Speeches by Cooper.

“My hon. Friend mentioned Storm Christoph. Both Northwich and Winsford in my constituency flooded twice in an 18-month period, most recently during that storm. Our section 19 investigation found that although Northwich’s flood walls held, the ancient Victorian combined sewerage system was not up to scratch. Does she agr…”

“Given the 1% applies to the original purchase price rather than the last valuation, why is it appropriate to use the original purchase price—which might have been some time ago—for a 1% staircase but it is not appropriate to use later on?”

“Will, I would like to come to you about the issue of why RICS valuations are needed for any shared ownership transaction above a 1% staircase. It has been criticised because there is no negotiation element. You have to take the valuation and that is the price you pay for your staircasing, whereas if a property was put …”

“I am going to be asking you about valuation staircasing and re-sale. The BBC reported in June that many shared owners feel trapped in their properties and unable to sell. I would like to come to you first, Sue. Why do you think that is and what do you think we can do about it?”

“We have heard about the issues that can happen when someone dies in a shared ownership property; that arrears continue to build up and that service charges continue to be levied. When you were developing the Code, did you consider including anything around that, for example, buyback if the beneficiaries cannot sell the…”

“I am MP for Mid Cheshire.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I congratulate the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier) on securing this debate. We have heard some harrowing stories from right hon. and hon. Members from across the Chamber. I am pleased that the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lew…”

“I am going to declare at the start that the estate that I live on is a mixture of freehold and leasehold, although I, in fact, live in a freehold property. There are estate charges and service charges accordingly on that scheme. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 was passed in the wash-up under the last Governm…”

“Specifically on the assets that are part of an estate, I am talking about the roads, sewers and play areas that, for somebody who lives on an estate that was maybe built 30 years ago, would have been adopted by the water authority or the council, or possibly the parish council, for maintaining the play area. Somebody o…”

“Minister Pennycook recently committed in a Backbench Business debate to meet with FirstPort’s managing director. What would be your message to FirstPort about how it operates estate charges?”

“I just want to pick up on the points that you were making about devolution. In February, the Government announced the devolution priority programme to take forward proposals to create six new mayoral strategic authorities. In July, the then Minister, Jim McMahon, announced the consultation response and confirmed that t…”

“As far as you are concerned, you are fully committed to the devolution priority programme and to filling in the gaps in the north-west, in Cumbria, and in Cheshire and Warrington, and creating those mayoral combined authorities.”

“Secretary of State, what you are describing there is all well and good for large-scale developments such as data centres or the OxCam corridor. I completely understand that, but what my colleague was referring to is the genuine frustration that people feel in communities that infrastructure is always a long way down th…”

“Are you confident that the timeline allows for implementation during this Parliament, despite any potential legal cases that may occur?”

“We have talked a lot about the 1.5 million homes to be built over this Parliament. Many of those being delivered today continue to be on so-called fleecehold estates, where residents pay a service charge for play areas and open spaces. Many continue to be built with private roads and private sewerage systems. Despite p…”

“I am Andrew Cooper, Member of Parliament for Mid Cheshire.”

“I would like to build on what we were talking about and to look at the potential impact of the new regulatory standards on the private rented market. We have talked a bit about the decent homes standard and about Awaab’s law. We have heard evidence this morning that one in five private rented homes do not currently mee…”

“Could the reforms adversely affect supply in particular parts of the country? You talked a bit about how, at the lower end of the market, it might have a bigger impact. Do you want to build on that?”

“I am Andrew Cooper, MP for Mid Cheshire.”

“We heard quite some concern this morning from the previous panel over how the tribunal will operate and, following on from that, calls for rent controls or limiting rent increases to CPI or wage growth. To what extent would it have an impact on the supply of privately rented homes if one of those came into effect?”