Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
Home Ownership: First-time Buyers
My Lords, shared ownership promised a real lifeline for first-time buyers to get them on to the property ladder, yet soaring service charges, crushing maintenance bills and toxic lease clauses are trapping families in unsaleable, unmortgageable nightmares: I exaggerate not. What urgent steps are the…
Lords
Debate
17 June 2026
Social Housing Bill [HL]
My Lords, I open this group—which is a considerably better position than we were in on Monday, when I thought I would be closing it—by proposing Amendment 53. This group goes to the heart of the Bill’s central test: whether we are serious about ensuring that right to buy does not continue to deplete…
Lords
Debate
15 June 2026
3 contributions
Social Housing Bill [HL]
My Lords, it is good to kick off our first day in Committee on this important Bill. As noble Lords will know from our comments and speeches at Second Reading, we broadly support the Bill, so I will endeavour not to make Second Reading speeches and to be as brief as possible, given our support for it…
I have just a few words on this group. First of all, I failed to observe the social niceties and would like to say that I am pleased that I have already had conversations and emails with the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill of Bexley, and I formally welcome her to the Front Bench. Her availability thus …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
8 June 2026
Affordable Housing: Young People
I thank the Minister for her positive response, but—and it is a big but—how does the £39 billion pot actually help if, on the one hand, as charities tell us, her departmental bidding processes and rules exclude, in effect, the smaller youth charities from actually applying for grants and building vi…
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
King’s Speech
I too thank the noble Baroness for the very sincere conviction and clarity with which she gave her introduction. From these Benches, I shall speak to the housing issues in the humble Address and will save a lot of the detail for the various Bills—so I hope the Minister does not think that she is goi…
Lords
Debate
26 March 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I will say a few words in general support of the principle of this amendment. We supported it during the passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Act, so it would make sense to do so here.
It was good old John Prescott who first promoted “brownfield first” and, ever since then, councils have been…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 March 2026
Renters’ Rights Act: Definition of Court Readiness
Data is collected and published—otherwise I would not have the figures for the current situation. MoJ statistics, as I said, tell us both the median time from landlord claim to repossession and how many possession claims progress to bailiff stage. Data is available. On the noble Baroness’s other poi…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 March 2026
Birmingham City Council and Unite: Refuse Workers’ Pay
Throughout the dispute, the Government’s priority has been the residents of Birmingham. During the worst disruption, in spring 2025, the Government provided intensive support to local partners to respond to the public health crisis that was arising then because of the all-out strike action. The resu…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 March 2026
Stamp Duty: Periodic Tenancies
We had much discussion about this during the passage of the Act, and we are working very closely with colleagues in the Ministry of Justice to implement the reforms. Work is progressing well to ensure that the courts and tribunals have the resources and capacity they need to handle the additional wo…
Lords
Committee Stage
5 March 2026
4 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 243, 249 and 250 in the name of my noble friend Lord Shipley, who regrets that he is unable to be with us today. We on these Benches absolutely understand why the Government have created this new entity of the local audit office in the Bill, but we will still lis…
I am going to be very honest and say that the Minister packed one heck of a lot into that response. I struggled to keep up with her and really understand the ramifications, because this matter is technical and detailed. I will revisit Hansard . I know that my noble friend Lord Shipley and I will hav…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
3 March 2026
4 contributions
Rent Officers (Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Functions) (Modification) Order 2026
My Lords, noble Lords can tell from me advancing to the wrong place that I have never done anything like this before. It shows that this is something about which I feel absolutely passionate, from my role as the housing spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats and from my own experience as now patron …
My Lords, my noble friend Lady Thornhill set out the case for the Government to rethink their decision to freeze local housing allowance. She set it out superbly, with all the consequences that will occur as a result of a further year’s freeze on local housing allowance. I want to paint a picture of…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
2 contributions
New Homes Target
My Lords—
The target for the £39 billion spend that we have is that 60% of that will be social housing. The whole amount will be spent on social and affordable housing. That is the most money that has been invested in social and affordable housing for a very long time, and I am very proud of that record.
In …
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
2 contributions
Renters’ Rights Act: Implementation
My Lords—
I was with a group of over 300 councillors at the weekend, mainly council leaders and other councillors, who were very pleased to see the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force on 1 May. The noble Baroness is quite right to say that local councils will play a crucial role in making sure that this Act…
Lords
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
3 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I will add something to the wise words of my colleagues. To us, this is about the concentration of power in the hands of one person. The powers being given to new mayors are considerable and I understand them; to some extent, I agree with them—as a directly elected mayor for 16 years, of c…
My Lords, in moving Amendment 91, I will speak also to Amendment 92. These amendments are the only ones in the group and concern mayoral powers and functions. Interestingly, I note that some of the wise and pertinent comments made by the noble Lords who are now not in their place regarding issues wi…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
27 January 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I will make a brief comment on Amendment 196B, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, which is worth discussing further, especially given how it fits with Amendment 191 from the Lord, Lord Bichard, which I strongly support.
The question I asked myself, perhaps trying to anticipate the Min…
Lords
Committee Stage
20 January 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I acknowledge the constructive intention behind Amendment 12 from the noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne. The desire to ensure that strategic authorities are properly equipped, financially sustainable and governed with integrity is entirely understandable. We have all seen, all too often, the cons…
Lords
Oral Questions
8 January 2026
New Homes: Target
It is essential that the local government reorganisation and devolution process does not hold up the production of local plans. My Government have made that absolutely clear and are following up with councils that have delayed local plans. Where the new strategic plans are being made, they can be ma…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
National Plan to End Homelessness
It is very important that we continue to work with local authorities in tackling this problem. Under the new strategy, every council will publish a tailored action plan alongside its local homelessness strategy, with local targets and key outcomes. That will feed into the national picture so we can …
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I am broadly in favour of the amendments in this group. As a general principle, we are in favour of any amendments that are genuinely about devolution and not just decentralisation. As we are all aware, there is a significant difference. However, we are aware that this brings issues of gov…
Lords
Debate
27 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I rise to support the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, as we did in Committee, and in particular to talk about this broader area. My Amendment 92 is similar to that from the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, but takes it up to a greater level.
Having grappled with an attempt to do the whole of Hertf…
Lords
Debate
27 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendment 112. I start by thanking my noble friend Lady Pinnock for pitching in on the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Best, in the wee small hours as I attempted to get my last train. I was very pleased to support both of the noble Lord’s amendments. I know f…
I absolutely understand those points; as a localism person, obviously I agree with that. However, the key issue is that planning officers are playing “safety first”. Their immediate response is, “No”, for the reasons that the noble Earl, Lord Erroll, set out earlier. Is there any way we can strength…
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I was very pleased when this amendment was debated in Committee, as there was a very small but warm consensus that it seemed fair and reasonable. We are well aware that SMEs face many challenges, but we believe that this is a small but significant signal to them that we understand their co…
My Lords, it is of absolutely no surprise to me that the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, spotted my drafting omission, which is why we always take his amendments seriously. I hope that the Minister will take on board his comments, which I thought were quite pertinent.
I was seeking to make proportionalit…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
New Homes Target
I am very happy to take back whether we need some more communication on this. We have been very clear that we take a brownfield-first approach, but we know that brownfield alone will not be enough to deliver the country’s needs. That is why we have asked all local authorities that cannot meet their …
Lords
Debate
14 October 2025
3 contributions
Renters’ Rights Bill
I understand that at this stage I should be very brief, so I simply say to the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, that I also speak to many landlords and tenants groups. Indeed, I have put amendments down on behalf of tenants groups during this process. I thank all those who have spoken. I particularly…
My Lords, I will speak very briefly. We opposed the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, on Report, and we see no reason to change our minds now. We have reflected carefully upon it. My noble friend Lord Shipley was very vexed by this question and was in conversation with the noble Lord, Lor…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
15 September 2025
3 contributions
Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards: Cost Caps for Landlords
My Lords—
That is very generous of the noble Baroness. Further to the Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, has the Minister seen a survey by the National Residential Landlords Association indicating that 31% of private landlords are planning to leave the market in the near future, aggravating th…
+1 more contribution in this session