Homes and Planning Bill

Noah Law Excerpts

Friday 13th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab)]

Is the hon. Member supportive of taking further steps towards licensing and the potential introduction of caps, as suggested by my hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and Solway (Markus Campbell-Savours)? I am sure that he is, but can he confirm that he would be happy with that direction of travel?

[Andrew George]

In case I have not made it clear, a licensing scheme is welcome. That will play a small role, but only in relation to holiday lets in a particular area. It will not have the impact that I think this Bill would have.

[Andrew George]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. As a result of tax changes, we have seen properties moving from holiday lets to second homes, and from second homes to holiday lets. It is relatively easy to move from the council tax register to the business rates register.

Of course, the vast majority of holiday lets in places such as Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are owned by people who do not live there. They run the business through agents, and the vast majority of those who apply for small business rate relief end up paying nothing at all. They must have been joyous, and were no doubt popping champagne corks in whichever part of the country they live in—not Cornwall—when the Government announced in the Budget that they would increase the valuation that will be used for small business rate relief, from £12,000 to £18,000. That allows people who are wealthy enough to own a second property to use it for their own leisure purposes, to let it out for holiday purposes or to do both. That is the point, and a lot of holiday letting agents make this quite clear to those people with second homes, “You don’t like paying double council tax on your second home? Well, you can enjoy it and, in the weeks when you’re not using it, you can let it out.” I could give quotes. Certainly, if we look at all the agents’ sites, the advice is clearly there: they say that second homeowners can switch from council tax to business rates, apply for small business rate relief and pay nothing.

[Noah Law]

rose—

[Andrew George]

I will finish this point—no doubt, my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Noah Law) will want to assist me in making it. In Cornwall alone, since the small business rate relief change came in in 2012, well over half a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money has subsidised those people who take advantage of small business rate relief for holiday lets. Admittedly, a large amount of that was covid aid—whether they should have been entitled to that is a moral question one might want to ask—but the fact is that that amount of our taxpayers’ money is being used subsidise people who, in many cases, are wealthy enough to have a second home. They enjoy that second home, using it for themselves, but do not live in the area and let it out to the holiday trade, yet we have not got enough money to invest for the many thousands of families in places like Cornwall who have desperate housing need.

I am trying to persuade the Minister to change his mind, and surely regulations that were better defined through planning law and registrations would help us to manage this better, close the tax reliefs and invest money better in social housing for the people who need and deserve it.

[Noah Law]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving way again. Notwithstanding some of the issues that it can create, I hope he welcomes the dozens of high street businesses in his constituency and mine being lifted out of the business rate system entirely through some of those valuation changes; I hope he will confirm that he supports that. Does he agree that we need a co-ordinated approach to tackling the real, stark example he gave of second homeowners flipping between their two properties to avoid taxes? We need an approach that addresses that across the planning regime, taxation and licensing. It is essential that we get that co-ordination and the right level of property taxation for such properties.

[Andrew George]

I welcome that intervention, and I entirely agree with my hon. Friend about small business rate relief on retail, hospitality and leisure, especially for those in the hospitality sector, who in many cases—certainly in my constituency, as in his—are on their knees as far as future viability is concerned. At the end of the day, if one wanted to disaggregate the holiday letting fraternity from that definition, the Bill could be one means of doing that. If we had a planning register, we could see them all with their C6 categorisation, which would help us to say, “This category is exempt from the small business rate relief system.” Then we would not be wasting money in that area; we could instead invest it where it is desperately needed.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ben Maguire (North Cornwall) (LD)]

It is a great privilege to rise to speak in full and fulsome support of my hon. Friend the Member for St Ives (Andrew George), to whom I would like to pay a brief tribute. He has spent many years campaigning on this issue with such passion and dedication. Even when he took a brief sabbatical from this place, he carried on that passion and dedication, and was determined to pursue the measures he has laid before the House today. So I pay tribute to him and thank him.

Seeing my hon. Friend’s dedication to people in Cornwall has been an inspiration for me as a young person coming into politics in Cornwall. Like him, I grew up in Cornwall and felt that I had no option but to move away when I turned 18, because it seemed that there were simply no opportunities for a career or further education, but also no kind of hope of affording my own home and raising a family in Cornwall. It is therefore an immense privilege that I have managed to return to North Cornwall as its Member of Parliament.

The measures my hon. Friend proposes today are, unfortunately, not new. We have been talking about these issues in this Chamber for decades. In fact, one of my predecessors, the former hon. Member for North Cornwall, John Pardoe, who some hon. Members may remember, in 1966 described our area as “neglected” and

“exporting a mass of young people.”—[Official Report, 25 April 1966; Vol. 727, c. 623.]

He said: “The tragedy facing so many of the people I represent is the knowledge that the stock of housing on which they must rely—namely, the housing provided by the local authorities—is rapidly declining.”

Paul Tyler, his successor, in 1974 said:

“The housing shortage is now a major social evil once again.” —[Official Report, 12 March 1974; Vol. 870, c. 144.]

My most recent Liberal Democrat predecessor, Dan Rogerson, in 2005 quite simply said:

“North Cornwall has more second homes than council houses”. —[Official Report, 18 May 2005; Vol. 434, c. 214.]

Yet here we are again. It almost feels like groundhog day, debating once again the abject failure of successive Governments to build enough affordable and social homes for local people in Cornwall that they can actually afford to rent and live in. We just continually see inaction from Government after Government.

[Noah Law]

I certainly appreciate that progress has been slow over the decades, but does the hon. Gentleman recognise that, given the changes to allow a second home council tax premium and the Labour Government’s position on stamp duty for second homes, there is some light at the end of the tunnel on this long journey to ensuring that second home owners pay their fair share? Will he call on the Liberal Democrat council locally to make an economic impact study of what those changes have done to the housing market locally?

[Ben Maguire]

Apologies, I did not quite catch the hon. Gentleman’s last point, but on the stamp duty point I was proud to walk with him through the Lobby in support of that. Unfortunately, that was a very incremental change, which I know from anecdotal experience has not deterred a single person from turning a residential property into a second home. I think it was something like a 2% increase. I suspect that many house buyers paying for a £1.5 million or £2 million home will not balk at the thought of an extra 1% or 2% stamp duty. Of course, I welcome the measure and I agree with him that these are the kinds of steps that need to be taken.

[Noah Law]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Ben Maguire]

Perhaps in the hon. Gentleman’s next intervention he could explain why he will not be supporting the specific provisions in the Bill, which he knows as well as I do would benefit his constituents extremely in areas such as St Austell and Newquay, who for decades have struggled to get on the housing ladder or rent a home, because they are all being put up for holiday lets and second homes.

[Noah Law]

I reiterate that we need to see data on the impact of the measures the Labour Government have overseen. Anecdotes are one thing, but I think we are starting to see a change in the behaviour of second home owners as a result of the changes.

[Ben Maguire]

I would be pleased if the hon. Gentleman brought that data to the House. I must admit that I am struggling with some of the opposition to the Bill from Labour Members. We have heard that it is not radical enough, and that we need to build more homes. The hon. Gentleman said he wanted data; well, I have a stat: between 1961 and 2011, Cornwall’s population almost tripled, and during the 2000s, Cornwall built 770 homes for every 1,000 new residents, which was double the national average of 377 at the time.

We are not short of homes or houses in Cornwall. We have record—[Interruption.] I hear the hon. Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Patrick Spencer) chuntering from a sedentary position; I am happy to give way. We are not short of residential properties, which are being built every year, but, as I highlighted in my intervention on my hon. Friend the Member for St Ives, many of those homes, once built, are rapidly turned into second homes and holiday lets, and the local authority has no control.

I warmly welcome the measures in the Bill. I thought there was consensus in the House on giving local areas the choice and the powers to make decisions for certain parts of the country—for example, towns and villages in my North Cornwall constituency such as St Minver Lowlands, which has 71% non-first homes, or St Merryn, which has 60% non-first homes. Other Members have highlighted the impact on community life, school staffing, nurseries and other local facilities. I warmly welcome my hon. Friend’s attempt to take forward this legislation to give local people, local authorities and local areas decision-making powers where there are far too many second homes compared with affordable first homes for local people. We should give those areas the right to choose and the power to balance the market.

As my hon. Friend said, we are not against second home owners, and we are certainly not against holiday let owners—they are an important part of the accommodation mix for the tourism industry in Cornwall—but may I humbly suggest that if the proportion gets to over 70% it is possibly too much? Despite the massive house building numbers I mentioned, Cornwall’s housing register list has over 25,000 families who cannot find a safe and warm place to live. I suggest that in those specific areas we give local people, local authorities and local councils the chance to decide how many and where any holiday lets and second homes might be appropriate.

My hon. Friend, along with some Government Members, touched on the council tax loophole, whereby if holiday homes can be easily flipped to holiday lets, they qualify for business rates and, often, small business rate relief, so they do not pay double council tax and they pay no business rates at all. In fact, they do not pay any tax, full stop. I would welcome the Minister’s thoughts on that loophole which, as I understand it, can be backdated several years.

On infrastructure, Cornwall is, as has been mentioned, very good at meeting our house building targets, and we have built thousands of homes. Unfortunately, as I have explained, they do not always end up in the hands of local residents, as they should. But in Cornwall, as well as a housing crisis we now have an infrastructure crisis. In my town of Bodmin—the largest in my constituency—the surgery is operating at 160% of capacity, yet we cannot get a new surgery building past the local integrated care board. We have part but not full funding, and yet by 2030 Bodmin will see 3,500 more homes built. Unless new homes come with infrastructure, we are storing up enormous issues for our local residents.

I would really welcome the Housing Minister explaining the very ambitious house building targets. As I say, if those houses are for local residents who really need them, I am fully supportive, but I have highlighted the issues around those arbitrary targets.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michelle Scrogham (Barrow and Furness) (Lab)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to speak in this debate.

The concerns that this Bill seeks to address are genuine. Across the country, too many families are struggling to access secure and affordable housing. Young people are finding home ownership increasingly out of reach. Social housing waiting lists remain far too long and, in many communities, the growth of second homes and short-term lets has placed further pressure on already limited housing stock. Private rentals are becoming increasingly unaffordable. Far too often, we hear stories of the horrible conditions in which private tenants are forced to live. These are important challenges, and it is right that we dedicate time to solving them. However, I am not convinced that this Bill provides the remedy.

The Bill focuses on identifying opportunities for affordable housing through the “assets of community value” process. That requires parish and town councils, community land trusts and local charities to identify vacant or unused buildings, or land suitable for affordable housing. At present, such assets can include pubs, village shops, community centres and libraries, among others. The hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George) wants to expand the framework to include land that is vacant or substantially unused. The Liberal Democrats were part of the coalition Government, who introduced the legislation. If they believe that the framework needs strengthening to support affordable housing, why did not they do that when they were in government?

The difficulty is that identifying land is not the same as building homes. Like other Members of this House, I am aware of many derelict and unused sites in my patch that would be perfect for redevelopment, but the challenge has never been knowing that these sites exist. The challenge has been securing the investment, planning capacity, infrastructure and long-term delivery required to turn those sites into homes that people can actually live in.

[Noah Law]

My hon. Friend makes a really important point. We can make changes to planning rules and regulations, but ultimately what matters for delivery is investment and making sites investable. Does she welcome the £40 billion or so that this Labour Government are putting into social and affordable homes, and the £65 million that we are putting aside for local community organisations to work on those kinds of projects on their high streets?

[Michelle Scrogham]

I absolutely agree that this Government’s interventions and funding will make those changes. This Bill, though, creates additional expectations, without addressing the problem of delivery.

The Liberal Democrats were not powerless observers during the worsening of our housing crisis; they spent five years in government. They sat at the Cabinet table, and they voted for coalition Budgets. They supported policies that saw local government funding slashed and planning departments across the country stretched ever more thinly. If they believed that local communities needed stronger powers to bring forward affordable housing sites, why did they not legislate for that when they were in office? The truth is that too often the Liberal Democrats seek to campaign against the consequences of decisions that they helped to make in government.

This Labour Government are pursuing a comprehensive strategy to tackle the housing crisis. We have committed to delivering 1.5 million social homes over this Parliament. At the 2025 spending review, the Government confirmed £39 billion in funding over the next 10 years, as has been mentioned. This provides the certainty needed for providers to plan ambitious housing development projects over the next 10 years.