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Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants Etc.) Bill

With the leave of the House, I want to thank all Members in the Chamber this morning and who have supported this Bill, as well as the political parties, in general, for supporting it. It is pretty obvious that this is a desperately needed piece of legislation and we have got that point across. I want to refer to some simple points made by one or two Members. First, I can assure the hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink), who unfortunately could not remain in his place, that the Bill will cover those tenants whose problems he raised. If lenders take independent proceedings against tenants, those tenants will be covered by the Bill. I thank the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East (James Duddridge) for his support, too, and I can offer him a place on the Committee, if he is willing to accept it, so that we can explore a little further the issues that he mentioned this morning. I can assure him, too, that the Bill protects only assured or Rent Act 1977 tenancies; and, of course, holiday lets are excluded from those tenancies. I regret that I can confirm what I said earlier: those tenancies are not covered by the Bill. I thank the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) for mentioning the concerns raised by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. He mentioned some technical issues and I think that the best way of dealing with them, especially since he has not been able to remain in his place, is to promise to write to him about all those difficulties and to offer a meeting with him, too. I thank the House for everybody's support this morning. Question put and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time; to stand committed to a Public Bill Committee (Standing Order No. 63).