Speeches by Pennycook.

“We are clear that we need to strengthen the regulation of managing agents. I appreciate the strength of feeling, across the House, on the matter. As I have made clear, we will continue to reflect on the various recommendations made in Lord Best’s 2019 report, and I am more than happy to engage with my hon. Friend on hi…”

“I think that I have already committed to ensuring that a visit to her constituency is on the very long list of requests that I have received, but I will bear her request in mind.”

“Again, I refer my hon. Friend to the two comprehensive consultations that we launched before Christmas. We need to establish the new regulatory framework to provide consumer protections for residential freeholders on freehold estates. We are also consulting on how to reduce the prevalence of such private management arr…”

“Given their experience of the leasehold system, it is completely understandable that Jeremy and other leaseholders across the country feel that the dream of home ownership has fallen so short. That is why we have to end the system in its entirety. This draft Bill goes a long way towards ensuring that we do just that.”

“I echo my hon. Friend’s remarks about the NLC. I also thank others, such as the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, Sir Peter Bottomley, who has now left this place, and other champions, including my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders), who has stood up for leaseholders so vocally ov…”

“I thank the Liberal Democrat spokesman for those questions. He often mentions Lloyd George, and I share his passion for Lloyd George’s radicalism on property law and other measures. I will address the specific points that he raised. During the passage of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, I was clear that my i…”

“My hon. Friend and I both served on the Public Bill Committee when the Bill that is now the 2024 Act was going through the House, and we discussed many of these issues then; I can assure him that we have given consideration to all of them. He is right that we are now on a path to a commonhold future. As I have said, th…”

“We launched two comprehensive consultations before Christmas, in respect of how we switch on the consumer protections set out in the 2024 Act for those living on freehold estates and, more widely, on how we end the prevalence of private management arrangements of the kind that I think the hon. Member is referring to. T…”

“I have a lot of respect for the hon. Gentleman and his service on the Select Committee. He has a lot of expertise in this area. I would say two things in response. First, we published two consultations on the home buying and selling process to try to modernise that process, and we are looking at some of those issues as…”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. His constituency is just over the river from mine, and is, in many ways, very similar. Day in, day out he will receive, as I do, complaints about service charge increases and onerous ground rent terms. That is precisely why we are taking action, in this Bill and elsewhere, to pro…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his kind words on my role in developing the draft Bill. I can say to him very plainly: yes. If he looks at the consultation on service charge protections that we released last summer, he will see proposals that specifically address non-litigation costs and other measures. However, as I said, …”

“That is absolutely right. In this area and so many others, the cost of living and addressing the affordability crisis faced by so many families across the country is the Government’s driving mission. For leaseholders, the reforms in the draft Bill will be transformative, particularly on ground rents, and will also intr…”

“I am more than happy to have a separate conversation with my hon. Friend about the specific conditions pertaining to leasehold houses. She will know, of course, that the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 made a number of changes in that area. In general, we want to arrive at a situation, once our reform agenda is…”

“The House can, of course, help us to speed up the progress of the Bill; 2028 is only a rough estimate based on the time it will take for the Bill, once it has passed its draft phase and scrutiny from the Select Committee, to be introduced in its final form and to get through both Houses. We will then also have to switc…”

“We did see a considerable amount of deregulation under the coalition Government and their successors. I will give the previous Government credit, as I have done before, for bringing forward the 2024 Act; it does include some limited relief for leaseholders and some new rights and protections. However, we need to take i…”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for her kind words. She was an incredible champion of the reform agenda for this legislation when she served as Secretary of State. She raises the matter of vested interests. I hope that the House—and you, Mr Speaker—will take from the Government’s robust defence to the legal challenge brou…”

“My hon. Friend has been an incredible champion for residential freeholders and leaseholders in his constituency. It is precisely because of ground rent increases of that scale that we are imposing, via this draft Bill, a maximum cash cap. I am more than happy to meet him to discuss the draft Bill and related matters.”

“I am acutely aware of the strength of feeling on freehold estates. It cannot be an either/or when it comes to ensuring that residential freeholders and leaseholders get the rights and protections that they need. I can assure my hon. Friend that we are taking concerted action on both fronts.”

“I do not want to be too critical of the Conservative Government, because they did bring forward the 2024 Act, and they did move the dial when it comes to the public conversation about things like ground rents. But ultimately, they did not finish the job, and it will fall to a Labour Government to do so.”

“I simply say to my hon. Friend: as soon as possible. Through these new consumer protections, we are bringing into force a regulatory framework that takes some time to get right, but I want those protections in place as soon as possible, so that we can provide protection to his constituents and others across the country…”