CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

LEVELLING UP, HOUSING AND COMMUNITIES – CLADDING SCANDAL & LEASEHOLDERS - 10 January 2022

LEVELLING UP, HOUSING AND COMMUNITIES – CLADDING SCANDAL & LEASEHOLDERS - 10 January 2022

Dr Julian Lewis: Everybody welcomes the statement of principle that it is immoral that innocent leaseholders should pay for remediation of something which was not their fault, but if that is immoral for the future, it is also immoral for everybody who has been pursued ever since the disaster at Grenfell Tower. Therefore, may I urge the Secretary of State to revisit the answers he gave to my right hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (Sir Mike Penning) and my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), because otherwise he will be creating a perverse incentive for people to come down on leaseholders and extract rip-off fees before any legislation comes into play if it is only going to be forward-looking?

[The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations (Michael Gove): I very much take my right hon. Friend’s point. We will try to ensure that the legislation deals with the potential perverse incentive to which he alludes.]