Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Catherine West and Lyn Brown(1 year, 7 months ago)
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Ms Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab)
Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)
Minors Entering the UK: 1948 to 1971
Debate between Catherine West and Lyn Brown(6 years, 7 months ago)
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Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation and Liability for Housing Standards) Bill
Debate between Catherine West and Lyn Brown(6 years, 10 months ago)
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Lyn Brown
Excellent. My office will be in touch with the hon. Lady’s to see if we can get a date.
Enabling local authorities to take tough action against rogue landlords is very important and can be a real help in driving up standards. The Bill would tackle the problem at the root by clarifying, updating and strengthening the right of tenants to live in a rental property that is fit to be called a home. As we have heard, a minority of landlords make huge profits from their tenants, who sometimes live in appalling conditions.
Before Christmas, I mentioned the case of a man who was found living in a 1 metre by 2 metres space under some stairs, in a property with 11 other people and with electrical and fire hazards to boot. On the same day, that Newham enforcement team also found three people who were paying £200 a month for a space in an outside shed, and four other separate families who had been crammed into the main house. I believe that it will begin to solve the problem of abused tenants if all landlords, from the beginning of a tenancy, have a clear duty to provide those tenants with basic liveable conditions, and that should be enforced not just by our councils, but by the courts.
Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)
Will my hon. Friend join me in praising her local authority for leading the way? Other boroughs such as Haringey are now coming on board, with exciting new schemes to crack down on poor landlord practices.
Lyn Brown
Newham Council was absolutely right to take the action it did, and the Government were right to support it further. Only through such schemes, which are paid for by landlords, can we ensure that there is money for enforcement activity and that tenants can live in homes that are fit for them.
All our constituents deserve to have workable and realistic legal redress against landlords whose properties are dangerous, cold or damp. Giving tenants that help will ensure that the horrifying conditions we have heard about today will not be allowed to continue. I am delighted to support this Bill. It is about time that it progressed through the House, and I hope that will happen this afternoon.