Speeches by Pennycook.

“It is actually in your gift because you can help me get the Bill through.”

“I do not want to sound obtuse, but I cannot tell you when the substantive Bill will receive Royal Assent or when each piece of secondary legislation will be enacted; the timelines are variable. In my oral statement when introducing the draft Bill, I gave an estimate of 2028 for some of the provisions, such as those on …”

“There is not a chance on earth that I can confirm what is in the King’s Speech to this Committee today. I am sorry.”

“We published it yesterday. With a view to making decisions on final sites and the scope of the programme in the summer, we are now asking for views, in a brief consultation published yesterday, on the programme itself and seven proposed sites to take forward out of the 12 recommended to us by the new towns taskforce. B…”

“We are proposing to take forward seven sites from the new towns 12. As part of the consultation process that we launched yesterday and the SEA, we are obliged to consider reasonable alternatives. In terms of looking at those reasonable alternatives—I think I detailed this to the Committee previously—we looked at the si…”

“The simple answer to that is that it is just a part of the SEA and programme consultation process under the relevant legislation that we have to consider reasonable alternatives. I do not think it undermines the independence of the new towns taskforce. When we established it, we did not say to the independent new towns…”

“I do not have a clear timeline that I can share with you, not least because I cannot pre-empt this King’s Speech, let alone future King’s Speeches.”

“I have made it very clear that I want the SIs to come forward as quickly as possible. To supplement what Rachel said, we have discovered, not least through the consultation, that what is seemingly a fairly simple intervention—let us standardise service charges and make them more transparent—is actually incredibly compl…”

“I feel that I am dominating the conversation, so I will bring my officials in and then supplement their answers. I can tell you how we break down the SIs.”

“As I set out in my November 2024 written ministerial statement, as well as in other places, we have made clear that we are committed to strengthening the regulation of managing agents—that is not an issue. They will play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates. Their importance o…”

“Okay, we will come on to that. They took a small number, so both the elements relating to the nature of the right to manage and the process issues in that report are far easier to deal with. Enfranchisement is far more complex.”

“Let me give you a bit more clarity on that point, because I think it is useful. It is quite difficult to determine the number of outstanding recommendations from the Law Commission, because the 2024 Act departed from its recommendations for holistic reform of the leasehold and RTM regimes. Some of the recommendations a…”

“We intend to honour our manifesto commitments in this Parliament, as we made clear.”

“Let me bring my officials in on the Law Commission. I should declare an interest, by the way, as my wife is joint chief executive of the Law Commission.”

“I will not be drawn on whether it will be dealt with in the draft Bill. We absolutely recognise the issue here. It is probably worth my setting out some of the background and thinking. Obviously, we are already taking steps to make enfranchisement cheaper and easier by implementing the reforms in the 2024 Act—I am sure…”

“Put very simply, because the Bill is already very large—it includes significant structural changes to the housing market on commonhold, on forfeiture and on ground rents—and we cannot deliver the whole of the Government’s commonhold and leasehold reform agenda in a single piece of legislation. As I made clear in my ope…”

“I will not be drawn on the legal advice that the Government have received. I would argue that in political terms, we are taking on those vested interests. Freeholders want to see no intervention on ground rents in terms of retrospective action. We are taking on those vested interests. Also, as I have argued, I don’t th…”

“The Government have recognised openly that there is a perfect storm when it comes to house building in London. That is precisely why we are consulting on an emergency package. As the hon. Gentleman will know, the consultation closed just weeks ago and he does not have long to wait before we come forward with next steps…”

“I am sorry to disappoint my hon. Friend, but the Government have been very clear that we do not support rent controls. The provisions of our Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will ensure that landlords can increase rent only once a year and that tenants are empowered to challenge unreasonable rent increases.”

“From that question, it is difficult to understand precisely what the hon. Gentleman is getting at. If he writes to me, I will happily respond.”