Business of the House

Rachel Blake Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I am sorry to hear about the impact that the ruling is having on fishing in the hon. Lady’s area. I am not aware that the House is to be told of any developments, but the Government will ensure that she gets a full ministerial reply, and if the House needs to be updated, it will be.

[Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)]

My constituency has the most leaseholders in the country. I commend this Government’s work to give leaseholders the accountability that they should have. Will the Leader of the House support me in inviting the Minister responsible to come and talk to the leasehold action group here in the Cities of London and Westminster about mandatory qualifications and securing accountability against their landlords?

[Lucy Powell]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The feudal leasehold system is a plague for many homeowners in our country. Many of the issues she has in her constituency I share in my own, and I know that the Minister responsible for leasehold, my hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Matthew Pennycook), would be delighted to meet her constituents, as he recently did with hundreds of mine, to discuss this Government’s plans for leasehold reform.

Business of the House

Rachel Blake Excerpts

Thursday 27th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)]

Since I last raised in this Chamber the negative impact of short-term lets in my constituency, Central London Forward has brought out new research estimating that 17,000 properties in my constituency are lost to short-term lets. It believes that a significant proportion of those is the result of individual owners owning up to 21 properties themselves. I thank the Leader of the House for her previous comments. Does she recognise the case I am making that the Cities of London and Westminster should be a pilot in the much-needed forthcoming Government registration scheme?

[Lucy Powell]

Absolutely. I know of these issues very well from my own constituency. As my hon. Friend said, we are introducing the short-term let registration scheme and abolishing the furnished holiday lets tax regime to remove some tax incentives. From April, councils can opt to charge a council tax premium of up to 100% on second homes. I will ensure that Ministers hear her plea to be part of that registration scheme.

Business of the House

Rachel Blake Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I am sorry to hear about that case. I assure my hon. Friend, his constituent and other survivors of domestic abuse that we will be strengthening the rights and protections available for women in co-habiting couples, including addressing issues around joint tenancies, so that they can remain in their homes. I look forward to letting my hon. Friend know when those measures will be introduced.

[Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)]

Cultural and community institutions in the heart of central London face an uncertain future. The Jubilee Hall gym, Central YMCA and the Prince Charles cinema all have uncertain futures because of the complex property ownership structures in which they exist. Central YMCA faces closures tomorrow, so will the Leader of the House support me with my call to meet the landlord, so we can come together to discuss a sustainable, long-term future for that institution?

[Lucy Powell]

My hon. Friend is right that we need to put more power back into the hands of local communities and local government to ensure the long-term future of community assets, like the ones she describes.

Business of the House

Rachel Blake Excerpts

Thursday 21st November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising that point ahead of Small Business Saturday. I gently say to him, as he was a Minister in the previous Government, that the previous Government increased national insurance contributions not just on businesses but on workers as well. They did so at a time when inflation was at an almost record high of 9%. It is funny that they did not seem to worry about that at the time. They also—I supported them in doing so—increased the minimum wage on many occasions in their time in office. I am proud that this Government are giving a pay rise to some of the lowest paid in our society and economy. We are bringing in changes to business rate reform, which will support many of our small businesses on the high street. Treasury questions are coming up, where I am sure he will want to raise business tax relief reform with Treasury Ministers.

[Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)]

Communities are really suffering with the increasing number of short-term lets in the Cities of London and Westminster. Local authority time is being used up to clean the mess, and the availability of genuinely affordable homes is being eroded. Landlords are sometimes struggling to evict tenants who are illegally sub-letting into the short-term let tenure. Will the Leader of the House ask a Minister to update us on the Government’s plans to tackle the rise in short-term lets? This affects not just the west end, but communities across the country. We need the registration scheme to come forward quickly, alongside licensing and the ability of local authorities to plan for short-term lets.

[Lucy Powell]

This is a really big issue in city centre constituencies like mine, as well as in rural areas. We are committed, as my hon. Friend says, to introducing the registration scheme for short-term lets, and we will be removing the furnished holiday lets tax incentive that short-term let owners have had recently. Those measures will be introduced as soon as possible, and I will make sure the House is updated. We have also announced a 2% increase to the higher rates of stamp duty on those types of properties. I hope that, taken together, they will reduce the blight of short-term lets on many of our constituencies.

Business of the House

Rachel Blake Excerpts

Thursday 25th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

As one of the few Labour Members present on that day, I remember that well. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the economic inheritance of this Government is a lot more challenging than we had feared, and some of the commitments made by the previous Government were not funded. We obviously take very seriously the commitments made to local communities, and I am sure that there will be updates for the House as soon as they are available.

[Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Leader of the House acknowledge the risk of falling school rolls in the Cities of London and Westminster? She will be aware that the Cities of London and Westminster have some excellent local primary schools, many of which are just a few minutes’ walk from this place. The sustainability of local primary schools is at risk due to London’s housing crisis, so will she allow a debate on the long-term sustainability of local primary schools and their vital importance to central inner-city communities?

[Lucy Powell]

I welcome my hon. Friend to her place as the Labour MP for where we are today. She raises an important matter that should be covered by the children’s wellbeing Bill that was announced in the King’s Speech, which will look at admission and place planning, and giving local authorities a greater ability to do that than they currently have. The next Education questions are due not long after we return from the summer recess, so she might want to raise this important matter then.