Park Home Owners

Debate between Anna Dixon and James Naish

Tuesday 28th April 2026 Westminster Hall

[James Naish]

I trust that the Minister and his team will do exactly that. This is not just about the 10% sales commission; there are broader issues impacting park home residents. I will come on to those matters shortly.

Let me say two important things. First, mobile homes can be a very good housing option. They typically offer people a smaller, more manageable home in an attractive, close-knit community. The quality of mobile homes has improved considerably over recent years; the sites are often now home to a diverse mix of individuals and families, just like any other location.

Secondly, and critically, for most people park homes are not a second home or a luxury purchase; they are their only home. They therefore represent security, independence and a lifetime of savings, just like the bricks-and-mortar properties that most of us inhabit. That is precisely why protections for mobile home owners matter. We are talking about 160,000 ordinary people living ordinary lives in 100,000 increasingly ordinary properties, but they are underpinned by out-of-date legislation and perceptions. Rightly, the Government are looking at major commonhold, leasehold and fleecehold reforms to end the feudal leasehold system and the injustice of unfair maintenance costs, but as part of those wider changes, park and mobile home owners must not be forgotten. I hope that today’s debate will make sure that they are not.

On mobile homes, MPs from parties of all colours have talked over the years about mis-selling, poor maintenance, weak enforcement, opaque utility charges, disputes over pitch fees, sale blocking and the 10% commission charge when a home is sold. Most concerningly, MPs have often alluded to the imbalance of power between mobile home residents and site owners.

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

I have been contacted by residents of the Harden and Bingley Park on Goit Stock Lane in Harden. They feel trapped in their relationship with the site owner, which they have said does nothing. On the 10% commission, they want to give the whole of their estate to their family as an inheritance. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important that residents feed their views into the consultation, and that we make sure that the deal between park home owners and residents is fair and proportionate?

[James Naish]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The consultation is being run for a reason. I encourage anyone watching the debate or emailing their MPs about it to go further and engage with the consultation, because I am sure that the Minister is looking forward to review those responses.

Sale of Fireworks

Debate between Anna Dixon and James Naish

Monday 19th January 2026 Westminster Hall

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the more than 1,000 Shipley constituents who signed the petitions.

The antisocial use of fireworks is a blight on our communities. Since I was elected a year and a half ago, hundreds of constituents have contacted my office. They have been in touch from across the constituency—from Baildon, Bingley, Wilsden, Wrose, Cottingley and Cullingworth. They tell me that loud fireworks keep them awake at night, and cause distress to young and old, as well as to pets and farm animals. For one veteran I met, who suffers with PTSD, they retraumatise him every time.

I have campaigned vociferously to put a stop to this. I have written to Ministers, spoken to the local police, met with campaign groups and raised the matter in Parliament on multiple occasions. In October, I launched my own petition, calling for a reduction in the legal decibel limit for fireworks sold in the UK. That petition is now supported by almost 5,000 people. This is a massive issue, and it needs to be addressed.

[James Naish (Rushcliffe) (Lab)]

I shared my hon. Friend’s petition with my constituents, and I thank her for her campaigning on that issue. On the general petitions website for this Parliament, there are 199 petitions with “fireworks” somewhere in the description. That is an incredible number when we consider that there are 601 on the NHS, which is a huge issue, 553 on housing and 367 on immigration. Does she agree that, compared with those other issues, this one is relatively easy to fix, and that the Government should grasp it?

[Anna Dixon]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I am sure that the Minister will have heard his plea, along with those made by other Members.

To be clear, this is not about stopping anyone enjoying fireworks. I enjoy good fireworks as much as the next person—in fact, the sparkler is my favourite. Bonfire night, new year’s eve, Diwali, Eid—these festivities are part of our social fabric, and celebrating them brings us together as families, friends and communities. This is about tackling the antisocial use of fireworks.

I am proud that the previous Labour Government did a lot on this issue. The Fireworks Regulations 2004 imposed curfews on fireworks, restricted their sale to certain times of the year for unlicensed sellers, and outlawed their use in public places. When we were last in power, we made great strides, but further change is well overdue. As many of my Shipley constituents would tell us, the antisocial use of fireworks persists, despite the best efforts of Bradford council, trading standards, the fire service and the police in enforcing the current law. In the run-up to bonfire night, some £10,000-worth of fireworks were seized from rogue sellers by West Yorkshire police. Thanks to the tireless work of the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, along with partners in the community, on prevention and education, most celebrations in Bradford last year went off without incident.

Other Members—in particular my hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Alison Hume)—have spoken with great passion about safety concerns, and I support a lot of what has been said today, but the most important area, where we want action, and soon, is noise. The volume of fireworks available for sale in the UK is 120 dB, and many Members have spoken powerfully about the need to reduce the noise. That could easily be achieved by a simple amendment to regulation 8 of the Fireworks Regulations, which already prohibits the supply, purchase or possession of category 3 fireworks whose noise levels exceed 120 dB. Furthermore, I would support a ban on the general sale of category 3 fireworks and limiting them to authorised events in the same way as category 4 fireworks.

I urge the Government to make these changes, and I urge the Minister to work closely with my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen), who I commend for all her work, to find a way to change the law to reduce the distress that fireworks cause to people, veterans and pets—and to all of us, so that we can all get a good night’s sleep.