Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Sixth sitting)

Debate between Eddie Hughes and Richard Fuller

Committee stage
Tuesday 23rd January 2024 Public Bill Committees

[Richard Fuller]

Somebody had to mention the vase.

[Eddie Hughes (Walsall North) (Con)]

Or the cup and saucer?

[Richard Fuller]

I am just so glad it was not me. The Minister and shadow Minister are far more experienced than I am on this matter, so I am drawing on a much more limited data set than they are. But, to date, I have not heard loud and clear that there is no such thing as marriage value. I have heard that there are questions about how it is calculated and that we do not think it should apply, which is a political point of view. If the shadow Minister is trying to say that there is something else he wants, between the issues of calculation and of making a political decision to transfer it, that is interesting to me. I do not think that he has been trying to make that point, and I certainly do not think we have heard that evidenced.

It is a crucial point. The idea that we are expunging values that relate to something real, which is under contract, is a material point in trying to make this legislation bulletproof or, as the Minister rightly says, to ensure that, in a hotly contested area, the Government get it right. In circumstances where there are real values —although perhaps massively overemphasised—where performance has been exemplary or to contract, where there has been no question of the performance required under contract, and, finally, where there has not been price gouging, or this automatic doubling every two years, and the rents have remained the same, what is the reason to apply legislation retrospectively?