Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:13 pm on 27 June 2018.
I wanted to also mention some examples of the difficulties that homeowners are facing in Wales, because in my own constituency of Newport East I recently met with a delegation from a prestige riverside housing development, where there are 81 leaseholders who, shortly after purchasing, found that their ground rents would double every 10 years, which wasn't brought to their attention when they made the purchases of the leases, and that the freehold will subsequently be sold on to a different company to the developer. It was only when, really, these issues came to national UK prominence and the UK Government took steps to address them that they became aware of the full scale of the problems, and just what a scandal these matters constitute. The developer then introduced a voluntary scheme to deal with the ground rent issue so that it will no longer double every 10 years, but it will, in fact, be increased in line with the retail price index, but that doesn't apply to those who bought from the company that the freeholds had been sold on to. So, there are now some leaseholders who will have their ground rent doubled every 10 years, and others whose ground rent will go up in line with the retail price index. They feel very strongly, all of them, no matter what position they're in, that these sharp practices need to be addressed and prevented in the future. There is a question, of course, in terms of what can be prevented, but also what can be done for people who are currently in that position, and I'm very pleased that Welsh Government is working with UK Government on the generality of these issues to take forward necessary reform, which hopefully will apply in Wales to our particular circumstances as well as in England. So, I think it's really important that Welsh Government continues to look at these issues in close co-operation with UK Government, but also that we support this Member's legislative proposal, which will deal clearly with one aspect of the problems for the future.