapped in an intolerable Catch-22 situation. The two adult children of this 97-year-old woman were forced to buy the flat themselves in order to release the equity to fund her care. It is lucky that they could afford to do that, although “lucky” seems like a wild choice of word to describe their situation. They are now stuck in possession of an unsafe flat that they do not live in and never wanted to own, with no recourse to the developers, the insurance, the warrantees or anything else to rectify the cladding faults. In July 2026, as we have heard, MHCLG launched a separate funding pot to address cladding fire safety risks in buildings under 11 metres, called the cladding safety scheme. The Government said that this delivered on their commitment in the remediation acceleration plan and supported a risk-based approach to remediation. However, the application window for the scheme was open for just three months. It has now closed. The management company of the building in my constituency has applied, but there has been no response, and there is apparently no guarantee of receiving this targeted funding. The Bill before us proposes sticking with the Conservative and Starmer Governments’ insistence that “relevant buildings” means only buildings of 11 metres or more. Surely the Minister can see that that is not good enough. I have a few questions for the Minister. First, is she confident that three months was long enough for 100% of those in charge of affected buildings under 11 metres to hear about the fund and apply to it? That includes both for-profit management companies, which, famously, can be pretty sluggish when it comes to repairs in their buildings, and internal management companies made up of owner-occupiers and leaseholders, who are often juggling flat admin alongside a full-time job and being a parent. Secondly, is the fund large enough to cover all the affected sub-11 metre buildings? Thirdly, if the Government do not make funding available for all the affected sub-11 metre buildings, what will the Minister’s message be to the leaseholders of flats that do not receive the funding? Finally, will the Minister take steps to end this funding lottery and ensure that the remediation of buildings below 11 metres is incorporated into the main Bill and is fully funded, and that there is a legal requirement on freeholders to do this work?
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22 Oct 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
Black History Month
It is a pleasure to speak in today’s debate marking Black History Month, and I thank the Minister for opening the debate with a speech so powerful that it gave me the chills. I do not think that is because I might have caught a cold off her on Monday, although that may be the case. In my maiden speech, I talked about how the story of my home city, Bristol, cannot be disentangled from the UK’s shameful and immoral history of colonialism and slavery. That is a history that we cannot and must not turn away from. Bristol merchants financed over 2,000 slaving voyages between 1698 and 1807. These ships carried over 500,000 enslaved Africans from Africa to face slave labour in the Americas. This shameful trade is an ongoing stain, and it is why my party backs slavery reparations. Since 2020, we have supported the idea of a UK Government-backed all-party parliamentary commission of inquiry for truth and reparatory justice, aligned with the United Nations frameworks, to address the legacy of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and colonialism. I am proud to say that my city also backs that call following a motion brought by my former colleague, Green Councillor Cleo Lake, five years ago. This is work that I hope to continue to push on as a member of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations. The UN’s declaration earlier this year, which said that the trafficking of enslaved Africans is the “gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparations as a “concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs”, is therefore very welcome. I hope this strong UN stance will encourage the UK Government to mark Black History Month by acknowledging the inhumane crimes that Britain inflicted on African people for centuries, and the ongoing impact of those crimes on the global south today. My constituency, Bristol Central, is home to a blue plaque at the Seven Stars inn in Redcliffe that marks how Thomas Clarkson, an anti-slavery activist, together with the landlord of the Seven Stars, collected testimonies from sailors in 1787 that were used as evidence in Parliament. These statements played a role in the passing of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which eventually led to the end of the transatlantic slave trade. Fast-forwarding 150 years, we have already heard extensively today about the 1963 Bristol bus boycott, which was a landmark moment in race relations in the UK. On the same day that Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech in the US, the Bristol Omnibus Company agreed to end its racist hiring practices following a successful boycott campaign. As we have heard, the boycott was widely cited as a turning point for racial justice in the UK and ultimately led to the Race Relations Act 1965. Bristol’s more recent history saw 15,000 Black Lives Matter supporters gather in the city in 2020 and the toppling of a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader who is believed to have transported about 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas between 1672 and 1689. That statue, in its damaged state, is now displayed in a glass case in the M Shed Museum, in my constituency, where it is surrounded by some of the placards held by protesters on the day it was toppled. Bristol city council’s culture team say this about the exhibit: “This is not erasing history, this is recording history. History isn’t something that can remain static and preserved—that moment was history in action.” Those words feel particularly salient to this debate, because in celebrating those people in our communities whose contributions are all too often unseen, we are—as Cherron Inko-Tariah MBE, the editor of Black History Month UK Magazine, puts it—also writing history. We are making the history that we want recorded, and keeping it alive. To that end, I want to give a special shout-out to one of the many people making black history in Bristol today: the first lord mayor of Bristol to come from the Somali community, Councillor Yassin Mohamud. Yassin brings his experience as a refugee, his experience as a member of the black and minority ethnic community, and his work representing one of Bristol’s more deprived areas to the role of lord mayor. As he said shortly before taking up the post, his focus is on unity “to bring people together, to celebrate the diversity and strength of our city, and to ensure that every community feels recognised and valued.”
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22 Oct 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
Black History Month
I will indeed. The now Lord Rees, who was the first black mayor of Bristol and one of the first in Europe, also featured in my maiden speech, and I recognise the great contribution that he made to our city. Finally, I want to highlight the campaign launched last year for Bristol to become the UK’s civil rights capital. The fact that two Members from outside Bristol have already told the story of the city’s pivotal role in British black history supports the case for that very strongly. The campaign brings together academics, business leaders and politicians, including Lord Rees. I will quote directly from one of the campaign’s lead organisers, Julz Davis. He said: “Bristol has never waited for permission to lead. This city has shown the country what change looks like. Activism has always been the lifeblood of systemic change here.” Black History Month is a much-needed chance to remember the importance of systemic change and how many people are making that change happen. To quote Cherron Inko-Tariah again: “There is still so much we do not know. So many stories waiting to be uncovered. So many names waiting to be spoken. So much history waiting to be reclaimed, recorded and shared.” That potential is very alive in this Chamber today, in my home city of Bristol and across our communities, and I look forward to continuing to work cross-party to help realise it.
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22 Oct 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
Black History Month
Lord Mayor.
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21 Oct 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
Housing Costs: Government Support
I thank the hon. Member for his important speech. In my constituency, only 2.3% of rental homes are affordable with local housing allowance—a far cry from the 30% that it is meant to be. Of course, that means that many more families, including families with children, are forced into rent arrears, poverty and homelessness. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, introducing rent controls would reduce the cost of unfreezing local housing allowance by more than £1 billion by 2030. Does the hon. Member therefore agree that the Chancellor should introduce an emergency brake on rents as well as unfreeze local housing allowance at the Budget to address the gross distortion, inequality and unfairness in the housing market?
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21 Oct 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
Jackdaw Gasfield
Drilling at Jackdaw is an act of climate vandalism. As we have heard, it will not bring down bills and it will create only 27 jobs. Today’s announcement also reiterated the Government’s support for so-called tiebacks, which are a dodge to allow yet more drilling without new licences. Does the Minister not recognise the UN’s countless warnings that we must leave all new fossil fuels in the ground? Will he admit that allowing both Jackdaw and new tiebacks is utterly at odds with the climate science?
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12 Oct 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
Rejoining the EU
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mrs Barker. It was and remains a tragedy that we threw away the right to work, study, live and love in 27 countries. That is something felt deeply in my constituency, which a recent YouGov poll found demonstrates the strongest support in the country for rejoining the EU. Nationally, too, support for rejoining the EU is at an all-time high, with 61% of the country in favour—and no wonder, when all of us in the room today can think of and provide many examples of the economic disasters visited on our own communities as a result of Brexit. It bears repeating that Brexit has led to a 4% long-run productivity loss and, as we recently learned, has cost upwards of £208 million to the creative sector, which we particularly treasure in Bristol. To give an example, the owner of a music venue in my constituency recently said to The Guardian that the consequences are still “being felt in cancelled tours, lost work...and fewer opportunities for audiences on both sides of the Channel.” Add to that the millions of EU citizens living in the UK who are in limbo over their citizenship position, and all the opportunities that are lost because it is harder for UK citizens to travel, work and study in the EU. In a multitude of ways, the UK has been left worse off after Brexit, as we have heard in speech after speech today. It is more vulnerable to food prices, less safe from harmful chemicals and lagging behind on air quality standards in the face of an air pollution scandal that is killing tens of thousands of people every year. What we have heard recently from the Prime Minister is a welcome start: Brexit has indeed “done more harm than good”. Now we need the Prime Minister to be unequivocal and clear, drop his party’s red lines, and prioritise our future prosperity and wellbeing by working to rejoin in full. There are forces that continue to try to create fear and division. We have now heard the PM confirm that there was Russian interference in the referendum, so we must have robust leadership from the Government on rejoining to build a better, more equal, outward-looking society. The Green party has been clear that we should rejoin the EU as soon as there is a settled majority in favour of doing so. We have long since met that threshold. We need to be back at Europe’s decision-making table.
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21 Apr 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
Middle East: Economic Update
I am relieved that the Government are now committed to breaking—[Interruption.]
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21 Apr 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
Middle East: Economic Update
I am relieved that the Government are now committed to breaking the price link between expensive gas and cheap renewables, but given that the proposed solution is voluntary for electricity generators, how will the Chancellor ensure that the proposals that she and the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero are putting forward will actually deliver substantially lower bills? If I send them to her office, will she consider the proposals from the think-tank Commonwealth for a mandated, not-optional, fixed-price model to ensure that billpayers are not left at the mercy of the volatile international fossil fuel market?
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21 Apr 2026ParliamentCarla Denyer
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Will the Minister give way?
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Party affiliation

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Latest on this tracker 219

Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill

Black History Month

Black History Month

Black History Month

Housing Costs: Government Support

Jackdaw Gasfield

Rejoining the EU

Middle East: Economic Update

Middle East: Economic Update

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill