Homes and Planning Bill

Debate between Emily Darlington and Oliver Ryan

Friday 13th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Emily Darlington]

I am sorry that Portsmouth was not shortlisted. I do not know what the bid was, but I am sure it was a fantastic one and that there will be opportunities in the future for Portsmouth to be city of culture. I want to recognise people like my hon. Friend’s father, who were part of building this new kind of city, and we continue in that spirit. When we built 183 new council homes, we ensured within the contract that local builders, plumbers, electricians and tradies were a part of the process—continuing the strategy of building homes with the people and talent we have in Milton Keynes.

[Oliver Ryan (Burnley) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend paints a utopian picture of Milton Keynes. She is such a strong advocate for the city and for municipal planning across the board. On the anniversary of the creation of Milton Keynes—she looks well for 60, by the way—perhaps she could remind the House under which Government Milton Keynes was designated a new town, and also which Government it was that installed the priorities and principles of new towns into what is now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government?

[Emily Darlington]

I will not take the bait on how old I am, because one never asks a lady how old she is, but I am not 60. But my hon. Friend is absolutely right that Milton Keynes is the epitome of a Labour Government’s dream, not just in the fact that it is a city built on opportunity, bringing people together and building communities as well as housing, but in that it also houses another amazing Labour Government initiative—the Open University—which shows that every single person has an opportunity to succeed.

[Emily Darlington]

I was just coming on to explain how second homes are an issue in Milton Keynes.

Milton Keynes is not immune to the second homes issue, but, in fact, our issue is a little bit different—everything in Milton Keynes is a little bit different. Our new homes are marketed in the middle east because of our prized location in being able to access London, Oxford, Cambridge and Birmingham, as well as fast trains to Manchester and Liverpool. Those homes are occupied only in the summer and remain empty for the rest of the year. Despite doubling the council tax for those homes, that remains an issue. I want to continue to have a conversation with the Minister about what more we can do to tackle that issue so that those new homes go to families.

There are other, even more pressing issues in Milton Keynes that the Government could help with, which would help to fix the housing crisis. The Minister will not be surprised by my raising some of these issues, but I would appreciate it if he could address some of them in his response.

First and foremost, rough sleeping in Milton Keynes used to be the highest that it had ever been. As the deputy leader of the council, I was able to bring it down to some of the lowest levels, and I am really pleased that the approach we have taken in Milton Keynes is now the national approach. We have done No Second Night Out in Milton Keynes for more than three years, and it has led to a significant decrease in the number of people sleeping rough, but, unfortunately, issues still need to be resolved to make our dream of ending rough sleeping. Some of those issues have been taken up by the Prime Minister, who has committed further funding beyond this Christmas and will allow some proper infrastructure around supported housing to be built right across the country.

We have to talk about how the local housing allowance does not respond to local rents. That is important in a city such as Milton Keynes, where private rents are about the same as those in many areas of London. We also need to talk about local councils building council housing again. The Government have rightly done quite a bit to support registered providers, but that does not deal with housing revenue account debt or the fact that many local councils have not been able to access the £39 billion in Homes England funding. How are we ensuring that council homes are being built by councils? We need to look at the impact of right to buy and the wall put up by the Thatcher Government between a council’s general fund and the HRA budgets, which makes no sense when temporary accommodation comes out of the general fund and council homes come out of the HRA.

The other big issues that we need to solve in the housing crisis include service charges for leaseholders. I really welcome the Minister’s efforts to deal with this issue, because it is not only pricing people out of purchasing, but trapping people in homes, as they can no longer sell them because of high service charges, and they are therefore building up debt. There are also the service charges for freeholders. That is an issue, because when we build new houses and estates, we see fleecehold being used more and more to continue to game cash from residents, instead of handing over roads and parks to the local council. The Minister will be aware of how much that impacts Milton Keynes, and how important it is for my residents, and I hope he will talk about some of his work and thinking on this.

Although the hon. Member for St Ives—he is now back in his place; he just did a tour—is identifying some real issues, we cannot look at these things in isolation, and this is really a sticking plaster for a housing crisis for which we need an overarching plan. We need councils to use the powers they currently have, and to stay up to date with their five-year land supplies and local plans, so that planning inspectors are not coming in and forcing them on councils. The power stays local when the local behaves properly, and that is what we need to get across to councils that have still not put such measures in place. Those councils—Milton Keynes is surrounded by many of them—that refuse to build, or build only on the borders of Milton Keynes, are not taking this issue seriously.

[Oliver Ryan]

Tory ones.

[Amanda Martin]

And Lib Dems.