Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 April 2017.
Gavin Barwell
Minister of State (Department for Communities and Local Government) (Housing, Planning and London)
12:00,
24 April 2017
My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of security for people in the private rented sector, and he is also right to identify the issue of lending. Since the Government introduced their model tenancy agreement, which has appropriate break clauses, there is no longer any impediment to landlord customers submitting longer tenancies. The Majority now permit tenancies of up to two to three years.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
