Public Amenities (Adoption by Local Authorities)

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

1st reading
Tuesday 30th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require local authorities to adopt public amenities in certain circumstances where specified minimum standards are met; and for connected purposes.

People living in Harrow View West in my constituency have faced a huge increase in their service charges since they purchased their properties. Built by Persimmon on part of the old Kodak site, neighbouring the beautiful Headstone Manor Park, the start of the River Crane, home to the only moated manor house in London—now Harrow Museum—and with good transport links, Harrow View West should be a great investment for the many young families who have moved into homes on that development.

Many residents, however, have been left very frustrated by rising service charges,

their powerlessness and inability to secure clear and transparent information about those service charges and other dreadful customer service. Persimmon Homes and its management company, Residential Management Group, are as a result the source of considerable dissatisfaction among the residents for their more than doubling of the service charge since the residents took ownership of their properties.

Not surprisingly, the residents now want Harrow Council to take over the ownership

of the public spaces on the development—the roads and the estate park—and the maintenance costs that are being forced on to their service charges. The residents note that others not living on their estate can access and enjoy the public spaces on the development for free, while they are being charged. Anyone can use the roads in the development to park on, to access Headstone Manor or the surrounding roads.

Despite the extra cost for the upkeep of these public spaces, residents point out that they still have to pay their council tax on top of the rising service charges. I am concerned that other developments being planned in Harrow, or built now, will see residents facing the same problems if new rules are not brought in urgently.

As the law stands at the moment, the decision as to who is responsible for the public spaces in big new developments is resolved at the planning stage. Councils all too often, and for understandable reasons after 14 years of funding cutbacks, are wary of taking on responsibility for new public space. Their negotiations with developers about how maintenance costs for any new roads, parks or playgrounds are funded often end with cash-strapped local authorities wanting those costs to be paid for first by the developer and then ultimately by the residents of the new developments. This form of leasehold has been labelled “fleecehold”, because it leads to higher costs for those living in newly built homes than for those faced by people who buy an older home on roads for which the local authorities are already responsible.

The Competition and Markets Authority has looked at this issue in detail during its market study into house building and has made it clear that it thinks that councils should have a legal duty to adopt the public spaces in new developments such as Harrow View West—the roads, pavements, play areas and open spaces. Crucially, it thinks that developers should have clearly set out responsibilities to meet high standards for those public spaces before they are handed over.

I understand why, after years of austerity, local councils want to avoid ownership of new estates and the responsibility for new public open spaces. Too often, they simply do not have the money to feel able to do the right thing. But that is not fair on those living in newly built estates who move in with great hopes, often with promises of low service charges, only suddenly to see rising service charges, which too often they have zero control over in practice. They have to deal with often unaccountable estate management companies, yet still have to pay often rising amounts of council tax.

Like, I expect, every Member in this House, many leaseholders in my constituency find themselves stuck, facing unjustified administration fees and charges, and ever-rising ground rents. Leaseholders find themselves dependent on developers, freeholders and their managing agent to take action, which often takes far longer than it should, particularly given those rocketing service charges.

At Trident Point in my constituency, residents were subject to regular and extended periods of lift outages. One constituent in the building is a wheelchair user. For him, lift outages meant that he was confined to his flat, deeply concerned about what would happen in an emergency. Leaseholders were initially told by Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing that residents would have to cover the costs of the lift refurbishment, which caused significant stress and worry. Eventually, the housing association accepted that the lifts were still under warranty, so no costs were passed on. The lifts were eventually refurbished and completed earlier this year. It took far too long to sort out, but we got there in the end. I thank Harrow Law Centre, which supported residents on this issue at the time.

In another example in my constituency—this time, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward were the developers—leaseholder residents waited more than three years for action to be taken by the managing agent, despite, again, rocketing service charges. Another developer, Jaspar development group, has caused difficulties for my constituents. Its managing agent keeps changing, service charges keep going up, and there is still no resolution of residents’ concerns.

This is also not the first time that I have seen leaseholders finding themselves financially responsible for the upkeep of what one would reasonably assume are public parks and public amenities. In my constituency, Fairview has built another development that includes a playground bordering the main road. It is managed by a management company on behalf of the freeholder. Residents are worried that there is no fencing between the playground and the road and some have witnessed children going into the road to retrieve footballs. It would seem sensible that all options, such as signage and fencing, should be considered to keep children safe in that playground, but residents have been told that it is not the local council that should undertake this work and that it is leaseholders who would have to foot the bill through their service charges. The playground is not just for the children of residents but, rightly, for all children to enjoy, so surely that should mean that the playground is adopted by the local council.

I recognise that there has been some progress since the Law Commission published its three reports in July 2020 on leasehold reform. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, which applied only to new lease agreements, was a step in the right direction, but it still leaves my constituents stuck in unfair leasehold arrangements. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, is very limited in scope. Although I welcome that Bill, it does not go far enough: it does not ban leasehold; it does not enact the recommendations of the Law Commission in full; and, crucially, it does not tackle the problem that my constituents have faced with unadopted roads and public facilities.

We on the Opposition Benches are clear that a future Labour Government would make commonhold the default tenure for all new properties. Indeed, as my Front-Bench colleagues have made it clear, we support enacting the Law Commission’s recommendations on enfranchisement, commonhold and right to manage in full.

In addition, my Bill would deliver the recommendations from the Competition and Markets Authority that, where specified standards have been met with regard to public spaces, councils would then be mandated to adopt those public spaces. It is time for Ministers to come off the fence and implement those recommendations, for the benefit of my constituents on the old Kodak site and all those who are currently locked into this “fleecehold” model of housing. I commend the Bill to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Ordered,

That Gareth Thomas, Bill Esterson, Yvonne Fovargue, Sir Stephen Timms, Matt Rodda, Anna McMorrin, Dame Diana Johnson, Clive Efford, Ruth Cadbury, Matt Western, Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Andy Slaughter present the Bill.

Gareth Thomas accordingly presented the Bill.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 21 June, and to be printed (Bill 209).

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill: Programme (No. 3)

Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 83A(7)),

That the following provisions shall apply to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill for the purpose of supplementing the Order of 17 May 2023 (Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill: Programme) as varied by the Order of 20 November 2023 (Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill: Programme (No. 2)):

Consideration of Lords Amendments

(1) Proceedings on consideration of Lords Amendments shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion four hours after their commencement.

(2) The Lords Amendments shall be considered in the following order: Lords Amendments 9, 12, 13, 19, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32, 38, 104, 1 to 8, 10, 11, 14 to 18, 20 to 25, 29, 30, 33 to 37, 39 to 103 and 105 to 148.

Subsequent stages

(3) Any further Message from the Lords may be considered forthwith without any Question being put.

(4) The proceedings on any further Message from the Lords shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion one hour after their commencement.—(Mark Fletcher.)

Question agreed to.