Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Matthew Pennycook and Allison Gardner

Monday 2nd December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

We took steps, in the proposed reforms to the consultation on the national planning policy framework, to encourage build-out—not least through encouraging mixed-use development. However, we are reflecting on what more can be done to encourage that and to ensure that sites are built out in a timely manner.

[Dr Allison Gardner (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

T9. I have a constituent—a young, pregnant woman —who was recently released from hospital and housed in a local hotel that was contracted to house the homeless. She was petrified from the first night. She slept badly because men were banging on her door all night, and she was surrounded by drug use. She felt safer sleeping rough on the second night. Too many of my vulnerable constituents in Stoke-on-Trent South are being housed in accommodation that does not cater to their complex needs. Will the Minister update the House on his work to end the practice of shifting homeless constituents from one area to another to be housed in totally inappropriate—

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Matthew Pennycook and Allison Gardner

Monday 2nd September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dr Allison Gardner (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

8. What steps she plans to take to reform the leasehold system.

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)]

The Government are committed to finally bringing the feudal leasehold system to an end. To do so, we will implement the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, enact the remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to enfranchisement and the right to manage, take steps to make commonhold the default tenure for new flats, and tackle unaffordable and unregulated ground rent charges. As set out in the King’s Speech, draft legislation will be published in due course.

[Dr Gardner]

Many of my constituents in Stoke-on-Trent South have contacted me in the past few weeks, including those from Blythe Bridge, telling me how the archaic fleecehold system has left them at the mercy of poor management agents. They have been tricked into purchasing homes that are not covered by right to manage in the same way as flats, with service charges more than doubling, and the developers and managing agents reneging on promises to upkeep and, in some cases, even build the necessary infrastructure on their development. Does the Government have plans to hold those managing agents and developers to account, perhaps with legal requirements of provision or a licensing scheme?

[Matthew Pennycook]

The distinct set of problems faced by residential freeholders that my hon. Friend describes are well known and understood. As we set out in our manifesto, the Government are committed to bringing the injustice of fleecehold private housing estates and unfair maintenance costs to an end. We intend to consult publicly on the best way to achieve that. In the interim, we will move to implement the new protections against unfair charges that were contained in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.