Some will know of the controversy there can be over Speakers. No one can be sure whether George Thomas was an avuncular member of the establishment or a firebrand maverick, but what is certain is that his name is associated with the leasehold reform of 1967. The conclusion of leases on houses in Wales had led to a terrible injustice, and he fought and gathered the forces to make reforms.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall) said, flats tend to be held under leases. It is fairly clear from the census that there are 5 million leaseholds. With, let us say, one and a half people per flat, that amounts to 7.5 million leaseholders. Half the properties in London are held under leasehold, and a growing proportion of new ones will be leasehold as well. We know about the scandals in the retirement sector. I will not go into the Office of Fair Trading report on what Peverel and Cirrus did in ripping off their leaseholders because it is not relevant to the Bill.
In making the change proposed in the Bill, we consider how two Government Departments and two extensions of Government ought to come together. What happens in the courts is mainly a matter for the Ministry of Justice. Some property issues are considered at leasehold valuation tribunals when there is a dispute between the leaseholder and the managing agent acting on behalf of a freeholder, and those bodies reach their conclusions. However, there is no method whereby Siobhan McGrath, who heads the MOJ’s property chamber, and the Department for Communities and Local Government can come together to consider what is coming up through the courts, the issues brought forward by Members of Parliament on behalf of their constituents, and what comes from the Government agency, LEASE, which is a source of information for leaseholders in trouble.
As my hon. Friend said, this Bill, which I hope will shortly become an Act, cures an unexpected court judgment over an unintended use of words which describe, though
accurately, a false distinction between what a landlord or freeholder can do and what a leaseholder or those acting on their behalf can do. The arguments for the Bill have been put very plainly, and I will go no further in that respect. I will say, though, that matters of professional standards should be considered. I hope that those who look after the professional standards of lawyers—solicitors and barristers—and of accountants and surveyors will give guidance to their members as to whether they should use the nit-picking parts of the law as they see it while bouncing cases between the first-tier tribunal—the property chamber—and the county court, which leads to costs going up. That allows a very wealthy, well-resourced, clever, tricksy freeholder, or the managing agent working for them, to confound a leaseholder or an ordinary tenant. I would expect people in training for these revered professions to be told that if their conduct is clearly unjust—though it may be lawful—the professional standards bodies would consider a complaint against them.
My hon. Friends, with the co-operation of Opposition and Government Front Benchers, are curing one injustice, but many others need to be addressed. Over the next year and a half, we should aim to set up a way of gathering information on what can easily be done to make changes that improve the lives of ordinary people. We must ensure that those who are powerful, often greedy, and sometimes corrupt cannot make their living by ruining the lives of ordinary people, many of whom are elderly, vulnerable, poor and ill.
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