PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Topical Questions - 7 September 2026 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

Last Thursday marked the two-year anniversary of the publication of the Grenfell Tower inquiry phase 2 report. We remain committed to ensuring that the Grenfell tragedy is not forgotten and never happens again, and we will continue to work closely with the community and the building industry as we deliver lasting change.

Some constituents are facing exorbitant service charges for retirement properties inherited from a family member that are proving impossible to sell. One of my constituents is paying £770 a month in service charges for an empty one-bedroom flat, after inheriting the home from their late mother. What steps will the Government take to regulate the sector and stop these companies ripping people off?

I have great sympathy with what the hon. Member says, and the Housing Minister has just indicated that he would be happy to meet him. That is something that we want to tackle. We have been very clear on service charges and fleecehold, and we will make sure that we bring forward legislation that protects people from unfair charges.

I recognise the strength of feeling in the House on this matter. I want to ensure that every opportunity is taken to retain homes in the social housing sector. Although housing associations remain independent organisations that are responsible for their own asset management decisions, I can assure my hon. Friend that we are exploring what further steps could be taken to protect much-needed social housing stock.

I call the shadow Minister.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Secretary of State on her return to her position, and to welcome her to her place. What steps is she taking to proactively protect the green belt?

As I have said, there are strong protections in the national planning policy framework. It is for local authorities to decide whether exceptional circumstances exist for the release of green-belt land, and whether very special circumstances exist that would outweigh the harms involved when it comes to inappropriate development. Those safeguards remain. We are committed to preserving England’s green belts, which have served our towns and cities very well over many decades.

I agree with the Minister’s last point, but I am not too sure that I believe the preceding point. If the Government are serious about protecting the green belt and generating new housing, one of the best ways of doing both would surely be to ensure that planning permissions are actually built, but according to the Local Government Association, there are up to 1.4 million housing units that have been granted planning consent over the past decade and have not been completed. The Government may claim that they are serious about solving this problem, and point to their planning reform working paper, entitled “Speeding Up Build Out”, but that paper was published in May last year and requires primary legislation for it to have any effect at all. If the Government are serious about protecting the green belt and getting homes built, where is the legislation?

The shadow Minister, for whom I have a lot of time, knows full well that development can stall at particular sites for a variety of reasons, not least the viability pressures that we discussed earlier. We are taking action to get sites moving, and the NPPF strengthens expectations in this area. On the specific matter that he raises, primary legislation is not needed. Primary legislation was taken through by the previous Government, and we have a plan to switch on the necessary secondary legislation to ensure that we have transparency over build-out rates. He does not have long to wait for that to come forward.

I am always happy to meet my hon. Friend. I think that the matters in question will fall to another Minister, thankfully, but I am more than happy to join that meeting if housing issues are involved.

Places for People will no doubt have heard the concerns the hon. Gentleman has raised today. Social housing providers are regulated on the basis of consumer standards, and they are inspected on that basis. We have introduced Awaab’s law, which provides that landlords have to fix hazards within specified time limits. If he wants to write to me with further information about the development in question, I will be happy to look into it.

As I mentioned earlier, I think it is important to look at local initiatives. I repeat that the Government’s new £442 million rough sleeping programme and the ending homelessness fund will look at that. Brighton and Hove has received £1.35 million through the rough sleeping programme allocation, while Brighton Women’s Centre has been allocated £371,380 through the ending homelessness in communities fund, subject to grant agreement completion.

Last week, police and Trading Standards carried out co-ordinated visits, led by our local police officer, to retail premises on Fleet Road over suspected criminality, which is of increasing concern to me and my constituents. How is the Minister working cross-departmentally with the Home Office to keep our high streets safe and lawful?

The hon. Member highlights an issue affecting many town centres and high streets, which is that, for far too long, organised criminal gangs have been acting in plain sight and getting away with it, but now they have a Government who are ready to take them on.

Homeowners should not be expected to shoulder the financial consequences of defective work. However, the case of Goodrich Mews is a challenging one, in that the legal liability appears to now lie with the resident management company. My hon. Friend knows that I have been looking into the matter for her, and I am more than happy to meet her again. I believe that my office has been seeking further information from hers, which we would be grateful to receive.

Increased energy costs, increased material costs, the increased cost of employing people, particularly young people, the increased cost of bureaucracy and business taxes are all pushing up the cost of building and squeezing the viability of projects. Does the Secretary of State not realise that her Government’s policies are making it harder for young people to get on the housing ladder, or does she simply not care?

Is the right hon. Gentleman saying that he does not agree with minimum energy efficiency standards? Is he saying that he does not agree with a modernised decent homes standard? These measures are driving up the quality and the safety of homes, and we can do that while increasing supply.

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important initiative in Harlow. Housing First is an important intervention, which evidence has shown can transform the lives of people with complex needs. We are funding Housing First and other forms of housing-led accommodation through our £2.7 billion homelessness, rough sleeping and domestic abuse grant for areas like Harlow. That includes, as I have mentioned, the £442 million for the rough sleeping programme.

It is not a blanket policy; it relates to well-connected stations. I have set out the definition, with appropriate minimum densities to go with it.

Empty shops that are rundown because of absentee landlords are a blight on our town centres, but Labour-run Erewash borough council is fixing the problem through clean-up orders, such as the one served to the Burton building in Long Eaton—as soon as it was renovated, new businesses moved right in—but clean-up orders can be very time-consuming, so what more can the Government do to tackle absentee landlords and bring shops back into use?

I thank my hon. Friend for his work championing his high street. The Government have allocated £24.8 million to the Long Eaton town deal, which is funding high street redevelopment projects such as public realm improvements. I would be very happy to meet him to discuss what more we can do.

Last week, at the successful Reform conference, I launched a series of bold planning proposals that will make it easier to regenerate our town centres and easier to build on brownfield sites, by making it cheaper and faster to get planning consents. Will the Secretary of State consider those proposals? They have been well-received by the industry. I urge her to consult and to meet me.

We take the hon. Gentleman’s planning policies about as seriously as the country took his conference.

I welcome the £14 million of funding released this month to create opportunities for young people in my constituency. The money will train them in jobs for construction in net zero sectors. Does my hon. Friend agree that the approach that the Government have taken to empowering and funding local stakeholders to grow local economies should be adopted by the SNP Scottish Government?

Since summer ’25, the Department has been working in partnership with the offices and partners in each nation to deliver the local growth fund in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We are committed to ensuring that funding is spent on projects that really matter to local people. It is really important that every arm of Government, regardless of where it is in the UK, drives down on that investment so that local people feel empowered in the places where they live.

Liberal Democrat-controlled Eastleigh borough council’s debt—[Interruption.] Listen. The debt now sits at £620.1 million, up from £585 million last year, and £36,000 a day is paid in interest. The previous Government issued a best value notice to ensure that the debt was reduced, but this Government scrapped it. Why are the Government so unwilling to take the Liberal Democrat council to task for ripping off my constituents?

I think the hon. Gentleman will find that we do not shy away from intervention when it is required. We also think that the Government ought to work in partnership with local government and that councils, where they need support, find a partner in central Government. He can be absolutely sure that, when it comes to value for taxpayers’ money and holding the sector to account, the right checks and balances are finally in place.

I welcome the Government’s plans to deepen devolution, but can the Minister reassure me that they will mean no alteration to the commitment to a Cambridge development corporation?

The Government remain fully committed to delivering nationally significant growth in Greater Cambridge. As my hon. Friend is well aware, we have established a centrally led urban development corporation to take it forward in partnership with local leaders.

When the Prime Minister was campaigning to be the MP for Makerfield, he said that all of the £39 billion affordable housing fund should be dedicated to building council homes. Will the Secretary of State explain to the 3,180 families in temporary accommodation across Manchester and Tameside, many of them in Gorton and Denton, why the Government have now backtracked and are instead continuing with the lack of ambition we had under Keir Starmer, rather than building as many secure, truly affordable homes as possible?

There is no lack of ambition when it comes social and affordable housing from this Government. At least 60% of that historic £39 billion will go to social rented homes. We have delivered the highest number of council homes since records began in 1991-92. We are taking a pragmatic approach. There are social homes ready to be built by housing associations, but we will ensure that more of the funding goes to councils for direct delivery.

Community-led housing plays a vital role in meeting our housing targets. In my constituency, the Stirchley Co-operative Development has built 39 social and affordable homes, but delays and cost overruns by the housing association have pretty much dropped everyone into despair. Will the Minister meet me to bring a resolution to the issue?

I am more than happy to meet my hon. Friend about the issue.

The Home Secretary will potentially soon be asking the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to use a Crown development order to approve planning in Linton-on-Ouse for an asylum centre. I ask the Secretary of State to reject that as undemocratic, and to ensure that the application goes through the locally elected North Yorkshire planning authority.

It will depend on whether the application in question meets the criteria to allow it to proceed down the Crown development route. Obviously, the applicant is separate from our Department; we are the stewards of the process and will make the determination on the basis of those criteria.

I welcome the Government’s focus on social and affordable homes. In South East Cornwall we really need first homes, not just second homes, as local people face an affordability crisis that is particularly acute among younger people. Cornwall is well placed and eager for a strategic place partnership with Homes England, so will the Minister meet me and other Cornish MPs to discuss that as part of a future devolution deal?

I am more than happy to meet my hon. Friend and other colleagues.

I recently met a homeless man at the homelessness charity the Matthew 25 Mission, who said that he had been “dumped” in temporary accommodation in Eastbourne by Brighton and Hove city council without the support that he needed. The previous Minister promised that she would review the out-of-area placement guidance for local authorities on this matter, so will this Minister meet me to discuss the progress of that review?

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that point. Matthew should not have had to go through that. I am happy to meet with the hon. Gentleman to discuss the case.

With the Kingswood area of my Bristol constituency currently being targeted by landlords of houses in multiple occupation, can the Minister set out the Government’s current thinking on how powers to restrict HMOs can be made more effective?

There is a variety of practice in the country, and we want to better understand whether local authorities are making full use of existing powers, but I reassure my hon. Friend that we keep the matter under review. We have to ensure that we are regulating HMOs properly.

The Government want Buckinghamshire council to develop 91,000 homes, but 2,890 of those are basically to be adjacent to Northamptonshire, and it will be my residents in Brackley who are affected by that. They are going to have none of the help in developer contributions or a proper say in the matter, so will the Minister meet me to discuss this concerning issue for my constituents?

That is precisely why we have introduced strategic cross-boundary planning through spatial development strategies—[Interruption.] The hon. Member says that it is not working, but it is not in place yet. We passed the Planning and Infrastructure Act last year, and it will be in place in short order. I am more than happy to have a conversation about it with her.

Yesterday I visited the Shri Guru Ravidass Sikh gurdwara in my constituency, where I was told about the weekly drop-in they run to help rough sleepers without the right to stay in this country and advise them on how to reconnect with family and go home with dignity. Would the Secretary of State congratulate the work of the gurdwara and tell us how we can further help those kinds of organisations?

I thank my hon. Friend for sharing that example of the fantastic work carried out by the gurdwara. It is important to mention that we will work with all organisations, including charitable organisations. Faith communities play an important role, as a number of people who are sleeping rough seek sanctuary with faith communities. I am happy to look at the example my hon. Friend has raised and at what further work we can do.

Order. Can we move this along a bit, because a lot of Members are still standing and we have nearly come to the end of Question Time? Stuart Andrew will set a good example.

Despite what we have heard from the Minister, colleagues have been talking about the issue of developments near railway stations. That has a practical consequence for the rural village of Long Buckby in my constituency. Land that is currently in open countryside, beyond the village boundary, will now be designated as a priority area. That gives no consideration to the distinction between a rural village and an urban area. Will the Minister meet me to discuss the issue in detail?

I will happily meet the right hon. Gentleman.

Will the Minister meet me and the leader of City of York council? The fair funding formula is not working for our city because it does not use the lower-tier data with regard to the indices of deprivation, meaning that we are the worst-funded local authority. Can we have that meeting?

I am very happy to do so.

Despite swift action from Dacorum council to tackle a 6-acre unauthorised development in the Chilterns landscape, it had to choose between occupation and restoration, as tackling both would potentially have dragged the case out for years. What are the Government doing to help councils with powers to ensure that these cases can be tackled sooner?

I think the hon. Lady is referring to unauthorised development. We have strengthened national planning policy in respect of intentional unauthorised development, making it harder to grant permission after the fact where there is evidence that development was carried out intentionally without permission. However, it has become evident—we have had a meeting on this subject—that we are seeing the prevalence of a more structured pattern of unauthorised development, and we are working across Government to see what more action might be taken to bear down on that.

For the final question, I call Alistair Strathern.

New towns should be an opportunity to better manage development pressures, not add to them. I thank the Housing Minister for hearing our campaign to ensure that any attempted new town counts towards my local authority’s housing targets, not in addition to them. How can we now ensure that proposals are considered at pace so that, if approved, they can count towards our local housing plan and the local planning process as quickly as possible?

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for his support for the new towns programme. We will bring forward final decisions in short order, responding to the consultation that we undertook earlier this year, and those proposed seven new town sites.