Estate Adoption: North-east England

David Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Emma Foody]

This is an experience that is shared around the country, and we need to look at all available options to we resolve this matter. We are not talking about months that residents are left in this situation, but years—five, 10, 15 years, in which families see their children grow up and leave home before a road is completed.

Before the debate, I asked my constituents for their testimonies and experiences of the range of issues that they face. David, who lives on the Fairways estate in the west of Cramlington speaks of roads and pavements on the estate that are largely without tarmac, which has made using bikes, wheelchairs, and pushchairs dangerous outside the home. He talks of how residents are cut off from other facilities such as shops, schools, and parks, because the necessary footpaths were not built for years. He says that only after constant pressure from residents did the developer build a footpath, which is unlit and poorly laid—it would be difficult to use a pushchair or a wheelchair on it—and it links one housing estate to another through a field. If people have a car, the roads are not much better. They are often unfinished, with is a higher risk of damaging vehicles. When the roads are icy, there is more risk of traffic accidents.

Another constituent, Iain, has been contacting the developer of Five Mile Park in Wideopen for three years regarding the road surface. The estate was constructed almost 10 years ago, and he has been given excuse after excuse about why work has been delayed on the roads, pavements and footpaths. The developer informed Iain that the road had been completed more than a year ago. However, poor-quality work by contractors means that it has not been brought up to adoptable standards. That is just one case of many in which a developer will claim to have completed roads, pavements or other infrastructure, but not up to a standard for the local authority to adopt them.

[David Smith (North Northumberland) (Lab)]

This is such an important debate. Likewise, in Amble in my constituency of North Northumberland, constituents have contacted me about a private developer that has left their estate in a scruffy and untidy manner and which is using a contractual error to try to escape blame. That is in the context of a 65% decrease in planning spending in the north of England, so there is also a key issue about the resources that local authorities need. Does my hon. Friend agree that private developers should be willing to bring estates up to an acceptable standard so that local authorities are not forced to adopt unkempt and unfinished estates?

[Emma Foody]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising those issues. I know it is something that is raised with all Northumberland MPs, and I agree that we need to look at all mechanisms to ensure that estates are at an adoptable standard.

In my constituency, Dan from West Meadows, another estate, shared his worries that local football pitches would never be brought up to the standard that has been promised. Mark, who lives in Backworth View, told me how the street lighting on his road has never been switched on in the five years he has lived there, yet he is paying full council tax and management fees. Many residents express frustration that they are paying both estate management fees and council tax, yet, because the estate is unadopted, they have poorer quality infrastructure, despite paying more.

Local authorities often feel the brunt of complaints from residents, but they hold little power to compel developers to bring private unadopted estates to the standards required for them to be adopted. Local authorities should not be footing the bill for delays and lack of delivery from private house builders. Too often, local authorities are hamstrung. The developers have long since left the site, so local authorities are left fielding complaints from residents, despite having little power to compel action. A chief planning officer at a local authority told me that the current system is skewed towards developers. They pick their own contractors, timeframes and materials, which are often not up to the standard for a council to be able to adopt their work, yet it is the local authority that is left with understandably frustrated residents long after the developer has gone.

Renters’ Rights Bill

David Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 9th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[David Smith (North Northumberland) (Lab)]

I would like to begin by warmly welcoming this Bill and declaring that until July I was chief executive of a homelessness charity. It is well known that section 21 evictions are the second highest cause of homelessness, so it is a delight to be able to speak in the debate and to support the Government. This Bill cannot come in soon enough.

I would like to read out a short excerpt from an email I received from a constituent who was recently issued with a section 21 notice:

“We have lived in our home for over four years and were shocked to be told that we need to move out. We have been desperately searching for a new house to call home but due to a housing shortage and extortionate rents, we cannot find anywhere to move to and are facing homelessness. In the time we have lived at our current house, we have made a life in our community. We run a business and teach twice a week at our local hall. We help care for an elderly gentleman in the village to enable him to remain in his own home. The feeling of being powerless is overwhelming. We have been completely consumed by our housing situation for five weeks now. We feel powerless to protect our boys, six and eight years old. It is hard to function and it feels like an impossible situation...Our neighbour advised us last week of the Labour Government’s plan to immediately abolish section 21 notices. We sincerely hope that this happens in the future so that going forward, people never have to feel the way we do now.”

That family wrote to me at the end of August. Sadly, thanks to the inaction of the previous Government this Bill is too late for them, but for many others it is timely. The perilous rental market is an anchor around the necks of many families like these and this excellent Bill is a reminder that Government really can help those in need.

However, I would like to ask the Minister to look at two tweaks to the Bill. First, will he examine whether any new no-fault grounds for eviction could include a provision that exempts tenants from paying their last two months of rent? Research by Generation Rent shows that the average unwanted house move costs a typical two-adult household £1,709. That includes finding the deposit for a new home, covering rent on two properties, taking time off work and a host of other costs. Most people do not have £2,000 lying around, so that insecurity can lead to homelessness. I urge the Government to look at those situations.

Secondly, I ask the Minister to consider whether the permitted 12-monthly rent increases should be capped at the lower level of inflation or wage growth. Character matters, and some landlords—a small proportion—have spent years extorting and squeezing their tenants. An obvious loophole some landlords will exploit to manipulate tenants is to use their annual rent increase to push rent to unexpectedly high levels and create economic evictions by the back door. That is on top of the fact that landlords are clearly increasing rent beyond any sense of the common good, with rent inflation last year outstripping wage growth by 3% and inflation by 5%. I understand that first-tier tribunals are in place for just this scenario, but evidence suggests that these tribunals have not had the overall desired effect of bringing average private rent increases in line with affordability, let alone inflation.

I am proud that this Government are genuinely committed to ensuring that the 4.6 million households renting privately in this country are no longer dependent on the whims of another for their security. That is part of a comprehensive plan, along with nationwide house building and a cross-departmental homelessness strategy, that will transform what it means to have a place of belonging and security in this country.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call Chris Ward to make his maiden speech.