Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Matthew Pennycook
Main Page: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)Department Debates - View all Matthew Pennycook's debates with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
(1 day, 11 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)
Leasehold and commonhold reform are key priorities for this Government, and we remain absolutely determined to honour the commitments made in our manifesto and finally bring the feudal leasehold system to an end in this Parliament. We have already brought into force a range of provisions from the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, and we will progress the required secondary legislation to commence many more this year. We also intend to publish an ambitious draft commonhold and leasehold reform Bill in the coming weeks.
Tulip Siddiq
The leaseholders on the Hillcrest estate in Highgate in my constituency have written to me, because they have 84 years left on their leases. They are unsure whether they should wait for the Government reforms—which they welcome, by the way—or proceed with lease extension now to avoid the costs of incurring marriage value. Their fear, to which I am very sympathetic, is that they will extend under the current law and then better terms will be brought in by new legislation. I know the Minister has just said that reforms will happen in this Parliament, but may I ask him urgently to provide further clarity on the timings of the proposed reforms? Any savings from those reforms could have a huge impact on 100 of my constituents living on the Hillcrest estate.
Matthew Pennycook
I appreciate fully that leaseholders with leases approaching 80 years remaining want clarity on when the enfranchisement provisions in the 2024 Act will be brought into force. To bring those provisions into force, we need to not only consult on valuation rates, but rectify through primary legislation the small number of serious flaws in the 2024 Act that the previous Government bequeathed to us. The latter is obviously a more challenging proposition than the former, but we intend to make the necessary fixes as soon as possible so that leaseholders can begin to benefit from the new valuation process. I am more than happy to speak to my hon. Friend in further detail about the way in which we plan to take these reforms forward.
Yuan Yang
I was glad to get involved in the Government’s recent consultation on property service fees. More than 700 of my constituents living in new builds in and around Reading have written to me about high fees and unfair behaviour from property management agents. One constituent, called Sunil, said to me:
“We are throwing our money down the drain to these crooks, and they know they can take advantage.”
Will the Housing Minister meet me and my fellow Labour MPs working on this issue to discuss what more can be done to crack down on such awful behaviour from rogue agents such as FirstPort?
Matthew Pennycook
The Government are determined to reduce the prevalence of private estate management arrangements and to provide those who currently live on freehold estates with greater rights and protections. To that end, we launched two comprehensive consultations before Christmas; I am very glad to hear that my hon. Friend has engaged with those consultations, and I encourage all hon. Members from across the House to do the same. I am more than happy to meet a group of Labour colleagues to discuss the consultations and our proposals in more detail.
Mary Kelly Foy
Residents of the Aykley Woods development in my constituency have recently been informed that collectively, they will be charged £15,000 this year for the management company to run their estate of just over 270 homes, on top of a scandalous £31,000 just to cover the running costs of the management company itself. This is happening to millions of homeowners up and down the country, so does the Minister agree that it is long past time that we end the scandal of freeholders being locked into agreements with management companies and make local authority adoption the default for new builds?
Matthew Pennycook
The case that my hon. Friend draws the House’s attention to highlights the unfair charges that so many residential freeholders are subject to. As well as acting to reduce the prevalence of privately managed estates, which are the root cause of the problems experienced by residential freeholders, we are committed to implementing new consumer protections for homeowners on freehold estates. The consultation launched before Christmas seeks views on how, not whether, we implement the relevant provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. I know that my hon. Friend will ensure that her constituents are supported in sharing their views on the subject as part of that exercise.
Dame Caroline Dinenage
So many of my Gosport constituents are locked into lousy leaseholds, and are so tired of seeing service charges rise while the quality of service falls. Bills are often eye-watering, and are quite often completely opaque. As the Minister said, the Conservatives passed the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act, which gave leaseholders more powers to better scrutinise and challenge those costs. However, on the Minister’s watch, implementation is painfully slow. Why the delay? When will leaseholders begin to see the benefits of legislation that was designed to put an end to a practice that he himself has described as “unfair and unreasonable”?
Matthew Pennycook
I fully appreciate the wish of leaseholders in the hon. Lady’s constituency and those across the country to see these reforms introduced. She is absolutely right that the 2024 Act included measures to enhance transparency around service charges, to make it easier for leaseholders to challenge unreasonable service charge increases. Last July, we consulted on how to introduce those measures. It is a very technical consultation and quite a lengthy document—I draw the hon. Lady’s attention to it. We will introduce the necessary secondary legislation this year, so that leaseholders can benefit from those provisions.
Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)
Residents of a retirement village in my constituency are concerned that existing legislation removes normal leasehold protections for those living in retirement communities, leaving residents with weak, unenforceable operator promises. Can the Minister clarify what protection upcoming leasehold reforms will introduce for retirement village residents to ensure greater transparency and fairness?
Matthew Pennycook
As you would expect, Mr Speaker, I cannot pre-empt what will be contained in our draft commonhold and leasehold reform Bill, but if the hon. Lady wishes to write to me about the specific issue, I would be more than happy to provide her with a comprehensive response.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
Just before Christmas, Mr Rahman, a leaseholder in a Taylor Wimpey property, came to see me. There are 100 years remaining on his lease and a modest ground rent, but he cannot secure a sale because Taylor Wimpey will not agree to a reasonable deed of variation in relation to the ground rent provisions. He has incurred costs of upwards of £5,000 and is basically stuck in his property, so I would be very grateful if the Minister could look at this case—I have written to him—and see whether his plans will address this poor individual’s circumstances.
Matthew Pennycook
In general terms, anyone considering extending their lease or acquiring their freehold should obviously consider seeking specialist advice from a solicitor or surveyor, but I will ensure that the right hon. Gentleman receives a prompt answer to his question as to whether any of the reforms we are taking forward will give some redress to his constituent.
Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)
I thank the Minister for his answer. I know that he has been taking a lot of time to debate and look at the issue of leasehold, and he can see the cross-party concern on behalf of many constituents up and down the country on this big issue, as well as the support for tackling it. We on the Select Committee are ready to help him by making sure that the legislation is right, fit and proper. I just want to tease out a further answer from the Minister. Can he confirm for the House that he is still on track to ensure that we end the issue of leasehold and commonhold by the end of this Parliament?
Matthew Pennycook
I thank my hon. Friend, the Chair of the Select Committee for that question. We remain steadfast in our commitment to the promises in our manifesto to bring the feudal leasehold system to an end. Despite the noises off from the usual naysayers, the imminent publication of our ambitious draft commonhold and leasehold reform Bill will be the beginning of the end for that system, which has tainted the dream of home ownership for so many households across the country. As my hon. Friend knows, this is a large, incredibly complex and technical piece of legislation, and I hope she and the rest of the House would agree that it is worth a brief extension to ensure that we get things right and avoid a deficient Act, such as the one that the previous Government left us with, which we are now having to fix through primary legislation.
Dr Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath) (LD)
May I take the Minister back to the circumstances of constituents who are living in retirement communities? I have a community of constituents who live at Mytchett Heath, owned by Cognatum Estates. They are experiencing very high service charges, and I have written to the Minister about that before. They are made nervous by talk of delay. They are often on a fixed income with fixed-income pensions. They are getting older, and they want to enjoy their retirement in peace. Can the Minister offer them any reassurance today?
Matthew Pennycook
The hon. Gentleman has written to me about that issue and he has, if I may politely say, generated a huge number of questions on it. We have met about it on one occasion, I think, and I am more than happy to have another conversation with him to try to get to the root of his concerns.
David Simmonds (Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner) (Con)
Leaseholders, like renters and prospective homeowners, have been made big promises by this Government. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of botched local government reorganisation, cuts to the budgets of two thirds of England’s local authorities, delays to elections and the wholesale abolition of housing and planning authorities in England’s shires on the delivery of those promises? This is just another promise that the Government are not going to deliver, is it not?
Matthew Pennycook
Forgive me—I do not know whether the shadow Minister has come in on the wrong question—but I cannot see how local government reorganisation will, in any shape or form, influence in any way our ambitious leasehold and commonhold reform agenda.
Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)
Fully 5 million leaseholders were plunged into the dark before Christmas and thousands report feeling angry and abandoned. Why, then, are the Government choosing to delay their ending of the feudal leasehold system? Will they go further and follow the calls from Lib Dems and others to regulate property agents and to cap extortionate service charges?
Matthew Pennycook
I will answer the hon. Gentleman directly: the unforeseen delays in question, which meant that we could not publish the draft Bill before Christmas, relate to nothing more than the fact that some elements of policy and drafting are still being finalised. As I have said, this is a large, incredibly complex and technical Bill. The House would support getting it right in the first instance, if that means a delay of a few weeks.
Gideon Amos
Leaseholders are being hit increasingly with flood risk and difficulty in getting insurance. Rockwell Green in my constituency has flooded twice in the last seven years. Why are the Government proposing to weaken the rules preventing development in areas of high flood risk, and how many homes will be affected in future by more flooding as a result?
Matthew Pennycook
We have not weakened protections against flooding. The draft of the national planning policy framework that is out for consultation remains clear that inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas at the highest risk. The consultation currently under way into the statutory consultee system retains the requirement for local authorities to notify the Secretary of State before approving developments that the Environment Agency has objected to. We are not weakening the protections in the way the hon. Member claims.
Sean Woodcock (Banbury) (Lab)
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)
Our manifesto committed us to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation, and we intend to do just that. Our £39 billion social and affordable homes programme will build around 300,000 homes over its 10-year lifetime, of which at least 60% will be social rent, ensuring that communities such as Banbury get the social and affordable homes they so desperately need.
Several hon. Members rose—
Sean Woodcock
Nearly 11,000 homes in Cherwell district have been granted planning permission but remain unbuilt. This causes understandable frustration for local residents and the thousands of people in housing need. Will the Minister set out what action the Government are taking to improve build-out so that much-needed homes are built and delivered?
Matthew Pennycook
My hon. Friend is a powerful advocate for the interests of Banbury, and he has rightly and forcefully conveyed the message that the communities he represents expect homes, infrastructure and services that have been promised as part of a planning approval to be delivered as quickly as possible. I am sure he will welcome the fact that the new draft national planning policy framework, on which the Government are currently consulting, proposes to strengthen national policies to ensure that major residential developments are deliverable within a reasonable period. He will also be reassured to know that we intend to take further action to incentivise faster build-out rates, drawing on the two consultations that we undertook last year.
Calum Miller
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and I am grateful to my constituency neighbour for raising this important matter. I wonder whether the Minister can reassure my constituents, many of whom are struggling to find social housing and many of whom end up in Banbury, having come from my constituency. Will the social and affordable homes programme pay due attention to the challenges of providing social housing in rural settings, so that those who wish to remain within their communities are able to do so and do not put extra demands on towns such as Banbury?
Matthew Pennycook
Our new social and affordable homes programme does provide additional flexibility for certain tenures of housing that are more difficult and costly to provide, including rural housing. I am sure the hon. Gentleman will also welcome the changes in the draft NPPF, which, as I have said, is out for consultation, because they will further strengthen the provision of rural and affordable housing. We want to see much more of it than we are seeing at present.
Liz Twist (Blaydon and Consett) (Lab)
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)
In July last year we set out a detailed five-step plan to deliver a decade of renewal in social and affordable housing. The plan includes the biggest boost to grant funding in a generation, the establishment of an effective and stable regulatory regime, and action to rebuild the sector’s capacity to borrow and invest in new and existing homes. All that—alongside investment in existing stock—will help to ensure that councils and housing associations throughout the north-east can deliver more homes.
Liz Twist
I am glad to see the Government focusing so much on building social housing, including some in my constituency, but it will also be important to maintain the stock once it has been built and to look at existing stock. Can the Minister say when the issue of rent convergence will be resolved?
Matthew Pennycook
The Government remain committed to implementing social rent convergence to support additional investment in new and existing social housing. We will announce a decision on how it will be implemented later this month, before the launch of the social and affordable homes programme. That decision will take into account the benefits to the supply and quality of social and affordable housing, and the impact on rent payers and welfare spending.
Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton) (Lab)
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 contains provisions allowing tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases. The new tenancy system will come into force on 1 May this year, at which point landlords will only be able to increase rents once a year to the market rate, and tenants will be able to challenge unreasonable increases at the first-tier tribunal. The Act will also put an end to unfair rental bidding practices and demands from landlords for large amounts of rent in advance.
Dan Carden
I regularly hear from constituents who are being pushed out of their homes by rip-off hikes from unscrupulous landlords. The average rents in Liverpool have risen by 8%, well above the average for England. I welcome the Government’s action through the Renters’ Rights Act to tackle unfair rent increases, but it concerns me that market rents will be used as a benchmark to prevent unaffordable rents from rising. How will the Government review the effectiveness of these measures, and, if necessary, will they consider further action in due course?
Matthew Pennycook
We will of course keep the implementation of the Act under continual review, but, as I have said, it allows tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases at the first-tier tribunal, which will make a judgment on whether the increases are fair and meet that market-rate definition. We have, however, made it clear that the Government do not support the introduction of rent controls, including rent stabilisation measures, for the reasons that we debated at some length during the passage of the Bill.
Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)
We all know that rent inflation, like all inflation, is caused by over-demand and lack of supply, and we can agree on the need to address problems by building more houses and tackling immigration, but does the Minister agree that the more controls and regulations are imposed on landlords, particularly small landlords, the more they will get out of the rented sector altogether, causing less supply and rent inflation which will hit vulnerable people?
Matthew Pennycook
I do not accept that all regulation is bad, which I think is the thrust of the right hon. Gentleman’s question. In many ways, we have clarified and made simpler the grounds for possession that landlords can use under the Act, but he is absolutely right to say that we need more supply of all homes, including in the private rented sector, and that we need to support the build-to-rent sector, which will be an important part of the market in coming years.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)
On 11 November last year, I set out the full details of our £39 billion, 10-year social and affordable homes programme. In the coming weeks, we will provide registered providers with the remaining information that they need to finalise their business and future supply plans, so that they can submit large and ambitious proposals when bidding opens next month.
Perran Moon
Meur ras, Mr Speaker. With your good grace, I would like to take this opportunity to thank members of the emergency services, who responded so courageously across Cornwall during and in the wake of one of the worst ever storms to hit the duchy. I also thank the 600,000 people of Cornwall, who heeded pre-storm advice and kept fatalities, mercifully, to a minimum. The loss of one life is too many, but it could have been far worse. Over 1,000 trees are down, and hundreds of thousands of people were plunged into darkness, with no power. I hope that Ministers will create the appropriate forum to discuss the lessons learned from Storm Goretti.
The Secretary of State has confirmed that, because of our unique status, Cornwall will be a single strategic authority for the purposes of devolution. The greatest threat facing the constituents of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle today is the lack of social and truly affordable homes, which is compounded by the 14,000 second homes and 25,000 Airbnbs, leading to an exodus of our young people and a chronic lack of key workers. Given these factors—
Mr Speaker
Order. I gave a lot of leeway at the beginning of the question. I think the Minister will have got the message already.
Matthew Pennycook
I think the thrust of my hon. Friend’s question was about what arrangements can be put in place for Cornwall so that it can better deliver housing and regenerate areas that have been identified by the council. As he will know, strategic place partnerships are reserved for mayoral strategic authorities that bring together more than one council into a combined authority. That said, and not least as a result of hearing representations from my hon. Friends who represent Cornish constituencies, I encourage Homes England to deepen its partnership with Cornwall council and to explore a memorandum of understanding or similar partnership agreement to support its ambitious housing and regeneration plans.
Sonia Kumar (Dudley) (Lab)
Alex Baker (Aldershot) (Lab)
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)
At the spending review in 2025, we announced record investment to kick-start social and affordable housing at scale across the country. Alongside regulatory certainty and stability and measures to rebuild the capacity of registered providers after their weakening over the previous 14 years, we are ensuring that communities in Aldershot will get the social and affordable housing they need.
Alex Baker
A veteran in my constituency who is the father of five young daughters has spent nearly three years waiting for a four-bedroom social home while raising his family in a two-bedroom property. He has now been told that the wait could be a further three years, which means six years of overcrowding for a family simply needing space to live and grow. Sadly, that is not an isolated case. Last year in my constituency, over 100 families were waiting for a four-bedroom social home, but only 31 were allocated one. I welcome the Government’s commitment to building more social homes, but what are they doing to make social housing more flexible so families are not left waiting for years for the right home at the right time?
Matthew Pennycook
I am sorry to hear about the long wait that the veteran in question is facing. It is important that we build more social rented homes after 14 years of engineered decline, which is why 60% of our £39 billion social and affordable homes programme will be allocated to social rented homes. However, it is also important we ensure that veterans get the priority they need, which is why in November 2024 we made changes to the local connection requirement to ensure that veterans have greater access to social housing and should be prioritised in the way that that allows.
Gareth Snell (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab/Co-op)
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)
The Government are taking concerted action to boost rates of house building across England, including reforming the planning system and allocating record levels of grant funding support for social and affordable house building over the coming years, to the benefit of Stoke-on-Trent and the rest of the country.
Gareth Snell
I thank the Minister for that answer. Stoke-on-Trent has benefited from money from the brownfield regeneration fund. However, there are many brownfield sites across the city that could be used for local planning development, but the owners are simply not engaging with the process. Given that we are not in a mayoral combined authority, compulsory purchase powers are limited. Will the Minister consider devolving those powers to authorities like Stoke? If not, will he consider allowing interim development corporations, until such time as we have a mayor in place?
Matthew Pennycook
My hon. Friend is a doughty champion for his constituency, and he continues to make a powerful case for the renewal of Hanley city centre as the commercial heart of north Staffordshire. I have had a series of constructive meetings with him and other local leaders about the Hanley masterplan. I know he will welcome the £8 million of investment in Burslem town centre, delivering 800 homes. I am more than happy to continue the conversation with him about the possibility of a new locally led development corporation to take forward the regeneration of the city centre.
Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)
While I appreciate my hon. Friend’s concern, we have strengthened policies in the draft national planning policy framework, which is currently out for consultation, that will ensure that major residential schemes are built out in reasonable time. I am more than happy to have a conversation with her about how that may impact developments in her constituency.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
Gill Furniss (Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)
Matthew Pennycook
I thank my hon. Friend for that question. We have made proposals in the draft NPPF, which is out for consultation, to set new, higher requirements for authorities to deliver more accessible housing. This includes proposals to make meeting accessibility standards mandatory for 40% of new builds, and to ensure that local plans provide for wheelchair-accessible homes. I am more than happy to have another conversation with my hon. Friend on this issue.
Martin Wrigley (Newton Abbot) (LD)
Matthew Pennycook
I am sorry to hear about the challenges that my hon. Friend’s constituents face at the hands of their landlord. Tenants who are unhappy with their landlord’s handling of complaints can go to the Housing Ombudsman, and the Regulator of Social Housing can investigate evidence of systematic failure. My hon. Friend is welcome to keep me updated on whether his constituents see any improvement in the services being provided over the coming months.
Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)
Dr Simon Opher (Stroud) (Lab)
In Stroud, we have 4,000 council houses; we need at least double that. Will the Minister look again at the constraints that councils are under and see whether the Government can enable them to build more council houses?
Matthew Pennycook
We are committed to reinvigorating council house building, which is essential to boost and sustain higher rates of housing supply in the years ahead. We have already taken decisive action to support councils to build at scale once again, including reforming the right to buy and launching the council house building skills and capacity programme, but we will of course keep the matter under review to see what further support we can provide.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
When will the Government take steps to address embodied carbon in buildings?
Matthew Pennycook
The hon. Lady can look forward to the future buildings standards being brought into force later this year.
Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)
Across the winter months, I have received an increased amount of casework from residents of Harlow who are suffering from damp and mould in their houses. They deserve quicker repairs and higher standards from landlords. Of course, Awaab’s law is to be welcomed, but will the Secretary of State confirm what enforcement measures will be used to ensure that landlords adhere to the legislation?
Catherine Atkinson (Derby North) (Lab)
Hundreds of new homes are being built at the Friar Gate goods yard, originally a 19th-century rail depot. This development is near the city centre, but other housing that was built further out under the Conservatives went up with inadequate transport infrastructure and little thought for public transport. What is being done to ensure that new homes have the transport infrastructure that they need?
Matthew Pennycook
I am more than happy to sit down with my hon. Friend and discuss the matter in more detail.
Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)
Constituents on a new build estate in Chichester were ordered without warning to pay an extra £180 a month on top of the £212 that they were already paying. When the Government bring forward their planned legislation, will they stamp out these enormous price hikes and will they hold road management companies to account?
Matthew Pennycook
As I have said, we are intending to switch on the relevant provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 that provide consumers with protections. I would encourage the hon. Lady to submit her views to the consultation, and I am more than happy to pick this up with her outside the Chamber.
Anneliese Midgley (Knowsley) (Lab)
Will the Minister consider enabling all local authorities in the most deprived areas to have an above-average increase in core spending power in each year of the local government multi-year settlement, including in Liverpool city region?