Part of Housing, Communities and Local Government – in the House of Commons at on 11 January 2021.
Clive Betts
Chair, Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Chair, Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Thank you, Mr Speaker—happy new year to you. I am sure it would be remiss of me if I did not say that your local Constituency football team have made rather a good start to this year.
In saying happy new year to the Minister as well, I am sure he would want it to be a happy new year for all leaseholders, but he did not really answer the question from Sir Robert Neill. Even if a loan scheme were introduced to cover the costs of these defects, and even if it was a very low-interest scheme, that would still be a capital charge on properties—a capital charge that would be a considerable financial burden on leaseholders, would put many of them into negative equity, and would mean that their properties were unsaleable. Will the Minister accept that a loan scheme that puts an additional debt on leaseholders is not a fair way out of this problem and that he should instead look to the industry and to Government to cover the cost of putting these defects right?
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In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
