Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Hall Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Neil Duncan-Jordan (Poole) (Lab)]

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

[Sarah Hall (Warrington South) (Lab/Co-op)]

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

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

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

--- Later in debate ---

[Matthew Pennycook]

I sympathise with the plight of my hon. Friend’s constituents. With regard to service charges in particular, we know that opaque and unaffordable charges are putting leaseholders and tenants across the country under immense strain. The Government are committed to improving service charge transparency and making it easier to challenge unreasonable increases. In the coming months, we intend to consult on how the provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 relating to service charges and legal costs should be enacted, with a view to bringing those measures into force as quickly as possible thereafter.

[Sarah Hall]

Many of my constituents cannot afford to buy their freeholds under the current leasehold legislation. When does the Minister think the legislation to ensure that leaseholders can enfranchise easier, cheaper and quicker will come into force?

[Matthew Pennycook]

I fully appreciate the desire of my hon. Friend’s constituents to take advantage of the provisions in the 2024 Act that will make it cheaper and easier for existing leaseholders in houses and flats to buy their freehold. Unfortunately, we discovered on assuming office that the previous Government had passed the Act with a number of specific but serious flaws that prevent certain provisions, including those relating to enfranchisement valuations, from operating as intended. We need to fix those flaws through primary legislation, and we intend to do so at the earliest possible opportunity.

Grenfell Tower Inquiry

Sarah Hall Excerpts

Monday 2nd December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Hall (Warrington South) (Lab/Co-op)]

On 14 June 2017, the country watched in horror as images of the fire engulfing Grenfell Tower emerged. I felt it in the pit of my stomach as the true scale of the devastation and loss of life became apparent. This tragedy should never have happened. I will call it out for what it is: a national scandal.

I hope that the family, friends and community affected by the fire can find some peace in the fight for justice, but as I stand here I am reminded of another disaster: the Summerland fire in 1973, with combustible cladding, critical matters of safety of life ignored and disregarded, and a catalogue of failures. Fifty people died in that fire, including 11 children, and many more were injured. Those events were 44 years apart but the parallels are all too clear.

Speaking in 2013, a photographer called Noel Howarth, who captured pictures of the fire as it engulfed the Summerland leisure complex, said:

“Unless we learn from history, we will repeat the mistakes we made in history”.

Whether it is 2017 or 1973, justice must be served and lessons must be learned. Both campaigns for justice have my full support.