argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Menopause (Support and Services) Bill — House of Commons, 2021-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Elizabeth Louise Kendall (Labour, Centre-left): That is very kind of the right hon. Gentleman, and very much appreciated by me, my colleagues and women across the country. I am very proud to join my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea East, all the other women and men in the Chamber today, women outside this place and the organisations who are campaigning on the issue and calling for a menopause revolution. As she said on the radio this morning, let us make women wonderful again. Who on earth could disagree with that? Millions of women across the country deserve nothing less.
Menopause (Support and Services) Bill — House of Commons, 2021-10-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Paula Barker (Labour, Centre-left): I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I was going to say that education and awareness for those of school age right through to GP practices should form the backbone of a new dawn for women, who so often feel alone and frustrated that men around them just do not get it Finally, I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea East: "From one sister to another, I stand with you today and with every woman out there who needs to know that someone, somewhere has got their back."
Menopause (Support and Services) Bill — House of Commons, 2021-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Carolyn Harris (Labour, Centre-left): With the leave of the House, I thank the Minister and the Clerks. Wonderful women—thank you! What has happened today is only the beginning, but we can do such great things together. It is all about looking after women. I have just been told that the Welsh Government have also announced that they will be putting mandatory lessons for young people on the national curriculum, and will be delivering a pathway for menopausal women. The revolution has made a big difference. We are keeping women wonderful. Thank you all for your speeches and your time I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.
Childcare Bill — House of Commons, 2021-10-29
Topic: Other
Mathew Richard Allen Rodda (Labour, Centre-left): With the leave of the House, I beg to withdraw the motion that the Bill be read a Second time. I wholeheartedly thank the Minister for his genuine commitment to this important issue and the way that he has engaged with me. I am extremely grateful to him and look forward to working with him. I listened carefully to his speech and those of others Members. I want to express my thanks and my genuine pleasure in working in a cross-party way. I believe that we as a House have shown something very positive today: that we can work across the House in a thoughtful and measured way to achieve something of great national importance I am deeply grateful to everybody who has spoken and for their thoughtful suggestions, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I particularly thank the hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey) for her point and the hon. Member for North West Durham (Mr Holden) for his knowledgeable points, which showed his experience in the Department, along with the hon. Member for Guildford (Angela Richardson) and many others for their thoughtful and timely points. I look forward to working with the Minister and colleagues across the House on this important matter. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion Motion and Bill, by leave, withdrawn.
Fire Safety Remediation: Protection for Leaseholders — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Fleur Anderson (Labour, Centre-left): I am glad to hear that response. Hundreds of Putney leaseholders are facing agonising waits to get funding through the building safety fund. People in the Radial development have been waiting for 16 months, people in Hardwicks Square have been waiting for 17 months and those in the Swish building have been stuck at stage 2 for 11 months. Meanwhile, one constituent is paying more than £4,000 in insurance for a two-bedroom flat following a 500% hike, which is not unusual. What is the Minister doing urgently to speed up and simplify the building safety fund application process and also to prevent insurers from cashing in?
Fire Safety Remediation: Protection for Leaseholders — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Marsha Chantol De Cordova (Labour, Centre-left): Leaseholders in Battersea should not be held responsible for paying for remediation works when their homes were sold to them with the assurance that they were safe. Due to the poorly regulated EWS1 assessments, there have been cases where homes were being awarded a B2 classification—the lowest category—leaving leaseholders expected to pay for the repairs. In one case, leaseholders in Battersea challenged that, providing evidence proving that the building was of A2 classification. What action is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that leaseholders are protected from erroneous EWS1 assessment outcomes and that the process is not a barrier to selling or remortgaging, including properties below 18 metres?
Fire Safety Remediation: Protection for Leaseholders — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Mohammad Yasin (Labour, Centre-left): A number of my constituents are facing terrifying bills for remedial works. One couple made redundant due to covid need to sell their apartment urgently, but are trapped because of the safety issues. They have since heard that the developers have gone bust. I was pleased to hear the Secretary of State recognise how unfair it is to expect leaseholders to pay remediation costs, but they are expected to, and people are desperate. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill is a wasted opportunity to help them. When will this unjust mess finally be sorted out?
Fire Safety Remediation: Protection for Leaseholders — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Michael Lee Amesbury (Labour, Centre-left): If I include the Secretary of State, Housing Ministers have promised 19 times to protect leaseholders from historical remediation costs, yet as we speak we know of thousands of people receiving invoices for astronomical remediation costs. Thirty-three such residents are in Oyster Court in London, and they could face bills of up to £80,000 each following an assessment using the Government’s new PAS 9980 form. We will hear a lot more about that in the media. Have the Government added yet another toxic layer to the mess? What will the Secretary of State do about it?
Homes: Climate Standards — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Katharine Helen Brooks-Osborne (Labour, Centre-left): There is a significant funding gap to meet the housing investment requirements of the Government’s energy performance targets. I am informed that housing organisations will be expected to fund the majority of this investment over a 10-year period. In my constituency of Jarrow and across the UK, local authorities have had more than half their funding cut over the last 10 years. How are local authorities expected to meet this required investment despite the obvious financial challenges that they are currently facing?
Homes: Climate Standards — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Lucy Maria Powell (Labour, Centre-left): With energy costs rising exponentially and the Government having scrapped Labour’s zero carbon homes policy months before it was due to come in, abandoned the green homes grant and delayed the future homes standard, is it not the case that families and taxpayers pay the cost for the Government’s failures to make our homes more sustainable? This is an obvious case of false economy, with all of us paying more in the long run for higher bills and future retrofitting costs. The Minister has already been asked this question, but will he answer it this time: will he adopt Labour’s plans for a national mission to retrofit every home that needs it and bring forward all aspects of the future homes standard without delay?
Children in Temporary Accommodation — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Siobhain Ann McDonagh (Labour, Centre-left): Some 124,190 children will spend this Christmas in temporary accommodation, without a place to call home. They will wake up in hostels, bed and breakfasts and working industrial estates, often far away from their schools and friends. Homeless families in the UK are moved the equivalent of 400,000 miles around the globe each year, at a staggering cost of over £1 billion. Given that there have been over 100,000 children in temporary accommodation since 2015, what hope can the Minister give this House, and more importantly those children, that they will at some point have a place to call home?
New Housing Developments: Community Consultation — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): I think there is a desire across the House for a planning system that gets homes built but also recognises the democratic rights of local residents. Looking at the Minister’s planning reforms, may I suggest that he drops his zonal proposals, which are really quite bureaucratic and time consuming, and looks instead to simplify the local plan system, allows for more residents to contribute and be involved in it, and brings in his digital proposals, which have been generally accepted? Once a local plan is in place and an individual application comes in, should there not be a presumption that that application will be accepted where it is in agreement with the local plan, subject to any remaining concerns from residents being taken into account and listened to as part of the consideration of the application?
Community Funding: Scottish Borders — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Questions: What assessment he has made of the potential effect of the community renewal fund on local communities’ preparedness for the introduction of the UK shared prosperity fund in the Scottish Borders.
Steven Mark Ward Reed (Labour, Centre-left): There is a worrying pattern with this Government of overpromising and underdelivering, is there not? We have had the great train robbery and the return of the dementia tax and now they have postponed levelling up. The community renewal fund is plagued by delays. More than £1 billion of towns fund money has not even been allocated yet, and two years after the scheme was announced, it still has not delivered anything. If this is the Minister’s idea of levelling up, does he accept that it is just not good enough?
Homelessness Reduction: London — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Government consider a specific fund for the relatively small number of families with children who have a terminal illness? I have several cases where there are specific requirements around enlarged doorways and an extra bedroom so that nurses and doctors can get around the bed and the child can have care at home. Will the Minister look at specific funding for certain London councils to provide that sort of special housing need?
Planning (Street Plans) Bill — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Public Lands
Questions: What assessment he has made of the potential effect of provisions in the Planning (Street Plans) Bill to allow residents to vote on the design of new homes in their streets on levels of housing supply.
Emma Ann Hardy (Labour, Centre-left): Residents in Hull and Hessle are often fearful that the design of new homes and new housing developments will lead to increased flooding. Anybody who has been a victim of flooding knows how utterly devastating it is for everybody concerned, so will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss my ten-minute rule Bill, the Flooding (Prevention and Insurance) Bill, which is designed to improve and strengthen flood mitigation and flood protection measures for all new builds?
Accessibility Standards for New Homes: Consultation Response — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Mary Elizabeth Twist (Labour, Centre-left): Housing association Habinteg estimates that more than 400,000 wheelchair users are living in homes that are neither adapted nor accessible. Having new accessible homes reduces the need to adapt as individuals change during their lifetime and allows them to live independently for longer. Will the Minister meet me and experts from the Centre for Accessible Environments to find out what good accessible design can mean for users?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Ruth Margaret Cadbury (Labour, Centre-left): Not only have reforms of permitted development rights led to a new generation of slum housing, but the latest developments pose a huge risk to the beating heart of our high streets. Communities in this position have no voice and no say in these conversions, and councils are powerless to stop them. Will the Government at least give councils and communities some transparency, and release in full the promised regulatory impact assessment of the Department’s changes to permitted development rights?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Other
Questions: The housing targets that are being asked of outer London boroughs such as Barnet are simply too high. Will the Secretary of State lower them so that we can halt urbanisation and save the suburbs?
Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (Labour, Centre-left): Order. Order. Secretary of State, it is not fair to take advantage. I know you enjoy teasing them, but my problem is that questions and answers are meant to be short and succinct—that is why they are called topical questions—and Mr Rosindell is desperate. Come on Andrew!
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Stephen James McCabe (Labour, Centre-left): I think that the Secretary of State briefly mentioned hotel bookings in answer to an earlier question. He will be aware that over the weekend there have been reports of a shortage of quarantine hotel spaces. How will he ensure that this does not undermine his reasonable attempts at a rapid response to the new variant, and where can someone currently find reliable information about the capacity and availability of such accommodation?
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): The bit I do not understand is why we have leasehold at all. It is just preposterous nonsense, is it not? It is a feudal relic. Would it not make far more sense to have some kind of commonhold situation for flats, which is what they have in nearly every other country in the world and, I think I am right in saying, also in Scotland? Does that not make far more sense? We can then just get rid of leasehold completely.
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister is being generous in giving way. He may not wish to be as radical as my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) is suggesting, but does he share my concern at some of the greedier developers, which are insisting on a year-by-year, annual increase? For example, ground rents are going up and up in New River Village in Hornsey. I have to name the Berkeley Group, because it really should know better. It has done very well, including throughout coronavirus, given all the leg-ups that it has had from the Government through various coronavirus packages, and it really should not be demanding multiples every year from my poor old leaseholders.
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Mark Richard Tami (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Minister agree that this issue is about not only ground rents, but the admin fees that are often associated with any minor changes that the owner of the property wants to make? A lot of these properties are also linked with extra charges for management fees for the land and other things. The levels of charges placed on leaseholders are becoming totally unacceptable.
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Mark Richard Tami (Labour, Centre-left): I have met many people who were told by the company that sold them their property that they would be able to buy the lease, only to find out, when they inquire to buy it, that it has been sold on to some financial institution. Does the Minister accept that point?
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Christian John Patrick Matheson (Labour, Centre-left): I have listened to my right hon. Friend the Member for Alyn and Deeside (Mark Tami) and others. The Minister is waiting for the Competition and Markets Authority report, but is he prepared to say, even before that report has concluded, that on the basis of all the evidence we are hearing from right across the House, what we are seeing is nothing more than a financial scam from a bunch of greedy speculators?
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Other
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister is being very generous with his time; he remembers well what it is like to be on the Back Benches. Does he agree that many of the points under discussion will be good for future generations, but it is all a bit "jam tomorrow" if we cannot help our constituents today?
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Lucy Maria Powell (Labour, Centre-left): The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill sets ground rents on new leasehold homes to peppercorn levels. We welcome this very small step towards reform, and will not oppose the Bill this evening Generating income through high ground rents is an outrageous practice, as has been discussed, but serious leasehold reform is long overdue. Leasehold has been the main way that properties in shared blocks or converted flats have been owned in this country. It stems from arcane feudal laws that date back to an era of landed gentry and aristocracy, and it needs reform urgently. In its more recent manifestations, there has been what can only be described as a scam on an industrial scale, as was pointed out by my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester (Christian Matheson), against innocent leaseholders—and it increasingly affected new houses, not just flats. It is totally wrong, and it needs ending.
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Mark Richard Tami (Labour, Centre-left): I have been struck by the way that two houses, next door to each other, may be exactly the same, but one can be leasehold and the other freehold. We see that all the time. When a house is advertised, the advert often says, "This is not leasehold"—it points out that fact. Leasehold properties are being devalued by the day.
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Lucy Maria Powell (Labour, Centre-left): My good and hon. Friend makes an extremely well-made point. The practice of new homes being built as leasehold, and sold as leasehold—buyers often do not even know that at first—has got out of all kilter lately, especially in north Wales and north-west England, where it has been a particularly egregious practice. I welcome this Bill, albeit that it is a bit too little, too late, but it does nothing to protect those trapped in the injustice of leasehold. It does not do anything for those facing excessive ground rent increases today or yesterday, nor does it put an end to some of the most egregious practices, such as selling new houses as leasehold The ground rent scandal typifies everything that has gone wrong with our housing market. Housing has become a commodity to be traded, packed up in financial products and thrown into an unregulated market. Large-scale developers and investors have been given free rein to create ever more complex financial products, in order to squeeze money out of homeowners. Many people do not even realise when they buy their house that they will not own the land underneath it, as my right hon. Friend has just made clear. Even worse, the leases often contain clauses that double the ground rent—in some cases, every 10 years, which means that a homeowner in a property worth a modest £200,000 might pay £10,000 a year in ground rents after they have owned the property for 50 years or so.
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): Does my hon. Friend share my concern that this has got so out of hand? The amounts being charged are rising in excess of the retail prices index, which we would expect to be a basic marker. People feel trapped, in that they cannot sell on.
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Lucy Maria Powell (Labour, Centre-left): Absolutely. My hon. Friend makes a really good point. People are trapped in this situation, because we all know that when we look to buy a home, we look at the overheads, and the ongoing service charges, ground rents and other costs. In recent years, those things have rightly been added to the affordability criteria, so people often cannot get a mortgage for these homes. That leaves the people living in them trapped in that situation with an unsellable home.
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Lucy Maria Powell (Labour, Centre-left): I will first try to answer it, and then when I do not answer it very well, I will give way to my right hon. Friend to give a better answer. What I do know is that, unfortunately, many people who bought houses in this situation were advised to use the solicitor of the marketing company or company selling the houses—I have many in my constituency. So they were given poor advice, and this is a mis-selling scam as well. Would my right hon. Friend like to give a better answer?
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Mark Richard Tami (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend has in many ways made the point I was going to make. These people were often first-time buyers, keen to get on to the housing market and get their first home. They were told, "Don’t use this solicitor or that solicitor; use these ones, and we will give you a discount to use them", and—shock, horror—many were not even aware, as my hon. Friend has made clear, of the property being leasehold, let alone of all the other charges associated with that.
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2021-11-29
Topic: Housing
Lucy Maria Powell (Labour, Centre-left): Absolutely; my right hon. Friend makes a very good point as well. Many people, especially first-time buyers, do not understand the difference between leasehold, freehold and so on, and many of these issues come to light only as problems arise later or when they try to sell the property.