Rachel Blake MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 10 Dec 2025 · Points of Order · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The shadow Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp), has visited my constituency to make a political video for social media. He has undertaken videoed interviews with apparently no reference to the services available to tackle the issues that he is seeking to highlight. I cannot accept his attempt to use the communities in Westminster and the City as a political football. Since before I was elected, I have campaigned for more local police officers and specialist outreach workers to tackle the very specific issues that we are facing locally. Following my campaigning, the Government have invested an additional £12 million into Westminster and—

• 9 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Short-term lets account for up to 20% of homes in parts of my constituency. Not only are they eroding communities, but I am concerned that their owners are not fully paying their tax. What steps will the Chancellor take to address the fact that data from Airbnb suggests that as many as 6,000 homes are being let on short-term lets, but vanishingly few are registered to pay business rates? Will she meet me to discuss this issue, and how we can recover the tax, which could be up to hundreds of millions of pounds—

• 9 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Short-term lets— [ Interruption. ]

• 3 Dec 2025 · OBR: Resignation of Chair · Hansard source

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  The OBR’s investigation has two particularly striking findings: the first was the number of attempts to access the documents in question; and the second was the lack of security for those documents. What specific actions does the Minister believe the OBR should take to overcome those things at future fiscal events? Does he agree it is possible to have confidence in the principle of an independent OBR alongside undertaking meaningful and significant scrutiny of some of the organisation’s actions?

• 2 Dec 2025 · Homelessness: Funding · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers. I thank the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for securing this debate, and for his continued advocacy on this topic. He has been a reliable voice in this space for quite some time. I am grateful for the opportunity to highlight the latest statistics, but today I will also make the case that tackling homelessness is the right thing to do not only for individuals and communities but for public spending and our economy. We have done so much already, but there is a lot more to do, so I will share with colleagues some details about the cost of temporary accommodation, particularly in London, and then propose some possible solutions and make some requests of the Minister. Currently, 56% of homeless households living in temporary accommodation are in London. In fact, one in 50 Londoners live in temporary accommodation, which is nearly 200,000 people, including 97,000 children. London boroughs collectively spend £5 million a day on temporary accommodation, with the rate of temporary accommodation in Westminster reaching 3%. In 2023-24, Westminster city council spent £95 million on temporary accommodation, and in the same year spending on temporary accommodation in the City of London increased by 52%. It is positive that there are plans to spend capital money on temporary accommodation, which is part of the solution, but we are now in a situation where the average household in London spends £202 every year, or 11% of their council tax bill, on temporary accommodation. The net current expenditure on homelessness in London has risen by 42% since last year, compared with a 16% increase across the rest of England. And of the 4,254 households in temporary accommodation in Westminster, 768 are in bed and breakfasts, which are an appalling place to grow up, and only 244 are in local authority or housing association stock. The most expensive type of temporary accommodation is in the private rented sector and paid for nightly. It is the most common type in many London boroughs, including Westminster, where it is used for 1,684 of the 4,254 households in temporary accommodation. Local housing allowance has been frozen, and analysis by the Local Government Association shows that local authorities are due to spend an additional £400 million a year from their own funds on temporary accommodation. At present, 30 in every 1,000 households in the City of Westminster and seven in every 1,000 households in the City of London live in temporary accommodation. This Government have done a lot. We have committed £39 billion to increase the supply of genuinely affordable housing, and my own local authorities have received significantly more money to tackle some of the worst forms of rough sleeping. I am grateful for all the work the Minister is doing, and for how open-minded and open-spirited she is about tackling this problem. All of us in this Chamber have come forward to solve some of these problems. Will the Minister bring local government and housing associations together for an emergency meeting, to have a frank conversation about the ludicrous situation of local authorities driving up the cost of temporary accommodation because they are competing with each other to procure it? Will she update the House on the Office for Value for Money report on the cost of temporary accommodation? And will she consider using funding models that have been used in the past that help people to transition from leased temporary accommodation into permanent social housing? These families live and have children growing up in London communities, and we simply cannot continue putting them out to other local authorities that I know have struggles with identifying temporary accommodation. I also know how seriously this Government take this issue, and I firmly believe that we will be able to end the scourge of rough sleeping and tackle the temporary accommodation crisis if we have the will and the spirit to get it done.

• 26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 24 Nov 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way?

• 5 Nov 2025 · House Building: London · Hansard source

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  I am listening to the hon. Gentleman’s argument about strategic planning, but I believe every Member present, including myself, has substantial experience in bringing forward new genuinely affordable homes. We all know that it requires finance and real delivery focus, particularly in local authorities. Can the hon. Gentleman reflect on his time in local government and how many genuinely affordable council homes were brought forward in that period? Obviously, the ability to deliver from a council setting is a key part of solving this important challenge for London.

• 5 Nov 2025 · House Building: London · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving way. I have listened carefully to his analysis of the problem—I have waited to hear the full analysis—and I would be grateful for some reflection on why the deregulatory proposals he is making were not brought forward under the previous Government when there was clearly an opportunity to do so.

• 5 Nov 2025 · House Building: London · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Mundell. I commend the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French). Although we probably disagree on both the analysis and the solutions, I recognise his passion for his constituency and his concern about the issue in London. In Cities of London and Westminster, which I am proud to represent, we recognise the appalling cost of temporary accommodation. As the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) said, it costs £5 million every day. The eye-watering average price of a home in my area is nearly £1 million. Given the average prices that the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) spoke about, we are looking at average private monthly rents of £3,221, so the housing crisis is felt acutely right here in the very centre of London. We have heard powerful contributions about why this issue matters so much, but I want to reflect on the drivers of this debate: the green belt, greenfield land, the brown belt, the grey belt and brownfield land. Only 6.7% of the green belt is in an area that can be developed for housing. In fact, since 2013, just 0.2% of green-belt land has been brought forward. In London, 99.6% of development takes place on brownfield land. That reflects the London that we all know and love, and is one of the real positives of strategic planning in our great city. However, we face challenging circumstances in converting planning applications into permissions, and permissions into starts on site. We have heard some really compelling contributions about that. We need to focus on stability in the sector, which is critical for ensuring development and delivery. We must recognise the important role of the £39 billion that the Government put into genuinely affordable homes. We need a stable rent-setting system that will enable councils and housing associations to plan, and a stable economy with interest rates going down so that people can have confidence that they will be able to get on to the housing ladder. I will now focus my remarks on buy-backs. I welcome the contribution from my very respected hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) on how effective buy-backs can be in solving inner London’s very particular housing crisis. I commend Westminster city council for investing £20 million in buying back 45 former council flats earlier this year. This is something that we can do immediately. We have a short, medium and long-term challenge in recognising London’s and the UK’s housing crisis. Ifirmly believe that this Government, together with the Greater London Authority’s right to buy-back programme, can enable 1,200 homes to be brought into council ownership, and that will make a tangible difference to lives this week, this month and in the years going into the future. The new programme brought forward by the Greater London Authority, the council homes acquisition programme, is aimed at helping local authorities to buy back 10,000 homes within just the next few years, and that can be supplemented with local authority housing funds. It is a really effective and immediate means of providing people with the home that they deserve and bringing down our temporary accommodation costs. I would be grateful if the Minister updated us on the conversations he is having on that very topic, the immediate temporary accommodation crisis that we face in London, and how together we might move forward by investing in current council homes to tackle that issue.

• 30 Oct 2025 · Sudan: Protection of Civilians · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds) for securing this urgent question on this devastating topic. My constituents of Sudanese heritage, alongside the whole community of the Cities of London and Westminster, are appalled by these atrocities. Will the Minister update the House on the situation with consular access? What might UK citizens expect for their family and friends in the region, and what kind of support is this country providing to reach out to them?

• 30 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Last year, my constituent Alexander Johnson bravely intervened to stop a phone theft by armed would-be criminals, having himself been a victim of a violent mugging. Will the Leader of the House join me in commending Mr Johnson’s bravery? Does he agree that steps taken to address that sort of crime, in particular the Metropolitan police’s Operation Echosteep, one of the largest crackdowns on phone theft in the UK, are essential to maintaining central London’s reputation as a centre of culture and tourism, and an economic engine?

• 30 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  It’s all the bobbing.

• 29 Oct 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  As the MP for the centre of London, including Paddington station, I know how interconnected our countries and our economies are. In stark contrast to the nationalist parties of Reform and Plaid Cymru, the Labour Government are focused on job creation. Will the Secretary of State update us on the impact of Plaid Cymru’s damaging independence plans?

• 29 Oct 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  9. What recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on increasing economic growth in Wales.

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for that intervention, which speaks for itself. There is a stark contrast with what the Labour Government are doing, and their meaningful interventions in the housing market. The Renters Rights Act 2025, which has received Royal Assent, is stabilising life for renters, making sure that they no longer live in fear of no-fault evictions. We have also defeated a judicial review against vested interests and freeholders, so that we can move forward with our leasehold proposals. Those are both significant interventions that the Opposition failed to deliver after 14 years, five of which they spent trying to deliver reform for renters and leaseholders that would have meaningfully stabilised the housing market. We have not heard anything about all the people stuck in their homes because of the last Government’s complete failure to tackle the cladding crisis or leasehold. We have just had political dressing-up of an unfunded proposed tax cut. The other thing that the Labour Government have done is made sure that we are stabilising the economy. As the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Bobby Dean) told us, people who want to save up to join the housing market need a stable economy. We have seen interest rates come down five times, which we think is saving mortgage payers about £100 a month. They are better off because of the stability that our Chancellor and this Labour Government are beginning to deliver.

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  I am interested in how much the hon. Member knows about my constituency. He may know that nearly half of my constituents are private renters, and only about 15% can afford to own their own home in my constituency because of the record failures of the previous Government to do something about the cladding crisis, the supply of new genuinely affordable homes and the delivery of low-cost home ownership, which would have really made a difference. Rather than the Conservatives’ ill-thought-through proposals, Westminster city council under its Labour leadership is able to deliver more genuinely affordable homes, and this Labour Government are taking the challenge seriously. We have seen His Majesty’s Opposition make a valiant attempt to dress up a politically motivated tax cut as a meaningful housing intervention. Serious thinking, this is not. I am pleased that the House will vote against their ill-thought-through proposal and that we will carry on with delivering meaningful intervention in the housing market and making sure that our publicly funded services are stable into the future.

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  I would like to develop my argument a little bit further, and then I look forward to hearing from the hon. Member. I read the Opposition’s proposals with interest, and have been looking to see exactly how they intend to fund their proposed tax cut. I am struck by the fact that the Conservatives want to bring forward even more unfunded proposals. They are not satisfied with their devastation of public services after their attempts at austerity; with crashing the economy, driving up mortgage costs and rents, and driving down the supply of new homes and overall rates of home ownership; or with their botched Brexit deal, which, through its impact on the economy, has wrecked many people’s chance to buy a home. No, they propose yet more ill-thought-through tax cuts. In the likely event that the Opposition’s ill-thought-through proposals for funding this tax cut are undeliverable, I wonder whether they would cut £14 billion from Labour’s £39 billion investment in genuinely affordable homes. Would they cut £14 billion from the £23 billion that the Government invested in the National Wealth Fund to get our economy going? Would they take money out of our £3.8 billion homelessness fund? The truth is that the Conservative Government’s interventions in the housing market resulted in temporary accommodation use, rough sleeping, mortgage rates and rents going up, and home ownership going down. The Tories pretend to be the party of home ownership, but it is Labour that is absolutely determined to get homes built. It is Labour that is coming forward with proposals to get homes built, and Labour, I believe, that will deliver on that.

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  I would be grateful if the hon. Member would expand on how that driving value of aspiration came into the Conservative Government when they were completely failing to address the urgent need for leasehold reform over the past five years, when so many people have been suffering and unable to sell their leasehold homes because of the cladding on those homes. Where was the aspiration then?

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to speak in the debate. In a spirit of cross-party unity, I congratulate His Majesty’s Opposition on their valiant and brave attempts to dress up a political tax cut as a meaningful intervention in the housing market. I have been looking at every single Conservative Member who has spoken and thinking about whether they really believe that such a tax cut would actually make a difference.

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  For the last two hours, the proposal has been presented by Opposition Members as a meaningful housing market intervention because of their supposed commitment to aspiration. The Labour party has always been the party of aspiration, and it has been the driving force behind social mobility throughout the last century. [ Interruption. ] Conservative Members know that, and that is why they are chuntering so much.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Co-operative Sector: Government Support · Hansard source

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  It is not in my gift.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Co-operative Sector: Government Support · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton (Jim McMahon), who has been a shining light of the co-operative movement for a long time. He has been a Co-op councillor, a Co-op leader, a Co-op MP and a Co-op Minister. We are incredibly lucky and proud to have him as such a shining light in our movement, and I thank him very much. I give thanks also to Joe Fortune and his team at the Co-op party. We talk about doubling the sector, but I think the Co-op party team might have doubled in the last few years. We are proud of that, and grateful for the hard work. This Saturday I had the honour of speaking at the Confederation of Co-operative Housing. I was welcomed there by the statement, “Welcome, you’re here with the doers.” That is who co-operators are: we are the doers. We put getting on with practical solutions at the heart of our mission. This year is the International Year of Co-operatives, and I am happy to talk about our proud values, celebrating our co-operation throughout the years. Our values are practical, compassionate, community-driven and absolutely grounded in the principle of sharing power and wealth, in the knowledge that if we can share power and wealth in the organisations that we create, we can rebuild trust and confidence in democracy and rebuild and restore confidence in our communities as well. If someone has a stake in a place or an organisation, that makes a difference to how they feel, and to the strength of that organisation and its ability to make a difference. My constituency is home to Nationwide, John Lewis and more co-ops than I can count. I wish to talk about two particular sectors, housing and energy, and about what more the Government can do to support them. On the housing sector, we know that communities can identify opportunities for genuinely affordable homes in the new homes coming forward. I welcome the work that community and co-operative housing organisations do to bring forward new homes. We should also recognise the importance of having communities involved in the governance of small and medium-sized housing associations, and celebrate the £20 million that the Government have put into co-operative housing and the small sites aggregator, which will make such a big difference to increasing the size of co-operative housing in this country. On the energy sector, I am proud to have the Aldgate community energy scheme and the Ebury Edge energy garden in my constituency. They bring people together and make sure that they all share in the benefits of renewable energy. We should celebrate the investment that GB Energy is determined to put into community energy schemes and make sure we do everything we can, practically, to deliver more of them. We should also talk about the finance needed, the access to capital and the changes the Government can make to help us grow the sector. I know how determined the Government are to double the size of the sector. As a member of the Treasury Committee, I had the chance to speak to Treasury officials about the Treasury’s role in that. It is brilliant that we now have a Mutual and Co-operative Sector Business Council—it is a great step—but there are further practical steps we should consider to increase the benefits of co-ops. Can the British Business Bank’s ENABLE scheme extend to co-ops? What more can the Government do to support co-operative development agencies in every community across the country? I look forward to the Minister’s response on those topics, and I am grateful for this chance—in the International Year of Cooperatives —to discuss this issue with all the co-operators here today.