Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Reed Excerpts

Monday 13th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

2. What mechanisms his Department has put in place to ensure that communities are consulted on the use of Pride in Place funding in Shipley constituency.

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Steve Reed)]

Happy Easter to you, Mr Speaker. Shipley will benefit from the £1.5 million allocated to Bradford through the Pride in Place impact fund. The Department has asked local authorities to engage with their local MP and a wider range of local stakeholders to shape delivery of the fund, and to report on that engagement.

[Anna Dixon]

A happy Easter to you, Mr Speaker. The Government’s £1.5 million impact fund for Bradford is critical to communities that have been overlooked for too long. I recently visited Windhill recreation ground in my local area, which is set to benefit from Pride in Place funding. Does the Secretary of State agree that after 14 years of brutal cuts to northern councils such as Bradford, this Labour Government are providing our local areas and communities with the investment they need?

[Steve Reed]

My hon. Friend is a great advocate for her constituents, which I saw for myself when I visited her constituency during the general election. She is right, of course: this funding is going to hundreds of areas that were the most left behind by the previous Government, so that they can take decisions about what to invest in and put pride back at the heart of the communities that the people there belong to and love.

[Dame Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)]

3. What steps his Department is taking to help reduce levels of homelessness among women in the Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West constituency.

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[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South and South Bedfordshire) (Lab)]

5. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of Pride in Place funding on levels of community cohesion in Luton South and South Bedfordshire constituency.

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Steve Reed)]

I was delighted to confirm up to £20 million for central Luton as part of the expanded Pride in Place programme. The funding will give the community the resources and the power they need to drive transformational local change that will bring people together and restore a sense of pride in the area.

[Rachel Hopkins]

May I take a moment to congratulate Luton Town on winning the English Football League trophy yesterday at Wembley? I very much welcome the £20 million Pride in Place funding for central Luton, which will help to restore pride in our local neighbourhoods after they were left behind for so many years under the previous Conservative Government. Does the Secretary of State agree that decisions on how to use that investment to regenerate central Luton will be made by the community, for the community and to connect the community?

[Steve Reed]

I agree with my hon. Friend that one of the most exciting things about Pride in Place is that the community themselves take the decisions about how the money should be spent. Of course that is the right thing to do, because they know best what needs to change to put pride back at the heart of their communities.

[Gregory Stafford (Farnham and Bordon) (Con)]

6. What steps his Department is taking to help prevent family voting in UK elections.

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[Feryal Clark (Enfield North) (Lab)]

10. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Pride in Place funding on community spaces.

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Steve Reed)]

Can I first say what a pleasure it was to join my hon. Friend on a visit to the new Pride in Place area at Enfield Wash during the Easter recess? Many places in phase 1 of the programme that have already announced their spending intentions have selected community spaces as what they will spend their money on. That is no wonder because community spaces are where communities can come together and take action and give their community the voice they need to articulate their aspirations for the future.

[Feryal Clark]

I thank my right hon. Friend for visiting Enfield Wash in my constituency last week. After 14 years of Conservative cuts, Enfield lost around 60% of its funding, hitting vital services such as adult social care, youth services and our high street. Despite the cuts, Enfield Labour council has worked tirelessly to protect residents and support the most vulnerable. Does my right hon. Friend agree with me and our brilliant Labour council leader Ergin Erbil—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I know that we are into an election period, but we will have to shorten questions if other Members are to get in. I am sure that the Secretary of State will agree.

[Steve Reed]

I always agree with you, Mr Speaker.

Fair funding will provide a significant increase for Enfield council, in line with deprivation levels. The additional Pride in Place funding for two of the most held-back areas will allow them to take control of their own futures.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

In the Staffordshire county council area we have amazing community spaces, but they would benefit from additional investment, and Pride in Place would have been a great way to allocate it. Sadly, none of the local authorities in that county council area is eligible for Pride in Place, and the result feels a little like gerrymandering, but I am sure that that is not the case. Will the Secretary of State commit to looking afresh at whether there is any opportunity for Staffordshire not to be forgotten by this Government?

[Steve Reed]

Through fair funding, Labour is ensuring that funding goes where deprivation is highest. The previous Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), stood up in a leafy garden in Tunbridge Wells and boasted about how the Conservatives were taking money away from deprived areas to use it for what I can only assume was gerrymandering.

[Sonia Kumar (Dudley) (Lab)]

The Pride in Place funding in Dudley is being divided between two constituencies, risking the dilution of its impact. Given the high levels of deprivation among many of my constituents, what steps will my right hon. Friend take to ensure that communities in Dudley fully feel the transformational benefits of the investment and see tangible improvements? Will he meet me to discuss how we can crowd in funding?

[Steve Reed]

Of course, the most exciting thing about Pride in Place is that communities themselves, rather than politicians, make the decisions about how the money is spent. They will come together, from across the area that is benefiting from the funding, to decide what they want to do to put pride back into a place that had pride ripped out of its heart by the Conservatives.

[John Milne (Horsham) (LD)]

There are real concerns that Pride in Place is just another example of this Government’s blind spot on rural areas. Groups such as the Rural Services Network and Plunkett UK warn that villages are being left behind. Key rural assets are disappearing fast, and Plunkett is calling for a targeted £10 million rural community ownership fund to help. What are the Government doing to ensure that rural communities are not left out again?

[Steve Reed]

Of course, the funding was distributed according to data provided by the indices of multiple deprivation, so it is going to the most deprived areas, wherever they may lie in the country—be it in urban or rural areas. The fair funding review also ensured that funding targeted the areas that needed it most and were most deprived of it by the previous Government. It included a measure on rurality to ensure that rural areas get their fair share.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

11. What progress he has made on introducing a registration scheme for short-term holiday lets.

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[Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

15. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of Pride in Place funding on levels of community cohesion in Hyndburn constituency.

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Steve Reed)]

The Pride in Place programme supports community cohesion by backing locally led change—local people coming together, whatever their background, to determine their own priorities for putting pride back at the heart of their community.

[Sarah Smith]

I have established a Get Hyndburn Working group, which is bringing together local organisations, schools, the Department for Work and Pensions, voluntary sector organisations, the college and our training providers to tackle economic inactivity and look at the high levels of our young people who are out of work, training and education. Does the Minister agree that Pride in Place funding could play a key role in supporting these place-based, collective approaches to tackling such issues?

[Steve Reed]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on bringing that working group together. That is an excellent use of her role as a Member of Parliament to support her community to have a bigger say, and to enable them to share their ideas and creativity about how to tackle local priorities in the circumstances she is talking about—the important matter of getting people into work and guaranteeing them a better future.

[Luke Akehurst (North Durham) (Lab)]

16. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of furnished tenancies for social homes.

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[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Steve Reed)]

The Renters Rights Act 2025 meets Labour’s manifesto commitment to transform the experience of private renting in England. We will introduce our reforms in three phases, the first of which will begin on 1 May, when section 21 no-fault evictions will be abolished and rent increases will be limited to just one a year. We will end rental bidding wars and limit requests for rent in advance to a maximum of one month, and it will be illegal to discriminate against prospective renters who have children or who receive benefits. These are the biggest reforms in the rental sector for a generation. The Tories and Reform UK voted against them and the Greens want to abolish renting, but this Labour Government stand firmly on the side of renters.

[Sarah Dyke]

The availability of affordable housing in Somerset has plummeted, demand has surged and rents have risen by six times as much as income. These challenges are highlighted in rural market towns such as Glastonbury, where hundreds of people live in vans and caravans lining the kerbsides. Many are there because they cannot afford to rent a bricks-and-mortar home. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that everyone has a decent and safe place where they can afford to live?

[Steve Reed]

Ensuring that there are decent and safe places to live all across this country is a primary objective of this Government. As the hon. Lady will be aware, the social and affordable homes programme opened for bids in February, and the first phase of bidding will close later in April. The programme will provide up to £39 billion for the biggest ever increase in the amount of social and affordable housing across this country, including council housing, which will make a massive difference to people in rural areas as well as those in other parts of the country.

[Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Suffolk Coastal) (Lab)]

T2. One of the biggest housing challenges in many of my villages and market towns—for instance, Orford, Aldeburgh and even larger towns such as Felixstowe— is the selling off of housing stock by social housing providers who do not replace it locally. Considering how to tackle the issue is critical, and, as was stated in a recent report by the Labour rural research group, expanding the use of rural exception sites must be part of the solution. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to do that in order to deliver affordable housing?

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[Sir James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)]

Last week I was in Bromsgrove, a rural constituency facing an 85% increase in its housing target. Neighbouring Labour-run Birmingham, which has significant brownfield capacity, has seen its target cut by more than 30%. Targets are increasing by 37% in Essex, but decreasing by 11% in London. House building has collapsed under this Labour Government, so why is the Secretary of State letting his Labour-run urban friends off the hook while dumping housing targets in rural Britain?

[Steve Reed]

It was, of course, the Conservative Government who abolished housing targets everywhere, which led to the housing crisis that we are now facing. Under that Government, the number of people sleeping rough, on the streets and in shop doorways, doubled. Opposition Members are smiling while I explain what they did: they are smiling because the number of people sleeping on the streets doubled, while the number of families in temporary accommodation doubled as well. The Conservatives did nothing when the housing market collapsed in 2022-23 because of Liz Truss’ Budget, which the shadow Secretary of State supported.

[Sir James Cleverly]

The Secretary of State cannot answer—he does not have an answer. Perhaps he can give the answer that he failed to give in response to a written question, because he has once again refused to publish either the prospectus or the selection criteria for his election pilots. This is part of a wider pattern: cancelling elections that the Government do not think they will win, changing local government boundaries instead of giving that task to the independent Boundary Commission, and changing voter ID arrangements without consultation. When I saw this kind of behaviour overseas, I called it out for what it was: dirty, self-interested, partisan politics. Will the Secretary of State scrap this Orbán-style politics and start doing things properly?

[Steve Reed]

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, elections are going ahead all over the country right now. I suspect that, like me, he has been campaigning and knocking on doors to talk to people about how they will vote, and we will find out in a few weeks what their judgments on all of us will be.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

T3. I welcome the action that the Government are taking to improve the reporting and transparency of political donations from unincorporated associations in the Representation of the People Bill. Since 2010, 97% of donations from such bodies have come from unknown sources under the existing rules. Will Ministers consider going further and require information to be published on who runs unincorporated associations that make political donations and what their purpose is, to ensure that we have maximum transparency?