Steve Reed MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 24 Nov 2025 · Social and Affordable Housing: South Shields · Hansard source

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  This Government are delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation. Our £39 billion social and affordable homes programme will build around 300,000 homes over 10 years, with at least 60% for social rent, backing councils and housing associations to build at scale. The Conservative Government failed to build the homes this country needs. They put homes out of reach for too many British families, allowed homelessness and rough sleeping to double over their 14 years in power and choked off the economic growth that this country needs. This Government will “Build, baby, build” to make the dream of a secure home a reality for everyone in this country.

• 24 Nov 2025 · East Sussex County Council: Elections · Hansard source

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  Perhaps to the Conservatives the word “consultation” means “diktat issued from the centre”, but to me it means listening carefully to the views of those who will be affected. My intention, and my preference, remains for the elections to go ahead on schedule.

• 24 Nov 2025 · East Sussex County Council: Elections · Hansard source

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  Our vision on local government reorganisation is clear: we intend to create stronger single-tier local councils that are better equipped to drive economic growth and improve local public services. The Government’s intention remains for all elections scheduled for May 2026 to go ahead, including East Sussex county council.

• 24 Nov 2025 · East Sussex County Council: Elections · Hansard source

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  It does not surprise me that the Conservatives do not understand consultation, but it does surprise me that it is also difficult for the Liberal Democrats. We are engaging with the councils that will be affected. There is precedence for this where elections would result in only a very short term in office. Our intention, and my preference, is for the elections to go ahead. We want to cut the cost of politics, simplify decision making for local people, and deliver stronger economic growth and better public services in every part of the country.

• 24 Nov 2025 · East Sussex County Council: Elections · Hansard source

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  I am sure the hon. Member will be aware that consultations and engagement are going on with local authorities, but the Government’s intention is that all the elections scheduled for next May will go ahead next May.

• 24 Nov 2025 · East Sussex County Council: Elections · Hansard source

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  First, I recognise the circumstances that the hon. Member describes, which were left behind by the previous Government’s approach to local government funding. As I said earlier, it remains the Government’s intention that those elections will go ahead as scheduled, unless there is a very strong justification otherwise. That is what will happen.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Private Rented Sector · Hansard source

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  I recognise what the hon. Gentleman has said. The answer is, of course, to build more social and affordable housing, and to increase the supply of housing more generally. I am, in fact, due to meet the relevant Northern Ireland Minister to discuss these matters, and I look forward to that.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Private Rented Sector · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is, I know, an outstanding advocate for his constituents. We will deliver our reforms in three phases. On 1 May next year, we will implement reforms to reshape the tenancy system and remove barriers to renting, including abolishing section 21 no-fault evictions, limiting rent increases to just one a year, and outlawing bidding wars. The implementation dates for Awaab’s law and the decent homes standard are subject to consultation. The 11 million renters in England, including those in my hon. Friend’s constituency whom he mentioned, will not forget that the Conservatives and Reform UK voted against these important changes that will benefit renters throughout the country.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Private Rented Sector · Hansard source

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  Labour’s Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is the biggest strengthening of tenants’ rights and protections in a generation. From 1 May 2026, 11 million renters in England will benefit from the changes that this Government are making, including an end to section 21 no-fault evictions and preventing unfair rent hikes.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Social and Affordable Housing · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind words, but I think it is disingenuous to blame the Mayor of London for failings that were the fault of the previous Conservative Government and, I am afraid, current Conservative boroughs in London such as Bromley, which is a shocking 95% behind its house building target. We cannot tolerate that. The previous Government choked off house building everywhere by scrapping house building targets and crashing the economy, sending mortgages through the roof so that people could not afford to buy new homes—of course, the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Braintree (Sir James Cleverly), was a major cheerleader for the Prime Minister who carried that through. In the last four years of the previous Government, housing consents collapsed by one fifth. It is this Government who will take the steps to remediate that situation, this Government who will get 1.5 million new homes built and this Government who will work with local government partners across the whole country, including here in London, to ensure that the homes this country needs are built.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Social and Affordable Housing · Hansard source

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  First, I do recognise the challenges the hon. Gentleman has outlined. They should concern us all, and I thank him for raising them. He will be aware that we are making legislative changes right now, with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that is going through Parliament, to speed up the planning system that is holding back so many homes from being built. We will be tabling further amendments to the Bill to tackle some of the challenges the hon. Gentleman is talking about. I am working with the Greater London Authority and the Mayor of London on an acceleration package that targets London in particular. We will make announcements on that within weeks, and the hon. Gentleman will then see the action that we intend to take here in the capital city to ensure that home building continues apace. We will also be looking nationally, because every region of the country needs new homes built to meet people’s dreams of having somewhere affordable to rent or buy.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Social and Affordable Housing · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady will be aware that the Government have reintroduced home building targets that were scrapped by the previous Government. It is important that we have those targets and that they are achievable, and councils will be held to account to achieve them. I am working on an acceleration package to encourage more building in which local authorities will be key partners, and we will make announcements on that in due course. Of course, the hon. Lady will be aware of the changes we are making to drive up standards in council and other social housing, which we will insist are enforced and carried through.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Social and Affordable Housing · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind words. I agree that the changes that have been made—we have managed to come to a consensus on this—are very important and will make a big difference to forces families and veterans, which we all want to see. I congratulate and commend the hon. Gentleman on working cross party to ensure an outcome that will be satisfactory to everybody who is concerned about this issue, as he is.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Social and Affordable Housing · Hansard source

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  It is a privilege to be appointed as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. May I start by paying tribute to my predecessor and former Deputy Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), for all she has done since the general election last year on workers’ rights, local government and building council homes? She made a real and lasting difference. In July, the Labour Government published a five-step plan to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation, and to transform the safety and quality of social homes. The affordable homes programme will deliver 110,000 to 130,000 affordable homes. Under the new £39 billion social and affordable homes programme, we have set an ambition of 300,000 new homes over 10 years. We will set targets after the initial bids.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Social and Affordable Housing · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting this incredibly important issue and for always championing his constituents in Rochdale. He is quite right to highlight the appalling record of the Conservative party on temporary accommodation for families and children, and on homelessness and rough sleeping. Our drive to build more social and affordable homes will tackle its failure head-on. We will reduce homelessness levels and the need for temporary accommodation by providing more secure and affordable homes up and down the country, with a particular focus on social rent, including record numbers of new council homes.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Social and Affordable Housing · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his work on this issue, and I am sorry he is not wearing the red cap I saw him wearing in Liverpool recently highlighting this very important issue. The Government have committed £39 billion to a new 10-year affordable homes programme that will deliver around 300,000 homes, with at least 60% for social rent—the most affordable tenure. We have committed to the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation, and we are backing councils and housing associations to build at scale, so that communities such as his in East Worthing and Shoreham get the homes they need at costs that people can afford to pay.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Social and Affordable Housing · Hansard source

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  I am always happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and others on issues as important as this. I had the pleasure of visiting Newlyn in his constituency not so long ago and some of those issues were made apparent to me by people living in the area. We announced top-ups to the affordable homes programme in the autumn and the spring, and in March we announced £2 billion as a downpayment for the new social and affordable homes programme, which is now open for bids. Homes England can and does vary grant rates on the basis of bids from social housing providers. Importantly, the available £39 billion covers a range of tenures, including community-led housing. I would expect and hope to see increases in the way that he has described.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I have to say again that the right hon. Gentleman’s devotion to Trussonomics is admirable, particularly given that we have already seen it fail once. We heard from the shadow Chancellor that the Conservatives would put up income tax if they won the general election. They put it up to the highest level since the second world war; we are not going there.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman has raised an important point, and I am happy to arrange a meeting with the appropriate Minister so that he can share his concerns and we can come to a resolution.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss his concerns.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend, the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, for her work in supporting disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Oldham and her strong support for the Pride in Place programme, which offers a significant amount of long-term flexible funding and support to areas like Oldham. Best of all, it is local people who will take the decisions about what the investment needs to look like to make a real difference to their high streets, public services and public transport, so that they can take back pride in the place they belong.

• 13 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I know that the right hon. Gentleman was a strong supporter of Liz Truss when she stood for leadership of the Conservative party, but surely he cannot have forgotten what she did: she made multibillion pound unfunded spending commitments that crashed the economy, and sent wages down and prices, mortgages and rents skyrocketing. The last thing this country needs is tens of billions of pounds of more unfunded commitments, crashing the economy again and destroying people’s dreams of home ownership—

• 13 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My No. 1 priority is to get Britain building again: we will build, baby, build. That means putting Britain on a path to end the moral stain of homelessness and rough sleeping that doubled under the previous Conservative Government; growing our economy with good, secure jobs and rising incomes in every region of Britain; and putting the key to home ownership in the hands of more people across our country. Under the Conservatives, the British dream of home ownership became a nightmare and out of reach, but with this Labour Government, it will become a reality once more.

• 13 Oct 2025 · New Social Housing: Buckingham and Bletchley · Hansard source

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  I am sure that it will come as no surprise to my hon. Friend that I wholeheartedly welcome the delivery of 183 new council homes in his constituency. I fully agree that the Lakes estate demonstrates the ambition of Milton Keynes city council to build the homes that its communities want and need. I also value such councils’ support in helping the Government to meet our ambitious housebuilding targets, which include targets for the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in this country in a generation.

• 13 Oct 2025 · New Social Housing: Buckingham and Bletchley · Hansard source

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  The Government have taken decisive action to improve the capacity of all local authorities, including those in Buckingham and Bletchley, to build more social housing, including through our new £39 billion social and affordable homes programme, the new 10-year social housing rent settlement, and right-to-buy reform, so that we can reverse the decline seen under the previous Government.