Oral Answers to Questions

Uma Kumaran Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I have spent the week protecting British lives and our national interest. Moments like this define a Leader of the Opposition. They can either step up, act in the national interest and show that they are fit to be Prime Minister, or they can expose their utter irrelevance. The Leader of the Opposition has chosen the second.

[Uma Kumaran (Stratford and Bow) (Lab)]

Q2. May I thank the Prime Minister for his leadership and his cool head on the situation in Iran?The leasehold system is legalised extortion. Last week I met dozens of my constituents who are leaseholders, and their tenants’ and residents’ associations. They are all telling me the same story: every single month they are paying hundreds of pounds while their service charges keep skyrocketing. They are trapped between bad managing agents and a system that is broken. Can the Prime Minister tell me what this Labour Government are doing to right this wrong once and for all?

[The Prime Minister]

I know that my hon. Friend has been fighting for her constituents and holding management companies to account. Our reform Bill will end the broken, outdated leasehold system and make the dream of home ownership real. We are capping ground rents, delivering transparency on service charges and scrapping the presumption that leaseholders pay landlords’ legal costs. Our focus is on saving people money, giving them more control of their homes and creating a fairer housing system.