Speeches by Cooper.

“Do you think you will by the time the Act is passed? Emily d'Albuquerque: By the time the Act is passed? Potentially. We do have ambitions to be much more digital in the future. It is in our current strategy. I do not know yet exactly what that will look like.”

“You want to, but do you have plans in place to do it? Emily d'Albuquerque: We do not have a detailed plan at this stage.”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“That is completely fair, but it will be ordinary people living in commonhold blocks who may want to refer back to their commonhold community statement at a glance. Emily d'Albuquerque: We do not yet have detailed plans, but we are aware that we need to make the commonhold community statements readily accessible. As you…”

“What work are you doing to prepare your online services for this? Currently, I think it is possible to do a straightforward Land Registry search, but for virtually every other kind of document, you have to fill in a form and send it off to the Land Registry. That really is not good enough in the 21st century, is it? Wh…”

“So you are not anticipating capacity problems right now, but it is too early to say. Emily d'Albuquerque: Yes.”

“Indeed, and the Land Registry has been criticised in recent years for the extent of the backlogs, hasn’t it? I understand that you have made some significant progress on getting the backlog down for new applications, but the Committee has received evidence that significant delays still exist for non-urgent applications…”

“A foundational principle of our constitution is that everyone is bound by and entitled to the benefit of the law, but the long-running crisis in our justice system has stretched that principle to breaking point. Other right hon. and hon. Members have covered in depth the disastrous decisions by the previous Government …”

“This will be a worrying time not only for households, but for the energy- intensive businesses in my constituency. Last year, we lost soda ash production from Northwich after 150 years, in part due to the high energy costs. What support does my right hon. Friend intend to provide businesses both to get through this cri…”

“I am curious to know whether you can think of any other area of public policy, ever, where the Government have offered a 40-year transition period for investors to adjust. It seems wildly generous—certainly to me and maybe to many members of this Committee. Can you think of any other examples?”

“Previously, Governments have considered an immediate peppercorning for existing ground rents. Do you consider the 40-year change to peppercorn to be a reasonable compromise?”

“I would like to ask you about the Government’s estimates of the value transfer that they published in the policy paper. They estimate a value transfer, for a transitional period of 40 years, of between 55% and 61% from freeholders to leaseholders. They also set out modelling based on a 20-year transitional period and a…”

“If there is time, Chair.”

“I have one final point because I know we are short on time. You talked about the risk to pension funds. Analysis from the predecessor Department to MHCLG showed that less than 1% of pension fund investments were in residential properties. Is the risk of the collapse of pension fund investments not overstated?”

“Successive Governments, over several Parliaments, have made similar manifesto commitments on leasehold reform and ground rent caps. Do you accept that there is a clear mandate from the public, from the electorate, to pursue these reforms?”

“For which they received over £1 billion in funding under the previous Government—Lord Gove is sitting behind you—and the Building Safety Act requires leaseholders to contribute towards that as well. Ground rent has been in place for quite a long time, so I am asking what people receive in exchange for their ground rent…”

“Perhaps we will come back to that if there is time. Is it your contention that what leaseholders receive in exchange for their ground rent is the removal of combustible cladding? What else do they receive in exchange for their ground rent?”

“I will come back to ground rent, but could you state what aspects of the legislation RFA members are opposed to, and what they support?”

“Good morning, Charmaine. In its comments after the draft Bill was published, the Residential Freehold Association said: “The inclusion of a ground rent cap in the draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill represents a wholly unjustified interference with existing property rights which if enacted, would seriously damag…”

“I am Andrew Cooper, the Labour MP for Mid Cheshire and I declare an interest that I served on Cheshire West and Chester council with Katie Kendrick, who is one of the founders of the National Leasehold Campaign.”