“I thank the Secretary of State for making this statement. I pay tribute to the noble Baroness Amos for her work and the care and dedication with which she has produced this report, and to the many women who came forward with their testimonies. I think back to the concerns that I raised just over nine years ago, when I was giving birth to my second son. Nine years on, women are still being dismissed, still not being listened to and still being silenced when they raise those valid concerns. I pay tribute to the hard-working midwifery team at St Thomas’ hospital across the river, who continue to care for many women. I also want to highlight the Southwark Maternity Commission, led by Councillor Evelyn Akoto, and the work of organisations like Five X More, which continue to expose the issues faced by black and minority ethnic women. We also have to highlight the concerns of black and minority ethnic staff, who are told by some patients that they do not want to be served and helped by them. When will the real action plan be published? How will it create accountability to ensure that doctors and clinicians actually listen to these women?”
Spoke in 2 debatesAsked 54 questions2 APPG roles
Housing and Communities
Commonhold and Leasehold Reform: Managing Agents
“I beg to move, That this House welcomes the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee’s First Report of Session 2026-27, Pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill (HC40); notes the Government’s commitments to cap ground rents and to bring forward legislation in this Session to support the uptake of commonhold in place of leasehold; further notes the concerning practices of some property managing agents who fail to act in the best interests of homeowners; and calls on the Government to accept the Committee’s recommendation to legislate to create a body with enforcement powers to regulate property managing agents. I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for granting time for this important and timely debate, which gives the House the chance to consider our Committee’s report on the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill. I thank my fellow Committee members for their collaboration and cross-party work on the report, the excellent Committee staff for their help in preparing the report and the Committee’s two specialist advisers, Professor Nick Hopkins and Wendy Wilson, for their assistance throughout our inquiry. Today’s motion invites the House to call on the Government to use the final Bill to legislate for the regulation of managing agents. Colleagues from across the House will be all too familiar from their inboxes with the “wild west” of managing agents, but first I would like to begin by discussing some of our findings on the draft Bill more generally. For many of the 5 million leaseholders across England and Wales, these reforms have been a long time coming. After a decade of campaigning across party lines, we now have an opportunity to finally tackle the fundamental injustices of the leasehold system, once and for all. Leasehold reform has long commanded cross-party support. Ten years ago, the campaign in Parliament was championed by the former Member for Worthing West, Sir Peter Bottomley. His work chairing the all-party parliamentary group on leasehold and commonhold reform amplified leaseholders’ voices across Westminster. I thank the current chair, my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders), for his tireless cross-party campaigning. It is in that cross-party spirit that my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) and Lord Gove generously gave evidence alongside each other in the opening session of our inquiry. The two former Housing Secretaries were united in their view that this draft Bill is welcome, and that the Government must go further and faster to deliver for leaseholders. The draft Bill is technical and long—it runs to 164 clauses and 13 schedules—but if we take a step back, the problem that it seeks to address is about control. Control is supposed to be one of the main advantages for people of buying their own home. For many leaseholders, a flat is their first foot on the housing ladder. They may have been drawn in by the banners on new build developments advertising the Government’s Help to Buy scheme. Many leaseholders were told that that was the affordable route to buying, via shared ownership. They expected control and a feeling of security, knowing that they could make the changes that they wanted in their own home and have control over the running costs, and would not be threatened with eviction by a landlord. The benefits of home ownership simply do not apply to leaseholders. They are homeowners, yet they are tenants. Far from home ownership and the dream that they were sold, many of them are stuck in a living nightmare. In the words of one leaseholder, who shared their story with our inquiry: “I thought I’d bought a flat, then discovered leasehold is a financial trap. I have no control over my finances, my relationships, where I live, or where I work”. We all agree that this is an injustice that needs to be addressed. This afternoon’s debate is an opportunity for Members to reflect on the draft Bill and what additional measures might need to be included in the final version to ensure that we get these reforms right. Perhaps the most headline-grabbing measure in the draft Bill is that it will cap existing ground rents at £250 a year. We must be absolutely clear across this House and in the other place that ground rent is money for nothing. An investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority found “no persuasive evidence” that leaseholders “receive anything in return” for ground rent. Many leaseholders have ground rents that double every 10 years or increase with the retail prices index.”
