Leasehold Reform

Debate between Clive Betts and Andrew Selous

Thursday 21st March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Betts]

We did consider that, and we said that although such voluntary agreements might be a step forward, they were not sufficient and they were not as good as our proposals to restrict leases on existing properties to 0.1% of the value, or £250. Legislation would overturn the current arrangement, and provide a better one for leaseholders.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

The scandal of new houses being sold on leases, often to first-time buyers, is present in my constituency in Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard, and involves builders such as Galliford Try, which trades as Linden Homes, Taylor Woodrow and Persimmon. I am concerned about how we get speedy and affordable redress for people caught in that situation, including those Taylor Woodrow victims who are not the original purchasers and to whom Taylor Woodrow is offering nothing. The report states that the Law Commission is not due to provide its final report until later in 2019, and the Committee recommends implementation of these measures within 12 months. That cannot come a day too soon. This scandal should never have been allowed to happen, and I say to my good friend the Minister that we need urgent action please.

[Mr Betts]

The word “scandal” is absolutely right to describe the way some of these developers have behaved. Hopefully action will follow quickly from the Law Commission’s report, and the Committee will keep an eye on that and press for action, as I am sure will other hon. Members. We must keep reminding ourselves that the companies who have done this are hardly hard up. In the last financial year, Taylor Woodrow made profits of £800 million and Persimmon of £1 billion. Those companies are not relying on that money to keep themselves afloat.

Adult Social Care: Long-term Funding

Debate between Clive Betts and Andrew Selous

Thursday 28th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Betts]

Yes, I completely agree with that. We have got to get on with it. If we agreed everything now, it would probably take two or three years to put it in place. That is why we suggested the stop-gap measure of the extra business rates in 2020 being made available for local authorities. We thought that was a very important solution. If we get it right, we can have stability for the long term. The Germans did this over 20 years ago. They have a stable system and it works. They have just put extra money into it with general public support, because everyone trusts the system. That is the position we have to get to.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I, too, pay tribute to the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts) for the way he chaired the Committee; it was very collegiate and consensual, which really helped us in our deliberations. He may remember that when we visited a care home the residents and families of those receiving care accused this Parliament of a lack of courage for not having addressed this difficult issue for so long. Does he agree that there is a real sense of urgency? When the Government produce a Green Paper in the autumn, we need to get on with it. There is no reason why we cannot move this forward quite quickly. As he said, Germany has done it since 1994. Frankly, it shames this country that Germany has had a good system in place for so long, while we have not.

[Mr Betts]

I completely agree. If we are still talking about this in two or three years’ time we will have failed. We have to get some decisions and get on with it. As politicians, we are often very good at coming up with ways to spend money. In this report we have actually come up with ways to raise money, which is the difficult part. We have done the heavy lifting for both the Government and the Opposition Front Benches. We now say, “We’ve handed the pass over to you. Get on and run with it and make it work.”