Leasehold Reform

Question

Leaseholders on the Hillcrest estate 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—or proceed with lease extension now to avoid the costs of incurring marriage value. Their fear is that they will extend under the current law and then better terms will be brought in by new legislation. May I ask him urgently to provide further clarity on the timings of the proposed reforms?

Question

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: “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?

Question

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. 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?

Question

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”?

Question

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?

Question

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?

Question

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?

Question

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?