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829 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)Q I want to pick up on what Mr Carter said and your insistence that capping rents was sending the wrong signal to pension funds. I trust you are aware of the statement from the…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)Well, it came from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association. Jack Spearman: I would advise you to go and ask them again, because the pension funds we are talking about have…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)Q If we are talking about, “Directly to the Government”, the Government’s own statement noted that the pension funds held less than 1% of assets in residential property, and added…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Nonsense. Justify the word “steal”. I would say the word “steal” is justified when there is no service being provided, and yet you are charging for it, even if it is only a…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Remediation—because the freeholder did not ensure the proper safety of the building in the first place. Jack Spearman: I disagree with that.18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Mr Spearman, since we have limited time, let me turn to what you are saying to the members of the public. You have engaged in a number of polling operations. You have told…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)I just did, but you interrupted.18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)Indeed. Mr Spearman, you have misled people in the polling surveys and the conclusions you have drawn from them, have you not? Your own members—Consensus Business, Long Harbour…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)A manager who works for a freeholder can be no different from a manager who works for an enfranchised set of leaseholders, can it? So the idea that the complexity is beyond the…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)Q First, may I declare an interest? I am not sure whether it is necessary, but our witness Mr Grover participated in a documentary that I am making about leaseholds, so we have a…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Have you come across cases like one that I have in my constituency? It was a co-development between St Modwen and Soucrest, but when the provisions that the Government put in…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Third sitting)Q Ms Phillips, shared owners, under the Renters (Reform) Bill passing through Parliament, will get forfeiture: an improvement on mandatory grounds of possession for which relief…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Third sitting)Q It really is an equity trap, isn’t it? Sue Phillips: It is. Housing associations will say that they will do their utmost to prevent this scenario playing out, and that numbers…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Third sitting)Q If the Bill were to introduce a provision that forfeiture were abolished, so that with a debt of, say, £5,000 or £10,000, you could not lose the entire value that you have in…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Third sitting)Q Okay. As shared owners, you pay service charges as well as rent and you are disadvantaged if there is poor maintenance of your buildings. Do you agree that shared owners should…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Third sitting)Sorry, I couldn’t hear what you said there. Sue Phillips: Sorry. One is to do with the model and one is to do with the transparency around the model. On the model itself, in the…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Third sitting)Q In conversation with my colleague, Matt Pennycook, you talked about the lack of statutory lease extension provision. The Law Commission said that shared owners should have the…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Third sitting)No, I will leave it there.18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Third sitting)Q Ms Higgins, do you agree that it would be appropriate to allow leaseholders to withhold service charges where there has not been compliance with the very extensive requirements…18 Jan 2024HANSARDLeasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (Third sitting)Indeed, yes. Ms Paula Higgins: I fully support something like that.18 Jan 2024