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Leaseholders' Rights Bill

I begin by congratulating the hon. Member for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait) on her success in bringing the Bill before the House. It is obviously an important subject. I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Hendon (Mr. Dismore) and for Brent, North (Barry Gardiner), and the hon. Members for Dunfermline and West Fife (Willie Rennie) and for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) for their contributions. I understand why hon. Members on both sides of House think that the subject is important. We all want to ensure that people live in decent homes, where they can have input into issues that affect them and their communities, particularly when they are asked to contribute directly by paying service charges, as in the case of leaseholders. I assure the hon. Lady and everyone else who has contributed to the debate that I will look carefully at the points made and discuss them with my right hon. Friend the Minister for Housing. I know that hon. Members feel strongly about this and I hope that I will be able to give them some reassurances. The hon. Lady made it clear that she understood that parts of her Bill were defective. The Bill's underlying principle is to help leaseholders who are being asked to pay high service charges. In some of my remarks there will obviously be a crossover between private sector and public sector leaseholders although, as I acknowledged, I know that in this Bill the hon. Lady feels most strongly about public sector leaseholders. The Bill seeks to give secure tenants more input with their landlords where national consultations are concerned. As I have said, those are all worthy aims, and I will deal with some of the specifics in more detail later. All of us recognise and have sympathy with what in some cases are, as many hon. Members have outlined, long-standing and difficult problems that leaseholders face with high service charges. That is clearly a particular difficulty in London, as was obvious from the contributions from London Members. I also agree that there needs to be sufficient and appropriate consultation between landlords and their leaseholders on service charges. I will come on to describe the existing consultation requirements a little later. We all want to ensure that leaseholders have a fair deal on service charges, and I am aware of the effect that high bills can have on those receiving them. That is why we have tried to put in place a system of safeguards and measures that make people aware of what they are taking on when they buy a property. Both my hon. Friends the Members for Hendon and for Brent, North referred to certain advice that they were always keen to pass on to people entering into leasehold arrangements. Service charges should be transparent and reasonable, and my Department is working on ways to improve that. We are all aware of leaseholders' important role in, and responsibility for, contributing to the upkeep and maintenance of the common parts of the buildings and communities in which they and other tenants live. That responsibility should be spelt out in the terms of their lease. It is also important to recognise that local authorities, in particular, are charged with bringing their housing stock up to a decent standard by 2010 and already have wide powers to assist those leaseholders who face difficulties paying their service charges. That assistance can take a number of forms and be tailored to suit individuals' circumstances, which of course can vary considerably. Leaseholders who pay service charges also have statutory rights that they can exercise where service charges and their property's management are concerned. It would help if I put on the record those rights, the assistance that is available to support leaseholders when they find themselves in difficulties and the improvements that the Government have tried to make so far. I hope that I shall be able to illustrate that, since the Government came to office, we have shown a commitment to develop the rights and protections that are available to leaseholders, and that we have delivered on that commitment. However, we are of course looking at what more can be done, particularly to reflect some of the points that have been made. We published a Bill, to which hon. Members have referred, setting out a wide range of proposals for improved leaseholder rights. We consulted widely on the proposals, and the result was the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, which significantly improved on the previous position of leaseholders—although I note hon. Members' reservations today about the Act. The improvements do demonstrate, however, that leaseholder rights have been and remain important to the Government.