Housing and Planning Bill
Debate between Lord Bichard and Lord Palmer of Childs Hill
The Deputy Speaker (Lord Bichard) (CB)
My Lords, given the length of today’s manuscript amendments, I propose that the House dispense with the usual requirement to read it out in its entirety, unless any noble Lord objects.
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)
My Lords, I thank the Deputy Speaker for not reading out the amendment; I have read it so many times that I really feel that I know it by heart. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, for working with me on this, as it has been very helpful. I particularly thank the Ministers here and in the Commons for constructive dialogue, and accepting the problems that we were trying to highlight, which have been brought to our attention by the lettings industry—tenants, landlords and, indeed, letting agents. The noble Baroness thanked a lot of people. I add just one other person to that: the parliamentary draftsman who ended up with the amendments in front of us. When I saw the amendment, I thought that it was what it should have said when we did it in the beginning. It says it very well. I think that the noble Baroness and I would have liked it to be slightly firmer in saying that it will happen, but we took the Ministers’ intention—which I hope this Minister will repeat in the debate—that this is something that they want to do and intend to happen.
I shall not make a long speech about this, because we have had much debate in earlier sittings, but I shall raise one or two points again. Some 80% of the lettings agency sector—these are the figures used by the Minister—have client money protection. The new amendment and the original amendment are for the 20% who put tenants and landlords at risk. If a letting agent goes bust or goes walkabout in a liquidation, tenants’ money held and the rights of landlords and tenants are at the bottom of the creditors’ queue in a liquidation or bankruptcy. Client money protection will be mandatory in Wales from November. I am sure many noble Lords will say that Wales leads, and under its new Rent Smart initiative, it certainly does. All letting agents will be required to apply for a licence and part of the application process is showing that they have professional indemnity insurance and client money protection insurance and are a member of a redress scheme. If the Welsh can do it, I am glad to see that the English are following.
Perhaps the best way of illustrating the need for this amendment is by telling horror stories, of which there are many. This month, it was reported that a company called Whitefield Properties took rental money due to landlords and tenants’ deposits over a four-year period. The money was paid into the firm’s bank account and was, perhaps carelessly, not protected. It was reported that £123,000 of customers’ money went missing. The Staffordshire firm, with branches in Milton, Leek and Crewe, went into administration in 2014. If we were still arguing for this amendment, I would give many more examples to try to make my case.
A lot of the 20% not-covered agents target vulnerable groups. As they are vulnerable, they do not satisfy credit checks, so they cannot give the guarantees that banks would often offer. Agents, generally in the 20% section, often ask for something like a full year’s rent in advance because the person is not trusted. The person probably borrows the money to get that year’s rent in advance. History shows that a lot of these large sums of rent in advance go into the agent’s bank account, and even if it is in an account that may internally be called a client account, if it is not recognised as such by the bank, those moneys can, and often are, used by the agent for one or purpose or another, very often because the agent is overtrading, spending more money than it should and using that money.
A law making client money protection insurance mandatory for all letting agents is long overdue. I thank the Minister and her colleague in the Commons, and I hope that when she replies she will promise that “may” will be made firmer so that it will be “shall”, as I want. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, I conceded that the intent was there, but I hope the intent is reported when the Minister stands.
Local Government Finance Bill
Debate between Lord Bichard and Lord Palmer of Childs Hill
Lord Bichard
My Lords, I support the amendment and declare an interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association, as many of us are. I support it for two very simple reasons. First, in the light of the previous vote, this is perhaps the last opportunity to offer some help to protect the most vulnerable in our communities, who stand to suffer most from the proposed legislation if it is passed as drafted. Like the noble Lord, Lord Tope, I implore all noble Lords who I know have a passion to protect the interests of the most vulnerable in our society to support the amendment. I suggest that this is not the time for political tactics. Nor could a vote for the amendment be taken as supporting in any way the policy in the Bill. It should and would be taken as a practical way of helping those most in need when they need it most.
The second reason is that I support the cause of localism and devolution, which is after all a key priority of the coalition Government. For me, devolution always involves the devolution of power. It is not just about the devolution of responsibility or, on occasion, of the right to be blamed. The devolution of power is what the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Best, offers.
Devolution is also about devolving choice, and giving local authorities the chance to make a choice about where money is spent and what their priorities are. Once again, that is what the amendment is about. It gives local authorities the chance to make a judgment, taking into account their local knowledge, about what their priorities are and where their money should be spent. For those two simple reasons I implore the House to support the amendment.
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill
My Lords, I was pleased to hear the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, say in debate on the previous amendment that we must stand up for poor people. That is what I, in supporting the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Best, ask noble Lords to do today. I hope that noble Lords from all sides of the House will do that.
Like other noble Lords, I welcome the £100 million. It is good, but it is transitional. It is good for this year, but it is not the solution for the future.
Points were made about the collection of small sums from people who could least afford it. Comparisons were made with the suggestion that a single-person discount should be varied if the local authority concerned wished to do so. Perhaps noble Lords should look at the simple arithmetic. Let us say that someone who is paying council tax lives in an authority where the council tax is £1,000 per annum. I will keep the figures simple. With a 25% discount, the single person will have a bill for only £750. If the local authority changed the 25% to 20%, instead of having a bill for £750, the council tax payer would have a bill for £800.
If their house was more valuable and highly rated, for example at £2,000, the council tax payer who got a 25% discount would pay £1,500. Under the 20% solution of the noble Lord, Lord Best, they would pay £1,600. One does not have to break one’s brain to see that they would accept this. They would probably not even look at the calculation. They would see that on a bill of £1,000 they were paying £750 and now have a bill for £800. Perhaps they would realise that they had a bill for an extra £50. However, they are used to paying council tax, which does not normally stay the same every year. On £2,000 the bill would be £1,600 rather than £1,500.