Homes and Planning Bill

Steve Yemm Excerpts

Friday 13th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)]

I want to start by recognising the excellent intentions behind the Bill and the importance of ensuring that local people have access to decent and affordable homes. I am sure the whole House shares these ambitions with the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George), and they are ones that this Government are also committed to delivering.

However, having considered the Bill and the Government’s assessment of its proposals, I find it difficult to support. I believe the fundamental problem is that much of what the hon. Member for St Ives seeks to achieve is either covered by existing powers or being addressed through legislation that is already before Parliament, or it can be delivered through the Government’s existing housing programmes, without the need for further primary legislation.

[Ben Maguire]

Can the hon. Member please point me to specific Government legislation, either currently before the House or upcoming, that addresses the things that have been described by the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George), such as the issue with second homes and holiday lets, which has really added fuel to the fire of the housing crisis?

[Steve Yemm]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention; I will give him a number of examples. The Government are already strengthening the ability of local authorities to work with communities through neighbourhood planning and existing planning powers. We already have the Social Housing Bill going through Parliament, which will address issues to do with the disposal of social housing assets. There are also changes to the types of intermediate housing that can receive Government funding. I question what further value this Bill would deliver.

I appreciate that second homes and holiday lets are significant issues in some parts of the country, particularly coastal and rural areas, and for communities in the south-west of England. But they are in no way a defining feature of the housing market in my constituency of Mansfield, and nor do they reflect the challenges facing my constituents, which are really very different.

[Andrew George]

The hon. Gentleman actually helps to make my point. The examples he gave are totally irrelevant to my Bill, by the way. This is, after all, a Bill that proposes a set of tools that are available to communities that wish to take them. If communities in Mansfield do not wish to take those, they will not be imposed on them.

[Steve Yemm]

The issue that constituents regularly raise with me is not second homes but the growing concentration of houses in multiple occupation. I have spoken previously in the House about the impact that excessive concentrations of HMOs have on neighbourhoods in areas such as mine. I therefore want to put on record my strong welcome of the work being undertaken by Mansfield district council to assess the case for an article for direction in that respect.

It follows concerns raised by local residents and representations that I have made over the past year. I am pleased that the council in Mansfield, other local authorities and the Government are taking those concerns seriously and moving to give local communities such as mine a greater say over what happens in their neighbourhood.

Perhaps a more important issue in my constituency is the shortage of social housing. Identifying land and extending community rights can play a role, but those measures are not a substitute for a clear, deliverable approach to increasing the supply of council and housing association homes that people desperately need.

[David Burton-Sampson (Southend West and Leigh) (Lab)]

In Southend we hear similar concerns to what my hon. Friend is describing. I am proud of Southend-on-Sea city council, which has put £100 million towards new social housing and acquiring housing for social housing. Does my hon. Friend agree that often the issue here and across the whole country is political will? For example, the local planning situation in Southend is being frustrated by the Conservatives, Reform and the Greens. Without a good local plan, local areas cannot have the right type of housing that they need.

[Steve Yemm]

I agree completely with my hon. Friend, who raises an important point.

We all know that a private Member’s Bill is a very valuable opportunity. Members right across the House have very limited opportunity to bring forward legislation. I think this opportunity has been used to revisit measures where work is already under way rather than concentrating on some of the genuine gaps in our housing system. I would suggest that a closer examination of the Government’s existing programme and the practical housing problems facing constituencies such as mine would produce a more useful Bill. For those reasons, I support the Government’s position and oppose the Bill.