Homes and Planning Bill

Adam Thompson Excerpts

Friday 13th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Adam Thompson (Erewash) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George) for introducing this important debate. The issue matters a great deal to my constituents, as well as to my father and step-mother, who are constituents of his, and their cats, Trevor and Midnight. I know he is a great campaigner for their interests, especially those of Trevor the feral cat.

My constituency sits within Erewash borough—the boundaries of the constituency and the borough are not quite coterminous—which has a social housing waiting list some 5,000 people long. Of those 5,000 people, more than 2,000 are children. Too many families are growing up in temporary accommodation and there is a generation of young people for whom the dream of home ownership is distant, at best. The Prime Minister is right to talk about how our politics has treated housing purely as a commodity to be bought and sold, and we have heard lots of commentary on that point during the debate.

The failure to recognise that housing is an essential part of life and important in our way of living has been a major contributor to the housing crisis that we face today, and we need to change tack to address that issue. That is why I am strongly in favour of this Government’s direction on housing and planning generally. I believe that direction already addresses many of the areas in the hon. Gentleman’s Bill.

My principal concern is that much of what the Bill seeks to achieve, as we have heard from a number of my hon. Friends, is already being delivered through existing policies, can be achieved without primary legislation or would sit uncomfortably alongside frameworks already in place. Work is already underway through licensing arrangements and neighbourhood planning mechanisms to provide councils with the tools they need to influence the use of properties and shape development in our communities. Work is also underway to strengthen protections against second home owners abusing rates relief.

Indeed, many powers already exist at the local level to crack down on empty second homes. I will highlight a couple of examples from my patch as to where we have done some good work in this area. Recently, Labour-run Erewash borough council took the decision to introduce a double rate of council tax, which some colleagues have already mentioned, on long-term empty properties. That policy has already proven successful. Homes that were being kept on the market for unreasonably high prices, waiting for the market to catch up to those expectations, are being sold at a more reasonable price in order to avoid the double council tax. Landlords who were previously happy to sit on empty properties that they could use as collateral are now being forced into action, which is fantastic. As a result, those homes are being sold to families who will actually live in them. At the end of the day, that is exactly what this Labour Government are about.

Furthermore, the money raised from taxing empty homes is being used to do other great work locally in the council area. Labour-run Erewash borough council has frozen council tax this year because of the money it has successfully raised. It has also introduced free parking on Saturdays and great new measures to help tackle the cost of living generally that back our town centres as local economic hubs. These are simple powers and they are available to district councils across the country right now. They are both effective and capable of delivering many of the aims set out in this Bill.

[Sean Woodcock]

My hon. Friend is making a really important speech about empty homes. We all have homes in our constituencies that have been empty in the long term that we want brought back into use, but is the reality not that there are generally far too few empty homes across the country? Just 1% of houses are empty, so what the Government need to do, which I support, is build more homes in the first place so that we can house people properly.

[Adam Thompson]

I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent point. This Government’s drive towards building more homes is incredibly important.

Turning to the parts of the Bill that pertain to the creation of local plans, such plans already allow communities and councils to determine where development should take place, what infrastructure should accompany that development and the mix of the home types that we need to meet local demand. They are built on assessments of local housing need and they are subject to consultation with residents, businesses and community organisations.

I know this because in Erewash my colleagues on the council are currently going through the process of starting a new council local plan. In fact, this week Erewash borough council is publishing its first draft for a consultation to get the views of local residents on what they want to see in their community—indeed, in my community. For the first time, the council will be launching a brownfield land request, asking residents to identify brownfield sites that they believe could be suitable for development. This Government have a “brownfield first” policy. I think the council is doing great stuff in implementing that at a local level by allowing residents to put forward appropriate sites. It takes the conversation away from big landowners and developers and gives everyone the opportunity to chip in.

I want to put something on the record. My hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) recently talked about fleecehold. I want to talk about a local area in my constituency where this is occurring. Around the time I moved to Erewash, a little over a decade ago, there was a new estate being built just on the outside of Ilkeston called Elka’s Rise. It was a lovely few hundred houses in a great location. Indeed, at one point I even looked at buying a house there myself.

Since the completion of that estate, I have discovered by knocking on doors in the area and talking to residents that there are many issues—many colleagues will have had similar experiences. Residents have told me of a fee—I consider it to be almost a privatised council tax in many ways—that they are being forced to pay annually for the upkeep of space on the estate, whether it is the roads themselves, which have not yet been adopted by the council, despite being in good condition, or, in this case, the creation of a local play park that was never opened. The play park was built on flood land. Residents never got to use the space because it was completely unsuitable and unsafe. Fencing was put around the outside that was not safe. I went to look at the park and the grass was at chest height at one point. It was just dreadful. Yet the residents are being forced to pay for this on an ongoing basis.

I was pleased in recent months to hear about the work that the Government are doing to tackle this fleecehold approach, and I look forward to hearing from the Minister over the coming weeks and months about what more he will be doing to implement changes to address these issues. I was very grateful that my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central raised that issue, because I was keen to get that on the record.

I do want to say that local councillors Mark Alfrey and Kate Fennelly are doing fantastic work with the residents. They are doing everything they can to get as much of that land adopted by local councils so that we can take power away from those developers, who are really fleecing the residents.

In the interests of local need, with which this Bill concerns itself, the draft plan has set ambitious goals. Erewash borough council seeks to ensure that of the 6,800 homes that it is expected to deliver under its plan, 1,500 will be available for social rent. More than 20% of those new homes will be provided for social rent—I think that is great. This measure will help us move towards bringing down the unacceptable length of our social housing waiting list and ending the practice of families growing up in temporary accommodation.

I would also like to bring to the attention of the House the decision to create at least one new job for every home built. That will help to tackle youth unemployment and provide real opportunities for young people. It shows, again, the implementation of this Labour Government’s national policies at a local level by a Labour council, which I am incredibly proud of.

[Amanda Martin]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising the issue of jobs for our young people. I have worked closely with the construction industry, and I believe that our Government are doing many things to help support that industry, from introducing vocational subjects at age 14 to the Chancellor announcing paternity leave for self-employed men. It means that we can say to our young people, “This is a job and a career for life.” Does my hon. Friend agree?

[Adam Thompson]

I thank my hon. Friend for that fantastic intervention. I know that she is a powerful campaigner for tradespeople and their rights. Indeed, the Chancellor’s recent announcement about paternity leave for self-employed tradespeople is huge. Many of my closest friends who I grew up with are tradespeople. Lots have got young kids with more on the way, and I know that they are over the moon about this, because it means that they will have the opportunity to spend time with their children, which they would not otherwise have had. I thank her again for that wonderful intervention.

There is also a plan in Erewash to regenerate our town centres into mixed-use spaces, breathing new life into our high streets, as has been done to great success in places such as Bristol and parts of Manchester. Again, I think that shows the local implementation of progressive Labour national policy. I am very proud of the work that my colleagues on Erewash borough council are doing to begin building a local plan that is progressive and meets local need right across the board. I am looking forward to seeing how that plan evolves following the current consultation and building a real grassroots swell of support for what the council is doing. Taking people along with us is the most important way to deliver good policy.

That work—identifying that local need, allocating a fifth of those new homes for social rent, regenerating town centres and creating space for employment—demonstrates the powers that local councils already possess, such as the powers they are using to deal with empty second properties. They meet many of the goals set out in the Bill, and they do so using existing legislation.

[Sam Carling (North West Cambridgeshire) (Lab)]

It is great to hear about the good work that my hon. Friend’s council is doing through its local plan. I have two local planning authorities in my constituency, Labour-run Peterborough and Lib Dem-run Huntingdonshire. In Labour-run Peterborough, the new affordable housing requirements in the emerging local plan specify that 30% of homes must be affordable housing, of which 30% needs to be for social rent. Will my hon. Friend join me in calling on Huntingdonshire, under the Liberal Democrats, to do something similar? Right now, its affordable housing requirements do not set aside anything for social rent.

[Adam Thompson]

I do not know my hon. Friend’s locale particularly well, but it is important that he has put that on the record, and I am glad that he has done so.

I want to be clear that I am not advocating for the status quo, because change is needed, and the good news is that change is coming. This Government have committed to the largest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation. They have launched a 10-year, £39 billion homes programme, providing councils and housing associations with the funding they need to bring forward new developments, which I think is wonderful. At least 60% of the homes delivered through the homes programme will be for social rent, ensuring that support is targeted at those families who are currently trapped on waiting lists and in temporary accommodation—I know that colleagues across the House will commend the Minister for his work on that. Similarly, the Social Housing Bill will help protect existing social housing stock, reforming the right to buy and ensuring that more social homes remain available for future generations. That Bill will increase the qualifying period for the right to buy, reduce discounts and exempt newly built social homes from the scheme for 35 years.

Finally, I return to my constituents, many of whom are stuck on social housing waiting lists. Some are raising their children in temporary accommodation, while many others—especially young people—remain priced out of home ownership despite working hard and doing the right thing. This Government are working to bring back the hope of home ownership, and I believe their programme of planning reform and social and affordable house building offers the clearest route to delivering the change that our constituents deserve.