Speeches by Pennycook.

“To directly address your point, I do not think there is any cause among leaseholders in the country to doubt this Government’s commitment to bring the system to an end by the end of this Parliament. Barring a slight change in our timetable for the consultation on valuation rates, which I am more than happy to address, …”

“That is not in the consultation, Chair, if that is your question. I can come to that separately. The draft Bill is separate to that service charge consultation. That is about switching on one of the provisions from the 2024 Act. Our draft Bill includes some of the wider reforms we need to undertake to bring the leaseho…”

“Yes. What we mean by ending the leasehold system is set out very clearly in that very lengthy written ministerial statement. There is lots of detail in there for the Committee to get their teeth into. It means implementing those leasehold reforms that are already on the statute book, and we are progressively switching …”

“Yes, we will finally bring the feudal leasehold system to an end in this Parliament. That is our commitment, set out very clearly in the written ministerial statement I issued last year.”

“Joe and Will may want to come in. On a point of principle, as an incoming Government, we reviewed all aspects of regulation. I think, if the Committee is fair-minded enough to agree, that over the last 12 months this Department has done a significant amount of reform. The package for the BSR we brought forward is just …”

“I would not fundamentally—let me phrase it differently. I am not going to sit here and propose a new height threshold for the BSR. We inherited many regulations across the board from the previous Government. Our focus is ensuring that the BSR is operating effectively. As I say, it is balancing that requirement to ensur…”

“It is a good question. You are right to draw attention to the fact that the Building Safety Regulator, to the extent that it is impacting on the supply of new high-rise buildings across the country, is affecting particular parts of the country more acutely than others, for obvious reasons. There are usually more high-r…”

“I would expect nothing less.”

“I would strongly take issue with your assertion that we are not giving equal focus to quality and safety as we are to supply. I think the actions we have taken to date would attest to that. We are consulting on minimum energy efficiency standards and an upgraded and modernised decent homes standard. We are laying the r…”

“Our feedback from the sector is that, if local authorities knew that they were not going to lose these units from their stock, they would have much more of an incentive to build more.”

“To that point, the further reforms we are proposing to right to buy are set out in detail in the written ministerial statement I issued to the House recently. They are part of how we will ensure that we are net positive on social rented housing supply and in a sustainable way, absolutely. They will help better protect …”

“We are doing things differently, Chair. I think I have evidenced that we are doing things differently.”

“This is precisely why we have taken a sequenced approach to implementing Awaab’s law, to ensure that the sector can manage it and that, for example, responding to Awaab’s law cases does not completely consume the repairs and maintenance departments of all local authorities. We are confident that the sector can implemen…”

“The whole point of Awaab’s law is that, if landlords do not meet these requirements, residents will be able to hold them to account by taking legal action through the courts. It imposes a very hard fixed time period for responses to hazards such as damp and mould. This is a significant intervention. We have laid the re…”

“They have not come into force yet.”

“What is not the situation on the ground?”

“I receive them too, Chair.”

“I would simply reinforce—perhaps you take issue with this—that we have acted urgently by laying regulations on Awaab’s law, which, as I have said, will require landlords to address hazards, including damp and mould, within strict time periods.”

“It is important to say that, as a point of principle, alongside our commitment to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation, we are absolutely committed to driving a transformational change in the safety and quality of housing. The action that we have taken today attests to…”

“Then we would have much more certainty. There will be an element of which bids are coming in under continuous market engagement. It does depend on what comes in after we publish the prospectus and the new scheme is operating, and what registered providers themselves are saying their appetite is, but we are getting very…”