Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, I very much welcome the provisions of the leasehold Bill, which provide a better balance between the interests of freeholders and leaseholders. However, the Bill does not do what Michael Gove said it would. He said: “I don’t believe leasehold is fair in any way. It is an outdated feudal system that needs to go. And we need to move to a better system and to liberate people from...
Lord Young of Cookham: Further to the Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, the NAO was not entirely critical of my noble friend’s department. It did say that evaluation was better and that the grant management process had improved. But it also said that a number of projects would not be completed by the proposed deadline. Where there are good reasons for that delay, will there be some flexibility in...
Lord Young of Cookham: I apologise to the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, for barracking her when she quite rightly asked a supplementary question. I warmly welcome my noble friend to her new responsibilities and say how much she will be missed at the Treasury. We hope she will be able to adopt a less restrictive approach to her new portfolio than the one she was obliged to adopt at the Treasury. Many of us found the...
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords—
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, further to the original Question from the right reverend Prelate, is not the real problem facing the care sector that of recruiting and retaining care workers, who can often earn much more in a local supermarket than in a nursing or residential home? What action are the Government taking to make this a more attractive profession for people to go into?
Lord Young of Cookham: To ask His Majesty's Government how much money has been paid out to claimants by The Reclaim Fund in each of the past five years, following enactment of the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008.
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Best. A wise political party would cut and paste his speech and put it in its next election manifesto under housing. I warmly welcome three of the Bills relevant to today: the leasehold and freehold Bill, the Renters (Reform) Bill, and the tobacco and vapes Bill. The leasehold Bill will make progress towards phasing out a feudal system...
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, is it not the problem that the private rented sector in this country is overreliant on the small private landlord, whereas in most other countries it is the financial institutions and the pension funds that invest in private rented property and provide professional management? They do not need Section 21, so what steps are the Government taking to encourage financial institutions in...
Lord Young of Cookham: To ask His Majesty's Government when they first knew that the Building Safety Act 2022 removed protection from remediation costs from qualifying leaseholders who extended their lease.
Lord Young of Cookham: To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker whether letters applying for Leave of Absence from the House of Lords are in the public domain.
Lord Young of Cookham: I am very grateful for what my noble friend has just said. However, will leaseholders first have to go through the process of claiming unlawful enrichment before the Government introduce the provisions he has outlined—which I welcome—or will the Government use the provisions under subsection (11) of new Section 119A to give them the protection without first obliging them to go through a...
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, I will speak to Motion ZC1 in my name. I pay a heartfelt tribute to my noble friend for the real progress that has been made since we last discussed this matter in helping qualifying leaseholders who extended their lease after the Building Safety Act came into effect. In a nutshell, the Act extended protection to qualifying leaseholders against the costs of remediation. However,...
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, I will intervene briefly to speak to three Motions in this group—first, Motion ZH, to which the noble Lord, Lord Best, has just spoken. It is the substitute for an amendment on housing need that he promoted on Report. There is a crucial difference between the original amendment, which required local authorities not just to assess need but to make provision for it. The...
Lord Young of Cookham: To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress has been made on getting those on Employment and Support Allowance into work.
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, I welcome the initiatives taken since 2017 to help back into work those who can and to support those who cannot with appropriate measures without penalising them. But is there not a worrying underlying trend in a country that ought to be getting healthier? There are now 2.5 million people out of the workforce due to long-term sickness; that figure is up half a million in the last...
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, may I say on behalf of the whole House that my noble friend Lord Howe has also borne some of the burden of getting the Bill through? No one can say “No” more politely than my noble friend, as he has had to do to a large number of my amendments. The only point I really want to make is this: I have done 49 years in Parliament and I have never known a Bill quite like this one. I...
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Snape, rightly refers to the resources that planning departments need to draw up their local plan, but they also need the political will to deliver this. Last week the Housing Minister rightly rebuked Spelthorne Borough Council, which is under independent control, for not updating its plan for 14 years and failing to meet housing need. Will the Government take...
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, a fortnight ago, I asked my noble friend whether NATS should be liable to pay compensation for its failures in the same way as the airlines are, but she resisted. In defence, she said that NATS’ licence conditions allow penalties to be imposed for its failures. However, in a Written Answer, my noble friend told me that over the past five years, those penalties amounted only to...
Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, I am grateful to all those who took part in the debate some hours ago about protecting leaseholders. I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Howe for what he said—that proposals will be brought forward shortly to help those blocks that have enfranchised. My noble friend said that I would greet with a sigh his rejection of my amendment, and he was quite right. I say in return that...
