Yuan Yang MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Jul 2026 · Commonhold and Leasehold Reform: Managing Agents · Hansard source

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  I thank the Housing Minister for all his tireless work on these landmark commonhold reforms—I only hope he finds my constant lobbying not too tiresome. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi) for her leadership on this issue. My parents and grandparents are in the Gallery today. I thank them for ensuring that throughout my childhood, I had a roof over my head. Thanks to their efforts, I have enjoyed the childhood tour around all the various property tenures possible under English law—from council, to private rental, to leasehold, to freehold and a brief interlude as lodgers in a community Christian church. When my parents moved to Earley, they bought a freehold house that was built in the 1960s. It came with no strings attached. If they had bought the same house on a new build estate built in the last two decades, it would have likely come with estate charges, standing charges for some, and often low-quality roads and communal infrastructure that will never have any route to adoption by the local council. They would have had a contract to pay these fees to a property manager—someone they did not choose and who they almost certainly cannot leave. Five million leaseholders also face similar fees, from ground rent to property management charges that are difficult to change. What has happened over those few decades since the 1960s to make things so much worse for young families moving into new builds today? The negotiations and relationships between developers and local authorities, as other Members have pointed out, have taken a turn for the worse. As a result, over a thousand constituents have been in touch with me, seeking advice for taking control of property management and breaking free of the monopoly held over them. The problems are not just about charges. In 2024, the average annual service charge bill rose by 11% to £2,300—four times the rate of inflation over the same period—so the average service charge now exceeds the average cost of all other utilities combined. In Shinfield, the impact on my constituents goes beyond that; they also pay a suitable alternative natural greenspace charge. Following negotiations that I instigated between the landowners and the residents, they are still waiting for a final agreed position. They also face a lack of transparency. Residents in Woodley, for example, have negotiated through me a service charge freeze with their managing agents, FirstPort, but there is still lack of transparency about the underlying charges.

• 2 Jul 2026 · Commonhold and Leasehold Reform: Managing Agents · Hansard source

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  One resident, June, said: “I’m afraid that all the years of bullying, alternating with being ignored by FirstPort on all levels, have finally taken their toll on my mental health”. It is time for better regulation.

• 17 Jun 2026 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q11. Thames Water’s headquarters are local to my town of Reading, but it is their distant creditors who are really in charge. Investors should be rewarded for success, but they should pay for their failures. That is why I strongly welcome the Government’s objections to the current creditors deal. Under any deal or special administration regime, the company will be restructured, but the question is whether that restructuring will be done only in the interests of senior creditors, or with customers and the environment in mind. Will the Deputy Prime Minister tell us whose side he is on?

• 8 Jun 2026 · Water Companies · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her statement. Tomorrow, I will be bringing Thames Water’s management into Parliament to answer a simple question: what improvements will my constituents get in return for the increases in their bills? My constituents do not feel they are being treated fairly by Thames Water, and that makes it even more important that Ofwat should reject the current deal proposed by Thames Water’s creditors to let it off the hook for polluting our rivers. Does my hon. Friend agree that fairness in the water sector means that the polluters and their investors have to be the ones who pay, not customers?

• 28 Apr 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T2. This weekend, while door-knocking in Woodley, I spoke to a young father of three who, despite working multiple skilled jobs, feared being made homeless because of high and rising costs of rent. Will the Chancellor examine the case for a fixed-term rent freeze in the private rented sector to protect renters like my constituent from rising costs following the invasion of Iran, and to bring inflation down in the wider economy?

• 27 Apr 2026 · Statutory Sick Pay · Hansard source

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  I am indeed very proud of this Labour Government’s historic Employment Rights Act 2025, which, from this month, means that workers will get statutory sick pay from the first day they are ill, rather than having to wait till the fourth. Too many people in Reading—even those working in health and care settings—are working through their illnesses; this measure will protect them, their clients and patients and improve the productivity of their workplaces. While the ERA is an important step forward, does the Secretary of State accept that the current flat rate of statutory sick pay—at four fifths of average earnings—remains a barrier to those on low incomes, and thus remains a barrier to tackling illness in the workplace?

• 27 Apr 2026 · Statutory Sick Pay · Hansard source

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  9. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of rates of statutory sick pay.

• 23 Apr 2026 · UK-EU Relations · Hansard source

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  7. What steps he is taking to improve relations with the EU.

• 23 Apr 2026 · UK-EU Relations · Hansard source

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  Mr Speaker, I wish you and the Minister a happy St George’s day. I congratulate my right hon. Friend on rejoining the EU Erasmus+ scheme. It is very exciting for students across the UK, including at the University of Reading. On energy prices, we are all paying the price of Trump’s war in Iran. It is vital for us to work with our European allies to lower energy prices, including reducing the trade costs brought up by the Tories’ bad Brexit deal. Will the Minister give us an update on his negotiations for the UK to participate in EU internal electricity markets?

• 16 Mar 2026 · United Nations Charter · Hansard source

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  Last month, satellite imagery of the Gaza war cemetery showed that Israeli forces had destroyed more than 100 allied graves using heavy machinery. This is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, and these are graves of British and allied personnel who served in the first and second world wars and made the ultimate sacrifice. Has my hon. Friend raised concerns with his Israeli counterpart? What steps will he take to prevent future destruction of Commonwealth war graves?

• 16 Mar 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T10. Reading is home to a large diaspora of Gurkha veterans; we are proud of their service and grateful for their sacrifices. Following the recent elections in Nepal, will the Minister work with the new Nepalese leadership to address collaboratively the issues these Gurkha veterans still face in the UK, and will she visit with me their community centre in Reading—The Forgotten British Gurkha—to assure them that they are far from forgotten?

• 3 Mar 2026 · Spring Forecast · Hansard source

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  I thank the Chancellor for her strong statement and, in particular, for her words on deepening our alliances with our European partners. This is crucial for bringing down the cost of food and for healing the economic self-harm done by the Conservatives. The Bank of England has said that her cuts to energy bills will help bring inflation down to around its target from next month. Will she commit to going further and continue to shield our constituents from global price shocks?

• 2 Mar 2026 · Supporting Children with SEND · Hansard source

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  Secondary school students with special educational needs have told me of their struggles with academy trusts in south Reading and Shinfield that have failed to properly prioritise inclusion. Will the Minister set out how the schools White Paper will address that on the part of multi-academy trusts? Will she consider visiting Hartland high school and Oakbank school in my constituency to see the progress they have made on that front?

• 2 Mar 2026 · Supporting Children with SEND · Hansard source

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  2. What recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the system for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities.

• 24 Feb 2026 · EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK · Hansard source

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  We know so much now, 10 years on from the referendum, about the economic impacts of the Conservative Brexit deal. I will not spend too much time discussing them, other than to say that they come up every time I knock on a door in Reading that belongs to an owner of a small or medium-sized enterprise. Across the UK, their exports have fallen by almost a third since Brexit. We are now bearing the costs of that.

• 24 Feb 2026 · EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK · Hansard source

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  No thank you. There is much we can now do to mitigate the costs of Brexit for our constituents, including securing a sanitary and phytosanitary veterinary agreement with the EU. I ask the Minister to give an update on the progress of that. Colleagues on the living standards coalition of MPs found that securing such an agreement could reduce EU food import prices by between 3% to 6% in the next few years. That will go a substantial way to reducing our constituents’ cost of living. In order to move forward, we have to look at where we are now and see how the world sees us. In my previous job reporting on trade from Brussels as a British journalist for a British newspaper, I would often attract wry comments from other members of the European Commission and community about my nationality and the choices that my country made. During the years of the Brexit negotiations, we had five Foreign Secretaries and six Business Secretaries, so no wonder they had some comments about my Government. Contrast that with the reception that our Prime Minister had at the Munich Security Conference. I was in the audience and heard the spontaneous applause when the Prime Minister declared that “we are not the Britain of the Brexit years anymore”, that we must “build a stronger Europe and a more European NATO”, and that “there is no British security without Europe, and no European security without Britain.” Security does not just mean defence—it means food, energy, and climate and the environment, and I am proud that in my constituency we have one of the last remaining European institutions headquartered in the UK: the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which will build on its new site. Soon, it will raise the British flag alongside the flags of all its partners.

• 2 Feb 2026 · Indefinite Leave to Remain · Hansard source

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  So many families in Reading, including my own parents, decided to accept positions in the UK and bring their children over on the promise of a stable educational future. We know how transformational education can be for children’s ability to contribute to the economy in future. Does my hon. Friend agree that we must ensure that stability for those who are already here?

• 26 Jan 2026 · Police Reform White Paper · Hansard source

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  I thank the Home Secretary for the Government’s focus on funding for neighbourhood police patrols, which has enabled Thames Valley police to form a new anti-shoplifting unit in Reading. Retail crime is still far too frequent and blatant in our shops. Will the Secretary of State or her Ministers come to visit the newly opened Reading police station in my constituency and meet our local shop staff and police officers to help them to tackle the scourge of shoplifting?

• 22 Jan 2026 · UK-EU Relations · Hansard source

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  The inflation figures out yesterday show that despite the Government’s good progress on energy prices, food inflation remains stubbornly high. Even the price of a Tesco meal deal is stuck at £4.25. The Government need to make food and life more affordable, so will the Minister update us on his negotiations over agrifood trade with the EU?

• 22 Jan 2026 · UK-EU Relations · Hansard source

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  3. What steps he is taking to improve relations with the EU.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Water White Paper · Hansard source

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  Earlier this week, my team and I secured a £12,000 refund from Thames Water for one of my constituents whose pipes had been left to leak for almost half a year. Half a year ago, when I first met Thames Water bosses, I asked them to explain how they would be using higher bills to pay for better pipes and infrastructure in my constituency. It is now almost the end of the financial year and they have set out no explanation. What more can the Secretary of State do to ensure that my constituents are getting their money’s worth out of Thames Water?

• 12 Jan 2026 · Leasehold Reform · Hansard source

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  7. What steps he plans to take to reform the property management system.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Leasehold Reform · Hansard source

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  I was glad to get involved in the Government’s recent consultation on property service fees. More than 700 of my constituents living in new builds in and around Reading have written to me about high fees and unfair behaviour from property management agents. One constituent, called Sunil, said to me: “We are throwing our money down the drain to these crooks, and they know they can take advantage.” Will the Housing Minister meet me and my fellow Labour MPs working on this issue to discuss what more can be done to crack down on such awful behaviour from rogue agents such as FirstPort?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T4. Data from the millennium cohort study suggests that over half of cases of young people not in education, employment or training are attributable to persistent childhood poverty and adverse experiences. I recently visited Starting Point, a charity that helps young people in Reading back into work, and I heard about those people’s experiences. Does the Minister agree that there is a strong economic case behind the Government’s moral mission to cut childhood poverty?

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

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  I join the Chair of the Treasury Committee in thanking Richard Hughes for his service, and commend him for taking responsibility for the security leak that happened on his watch. In testimony given to the Treasury Committee yesterday, the OBR described the “£21 billion average absolute revision” to their pre-measures forecasts as meaning, in effect, that between every six-month forecast, £21 billion on average is wiped off or added to the headroom. That leads me to ask: how can we ensure long termism in the UK’s fiscal institutions, despite this overall focus on headroom?