Speeches by Reed.

“Labour in London needs to live in London and housing costs are higher. Wages, therefore, are higher in London. Costs are higher in London. In recognition of the effect that you are pointing to—it has slowed down more in London than it has elsewhere—I announced with Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, a housing package int…”

“Again, that will be in the roadmap when it comes out. It is worth saying that the landlords’ representative organisations were very positive about the Act. The vast majority of landlords are decent businesspeople offering a good service to people who want to buy that service at an affordable price. We know that the pri…”

“We will wait for the evidence, but there is no reason to assume that it is going to be a problem.”

“It is fair to say that we do not expect any significant fall-off. When I have taken part in radio phone-ins, I have had people say that it is going to lead to a reduction in supply, but I have spoken to developers that are looking to develop more high-quality property available for private rent. In the end, it is not g…”

“I think they have, actually.”

“The same week that the Act, as it is now, got Royal Assent, I met with representatives from landlords and renters to discuss the next steps, and we committed then to publishing as soon as possible a roadmap towards implementation. I hope that that will be within days now. That will give everyone greater clarity about t…”

“I am very pleased that he is doing that. I think it is happening next week. I have spoken about this with him, because I have a constituency case that involves FirstPort as well, so I have seen, in my own patch, exactly what is going on. I am sure that Minister Pennycook will be extremely robust with FirstPort about pr…”

“It certainly does not sound fair in the way that you have just described it there. If it is okay, I can write back to you on that. I do not have the answer with me right now, but it does not sound right to me.”

“Costs and prices are higher in London.”

“We are consulting on wider reforms to address the concerns that residents living on fleecehold estates are experiencing, including unfair costs or infrastructure that should be in place but is not. That includes looking at legislative options to help overcome the challenges as we find them. That is currently subject to…”

“It is our intention to do it. Of course, things can happen that get in the way of that. We would seek to overcome any of those obstacles, but it remains our objective to achieve that.”

“The reason that the numbers are low is the same reason that the numbers have been low for the last three years.”

“That is what we are intending to get to. You are involved in the pre-legislative scrutiny in this Committee on the draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill that we will be publishing before the end of the year. The intention is to end new forms of leasehold within this Parliament.”

“He asked me a question.”

“In 2023-24, housebuilding fell off a cliff. It had been at a more reasonable level up until that point. A combination of factors made housebuilding less viable for developers: the rising costs of energy; the increasing cost of labour; the increasing cost of materials, including steel and cement; and the energy price ri…”

“The previous Government could have taken these steps three years ago and we would not be in this situation today.”

“To get more units built, because 30% of nothing is nothing.”

“It is not really. We are playing catch-up, because of what was left behind by the previous Government. There is a housing crisis, because there are not enough homes of every tenure. The previous Government had 14 years to fix that. They scrapped housebuilding targets and failed to fund the building of social and afford…”

“Clearly, there is a very powerful argument for it.”

“We are doing it at pace. We will do it as quickly as we can. As a signal of the fact that we are not dragging our feet, the additional £84 million that we have put into this service shows that we treat this as a priority, as we should.”