Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Andrew Lewin Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 24th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Lewin (Welwyn Hatfield) (Lab)]

I spent the last seven years of my career working in the social housing sector, so I should like to think that I have some understanding of the scale of the housing challenge, the mistakes made by previous Administrations, and why now is the time to be bold. We need this planning Bill to be bold, because at present we are witnessing a housing crisis in three acts.

First, according to the latest available figures, private renters across the country spend nearly a third of their household income on housing costs. Private renters in all income quintiles—compared with people living in homes of any other tenure—spend the highest proportion of their household income on rent, and we know that the problem is especially acute in our cities and in the south of England. The affordability challenge is not just a problem for the individual, but a problem for society. Money that would otherwise be spent in the everyday economy is going to private landlords.

That is linked with the second point. The vast majority of private renters aspire to home ownership, but as private rents increase and house prices stay stubbornly high, the dream of home ownership looks ever more distant for those who are not lucky enough to rely on the bank of mum and dad. In my constituency the median house price of £435,000 is nearly 11 times the median income of £40,000.

Thirdly, there is the crisis in social housing. Since the right to buy took effect in 1981, we have seen a net loss of social homes in almost every year. That brings me to an earlier exchange between my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy) and the Liberal Democrat spokesman, the hon. Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos). This problem was at its worst at the time of the coalition Government. As my hon. Friend said, there was a dramatic cut in the grant for social and affordable housing under that Government, and there was a double whammy because during the same Parliament, the Conservative Prime Minister increased the discounts for Help to Buy. Let me say to the Liberal Democrats that their former leader made a video apologising for university fees, and they may want to consider one apologising for their record on social housing.

To meet this crisis, we need to use all the levers at our disposal to build the homes and communities that the country needs. In the time that I have left, I want to focus briefly on two points. The first concerns clause 46—which has attracted some interest during the debate—and the provision to streamline planning decisions on smaller sites. It is vital that local accountability remains in the planning system, and that is protected through the need to have local plans in every community, all of which will require democratic consent. However, it is equally important that we speed things up so that we do not lose months or years endlessly discussing smaller sites that have already been debated and allocated in a local plan. Aspiring homeowners, hard-up renters and those in urgent need of social housing do not have time for that.

I am very invested in clause 91, which introduces long-overdue changes to the compulsory purchase order process and the removal of hope value. For far too long the losers in our system have been the prospective homeowners, the private renters and the social housing residents, while the winners have been the landowners. As it stands, many local authorities have to pay unrealistic premiums for land based on an estimate of its potential value, or hope value, which has too often made it unviable for councils to build much-needed social housing and infrastructure. That has to change, and the Bill will ensure that it does.

As we have heard in the House today, there are Members who want to find new and creative ways to argue against the need for new housing, but that has failed. The status quo has failed us. If we are serious about tackling the housing crisis, we need serious reform. The Bill will deliver it, and can be the catalyst for change.

Political Finance Rules

Andrew Lewin Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rushanara Ali]

The defending democracy taskforce, chaired by the Home Secretary alongside the Deputy Prime Minister, is very much looking at those issues.

[Andrew Lewin (Welwyn Hatfield) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend talked about the evolving nature of the threat. Members on both sides of the House have spoken of Elon Musk, and I feel compelled to do so, too. This is a man who, when our country was going through riots, said that we were on the verge of civil war. This is a man who said that one of our own Ministers should be put in jail. Is she able to say for the record that that is exactly the type of person who we need to investigate, and that his money has no place in our politics?

[Rushanara Ali]

It is crucial that we focus on ensuring that our democracy and its integrity are protected from interference and that we have public confidence, and that is our focus. Instead of going into specific individual cases, my focus is on ensuring that we build trust in our system and protect our democracy against interference, and political finance is a key part of that.

In closing, I thank hon. Members from across the House for their contributions to this important debate, which was rich with suggestions and ideas. As we make progress in the coming months, I very much look forward to working with colleagues, across parties, to ensure that we take the necessary action. We want a robust, vibrant and representative democracy, and that means fighting foreign interference and unfair funding. I look forward to bringing forward further details, before the summer recess, on how we intend to strengthen our democracy and uphold the integrity of elections.

Proportional Representation: General Elections

Andrew Lewin Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Lewin (Welwyn Hatfield) (Lab)]

I want to start by putting on record that I am a long-standing advocate of a more proportional electoral system for our general elections. My belief is that any system to replace first past the post needs to balance two core features: to preserve the vital link between a Member of Parliament and a constituency; and to consider a top-up mechanism, whereby additional seats are allocated in direct proportion to votes cast.

No model is perfect. As my hon. Friend the Member for Exeter (Steve Race) said, there is a lot of merit in the additional member system used in Holyrood. I do not want to focus my remarks today on the intricacies of alternative systems, or even the principled argument for reform in too much detail. My hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central and Headingley (Alex Sobel), the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman), my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Luke Akehurst) and others have already made that case with conviction and I suspect that others will do so later. I want to focus on how we could build consensus for electoral reform, and what timeframe is both desirable and realistic.

One thing we must avoid is the spectacle of a new Westminster Government winning power and then legislating quickly to change to the system if they believe it to be in their self-interest. We saw a version of that in the last Parliament. The Conservative Government had a minority of MPs in London, but legislated through the Elections Act of 2022 to change the London mayoral system back to first past the post, a system that they believed would suit them well. For Westminster elections, nothing would do more damage to trust than if something similar were to happen. Any suggestion that the winner gets to set the rules of the next contest would be dangerous.

Where does that lead us? I am afraid, inevitably, it leads to a referendum. Speaking as someone who voted yes to AV in 2011 and remain in 2016, it is fair to say that I make the case with some trepidation, but I believe it must be made. If we are to change an electoral system that has been in place for over 100 years, it would require a national conversation and a clear and direct mandate from the electorate. I do not believe there is a mandate for a referendum in this Parliament, but there is an opportunity to build consensus across multiple parties to be ready for the next Parliament. That could be the defining work of the independent commission which has been referenced.

The year 2031 is likely to be midway through the next Parliament. It would also be 20 years since everyone in the United Kingdom was last asked to endorse a change in the electoral system. That referendum was rushed. The alternative vote system proposed appeared to be the first choice of nobody and, I am afraid for those of us who supported it, its rejection by voters was emphatic. Much has changed in our politics since then, but all of us who support a fairer system need to learn from 2011 and seek to build a case for change in a much more considered way. I believe we have the time—the time to build consensus on the best proportional system for Westminster; time to make the case within each of our parties that a referendum is the only way to earn a mandate for meaningful electoral reform; and time to propose a date and make the case for it. It might seem distant today, but 2031 is a generation on from the last referendum and that strikes me as a fair time to ask the question again.

[Paul Holmes]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. He is giving a typically brilliant speech—we used to talk to each other in the boardroom of Clarion Housing Group, where we worked together—and his idea of a referendum is interesting. If a referendum were held and the result was 52:48 to keep the current system, would he expect the Liberal Democrats to keep asking that the question be put again and again and again?

[Andrew Lewin]

That feels like more of a question for our in-office chats from a few years ago. I will not comment on the potential reaction of another party, but I will say that I would abide by all referendum results even though that would be three in three and a pretty bad track record for me.

It is time to propose a date and stick to it. First past the post has endured for more than 100 years. If we are to convince a majority of the public that a more proportional system will better serve their interests in Westminster, as I think it will, six years is not so long to wait. Despite my track record, I remain optimistic that, if we had a referendum, third time around I could finally be on the winning side.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Andrew Lewin Excerpts

Wednesday 9th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Lewin (Welwyn Hatfield) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow my colleagues’ inspiring maiden speeches today. This is the first time I have risen to speak in a substantive debate, following my own maiden speech in the summer. I am proud to support this Bill, which is the most significant reform to the sector in more than a generation. It will end the exploitative practice of bidding wars. It will offer security to renters, and it will enshrine a commitment to a decent home being the right of everyone in our country.

Private renters are at the sharp end of our housing crisis. According to English housing survey data, one in five live in non-decent homes. In my constituency, it is a scandal that 1,300 people are paying to rent non-decent homes. The majority of them live in Hatfield, where the average cost of a two-bed to rent is £1,200 a month. The private rental sector accounts for more than one in four properties. For all the good and responsible landlords in the sector, too many have not taken their responsibilities to tenants seriously. Sadly, the last Government did not take their responsibilities to renters seriously either.

This comprehensive Bill will act where the Conservatives failed. The journey starts with a commitment to those who rent property, but who have been locked out of the process by rental bidding and rental wars. As it stands, landlords are free to invite closed bids for how much rent people are willing to pay, playing them off against each other to maximise their return. It is plainly wrong, and like so much of our housing system, it penalises people who are less likely to have access to savings or family wealth. As set out in clause 55, we will end that practice.

The Bill calls time on rental bidding, but it also calls time on no-fault evictions. Private renting can never offer the same security as home ownership or social housing, which is why this Bill is tied inextricably to a broader Government agenda of building 1.5 million homes over this Parliament and making building homes for social rent a priority again. Ending section 21 and moving to periodic assured tenancies is a significant strengthening of renters’ rights. If someone is moving into a rental home for the first time, they will have a year of security. It was two months under the last Government, but it will be 12 months under Labour.

The quality of our private rented homes is just as important as security of tenure. For too many people, once the battle to find a place to live is won, a new front opens with their landlord on the quality of their living conditions at home. There is a better than one in five chance that a private renter will be living in a non-decent property. The Bill will ensure that private renters are no longer second-class citizens and are protected by the decent homes standard.

I said in my maiden speech that I would always say where we agree with another party, and I congratulate the Conservatives on bringing in Awaab’s law in the course of the previous Parliament, but it is absolutely right that this Labour Government extend the law to the private sector, so that every renter in England can challenge dangerous conditions in the home and, crucially, do so safe in the knowledge that they will no longer be subject to a no-fault eviction simply for having the confidence to speak out.

There are thousands of renters in my constituency and 4.5 million across the country. The Bill is a landmark moment for all of them. I am proud that it is a priority for our Labour Government and I look forward to working with colleagues as it progresses through the House.