Government’s legislative agenda for the year ahead revealed amid turmoil in number 10
Plans to spur long-term investment in social housing, leasehold reform and cladding remediation measures featured in today’s King’s Speech as the government set out its legislative agenda for the year ahead.
This morning’s state opening of Parliament, coming amid heightened pressure on Keir Starmer’s leadership and speculation over an imminent leadership bid by health secretary Wes Streeting, was heavy on policy ambitions affecting the housing and built environment sectors.
The speech said the government will bring forward a ’Social Housing Renewal Bill’ to protect existting social housing and incentivise the building of more social homes.
This will bring into effect changes to the Right to Buy scheme, including increasing the eligibility requirement to 10 years, amending percentage discounts to better align with new maximum cash discounts and exempting newly built social housing for 35 years.
The bill will also ensure that councils and other potential buyers are notified before social homes are sold to maximise opportunities to retain stock.
It will also include measures to ’increase protections for victims of domestic abuse to remain in their property away from their abuser or move to suitable alternative accommodation’.
The bill also aims to ”reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, so providers can invest in new social and affordable homes with confidence.” To do this, it will repeal measures implemented by previous Conservative-led administrations, including requirements for local authorities to sell high-value homes, grant fixed term tenancies, and to charge higher income tenants higher rents. It also aims to reduce bureaucracy for councils by streamlining housing consents.
The speech also included proposals for sweeping reforms to the leasehold system which the government said would “mark the beginning of the end for the feudal leasehold system”.
The legislation will create a new legal framework for commonhold to provide full freehold ownership for flats and a “bespoke approach” to communal living without control by third-party landlords.
It will also cap ground rents at £250 a year, falling to a peppercorn rate after 40 years, and introduce a ban on the use of leasehold for new flats to ensure that in future commonhold is the default tenure for flatted development.
A Remediation Bill will seek to make construction product manufacturers pay for the remediation of unsafe cladding on buildings above 11m in height, and allow developers and contractors to “properly pursue manufacturers, rather than being blocked by technical legal barriers”.
The bill will include a new legal duty for building owners to remediate, mandate a nationally consistent approach to remediation work and plans for a register of all medium-rise buildings between 11m and 18m requiring remediation.
The Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill will seek to impose a 60-day maximum payment term in what the government promises will be the most significant legislation to tackle late payments in over 25 years.
It will include “targeted action” on the construction sector to ban the practice of deducting and withholding retention payments under construction contracts and give new powers to the Small Business Commissioner to investigate businesses suspected of conducting poor payment practices, adjudicate disputes between businesses outside of the court process and fine businesses that persistently pay their suppliers late or fail to comply with the legislation.
The policy will enforce an 8% interest rate above the Bank of England base rate for all late payments, introduce a time limit for raising invoice disputes and require boards or audit committees of persistently late-paying large companies to publish commentary on poor payment performance and intended actions to address it.
The Bill will apply to the whole of the UK but only to UK business transactions, not to global supply chains or international trade.
Sector reaction
National Housing Federation chief executive Kate Henderson welcomed the government’s measures on social housing, which she said “demonstrated the government’s commitment to protecting the supply of social housing for future generations”.
“We strongly support reforms to Right to Buy. Social homes are a vital resource for low-income families and the current system has depleted that stock for decades,” Henderson said.
She also said the NHF “strongly welcome” the government’s remediation legislation and supported its leasehold reforms.
Henderson said: “We support reform of the leasehold system and the principles of Commonhold. Getting the legislation and its implementation right will be critical to ensuring it is deliverable and provides meaningful benefits for residents.”
The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) welcomed the government’s “ambitious legislative programme”.
Gavin Smart, chief executive of the CIH, said: ”Commitments on Right to Buy reform, stronger tenancy protections for domestic abuse survivors, capping ground rents, making commonhold a viable alternative, and speeding up the remediation of unsafe cladding all signal a clear intent to improve residents’ security, safety and control over their homes.
Tracy Harrison, chief executive at the Northern Housing Consortium, said: “The Social Housing Renewal Bill shows the Government is giving providers the clarity and confidence to better protect and build more social housing by enacting the Right to Buy reforms. It also gives greater safety and security for tenants who are victims of domestic abuse.
The speech was also broadly welcomed by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, who praisedg the government’s focus on the built environment including leasehold reform and remediation measures.
“Delivering on these ambitions will require close collaboration between government and industry, as well as the professional expertise needed to turn policy into practical outcomes,” RICS said.
The Chartered Institute of Building said the speech’s cladding measures “must mark a new turning point for thousands of residents who have spent far too long living in unsafe homes”, with the body also praising plans for action on late payments.
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