Steve Reed MP: speeches

Speeches

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  This Government were elected on a promise to repair the broken foundations of local government. In 2024, councils were on the brink financially, while a third of the country was left paying for wasteful duplication as a result of having two tiers of councils in their area. That cannot be acceptable. Years of underfunding has led to a crisis in social care, the decline of our town centres and rubbish piling up in our streets. That visible failure contributes to a decline in trust, and it was caused by Tory austerity and 14 years of economic mismanagement. This Government will not stand by and let that decline continue. We cannot just snap our fingers and reverse the last 14 years overnight, but we can act now to secure a better future. To get there, we have already announced fairer funding that realigns resources with need, but we also need to eliminate the financial waste of two-tier councils, so that we can plough the savings back into the frontline services that local people care about the most. Today’s announcement is part of that. We must move at pace to remove the confusion and waste of doubled-up bureaucracy. Local residents do not know which of their two councils is responsible for which services. No one would ever design a system in which one council collects rubbish and another gets rid of it. In many parts of the country, residents’ hard-earned council tax pays for two sets of councillors, two sets of chief executives, and two sets of financial directors. That is wasting tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. The previous Government sat back and ignored this problem, but this Government will not. We are committed to the most ambitious local government reorganisation in a generation. My priority is cutting out this waste, so that we can invest more in the frontline services that residents care about. That means moving as quickly as possible to the new, streamlined, single-tier councils that can make that happen. I have asked councils to tell me where holding elections this year to positions that will rapidly be abolished would slow down making these vital reforms, which will benefit local people, and I have listened to what councils told me. In December, the Minister for Local Government and Homelessness wrote to 63 councils that were due to hold elections in May 2026, asking to hear their views. I have carefully assessed more than 350 representations from those councils that have elections scheduled for May, and from others interested in the outcome. I have carefully considered arguments made about capacity, reorganisation and democracy, and I am grateful to everyone who took the time to express their views. I can now confirm my decisions to the House. I have decided to bring forward legislation to postpone 29 elections; I have deposited a list of those in the House of Commons Library. I received one further representation this morning, which I will consider; I will then report back to the House on my decision. In all other areas, council elections will go ahead as planned; many councils offered no evidence that elections would delay reorganisation in their area. That means that of the 136 local elections across England that were scheduled for May, the vast majority will go ahead as planned. In areas where elections are postponed, councillors will have their terms extended for a short period. Once the new unitary councils are agreed, we will hold elections to them in 2027. I have written to councils confirming these decisions, and I will shortly lay the necessary legislation before both Houses. I am not the first Secretary of State to seek to delay elections to speed up essential reorganisation. The shadow Secretary of State suggested on Tuesday that the previous Government had not done the same thing, but he has perhaps forgotten the postponements in Weymouth and Portland in 2018; in Aylesbury, Chiltern, South Buckinghamshire and Wycombe in 2019; or in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset in 2021.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  This is the biggest reorganisation in a generation, and it is very important that it be delivered with as much speed as we can muster, because of the benefits to local residents, who will see more money available to spend on things like fixing potholes and caring for older people—rather than paying for two sets of councillors, two sets of chief execs and two sets of finance directors, which the Conservative party was happy to see continue for all the 14 years it was in power. Of course, I will listen to my hon. Friend and others if they have suggestions about how we can further speed up the process and renew local democracy across the country.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  I am seeking to ensure that we remain on track by responding to the comments I have had from councils, and ensuring they have the resources so that the process goes ahead as everyone intends it to.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  As I said in my statement, it is my intention that the elections to the new unitaries will go ahead next year.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member makes a very important point, and he is right to be concerned about people working for councils. Of course, the overall increase in funding for local authorities means they have more resources to support their staff members, who may be concerned about their jobs in these circumstances, and I urge affected councils to focus on precisely the issues to which he has brought to our attention.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  I remind the hon. Member that his party did the same thing in the same circumstances—I should say his “former party”, because he walked out on it last week. Proposals about what happens in Essex are currently subject to consultation, and he is more than entitled to make his views known.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  I do agree with the hon. Member. I think it is very important that we get this right, which is why I was careful to listen to representations from councils due to undergo reorganisation to ensure that we do get it right. I want to see those savings made and to see council tax payers’ hard-earned money spent on frontline services, not wasteful duplication.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is of course a very pugnacious champion for her constituents and her constituency. She has had conversations with me about this very issue, and made her point very clear. We intend to make those announcements as soon as we can so that there is certainty, and we can move ahead to the new structures.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  I thank the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee for her questions. I reassure her that I have imposed nothing. I took representations and listened to local councils, and today I am merely responding to the representations that I heard. Most councils will go ahead. It is the councils themselves that have reassured me that they have the resources to go ahead with elections and deliver the reorganisation that is so important to improving frontline services for local people. I am acting on the information that they have given me; I am imposing nothing. She will, I hope, appreciate that it is not appropriate or possible for me to comment on legal proceedings.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  As I say, the right hon. Member was of course the Secretary of State who failed to act on eliminating the waste that came from duplication and allowed this two-tier system to continue, with millions and millions of pounds of council tax payers’ money wasted on duplicate councillors, duplicate chief executives and duplicate finance directors, instead of ploughing that money into frontline services. On those few occasions when he was brave enough to take a decision, he imposed; by contrast, I have asked and I have responded. However, the reasons he gave were the right ones. In his words: “Elections in such circumstances risk confusing voters and would be hard to justify where members could be elected to serve shortened terms.” —[ Official Report , 22 February 2021; Vol. 689, c. 23-24WS.] He got it right for once. He should be proud of himself.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  The fair funding review that we have announced is intended to ensure that, unlike under the previous Government, funding follows need. We took on board the new indicators on deprivation, and funding is now much more closely aligned with them. That is as it should be, because those are the areas that need extra funding. The hon. Lady will find that rurality is still taken into account in funding for social care, and given the distance that people may need to travel, it is important that such services remain available to them.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman knows full well that I cannot comment on legal proceedings—it would be entirely inappropriate. I think the best response to his question is to quote the “new sheriff in town”, the right hon. Member for Newark, who is sitting directly in front of him and who took exactly the same decision in exactly the same circumstances. This is a direct quote from him: “Elections in such circumstances risk confusing voters, and would be hard to justify when members could be elected to serve shortened terms.” —[ Official Report , 22 February 2021; Vol. 689, c. 23WS-24WS.] For once, he got it absolutely right.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  I have to say that the right hon. Gentleman’s case would be much stronger and would sound less self-righteous if he had not done exactly the same thing, for exactly the same reasons, when he was in government—only, unlike him when his party was in government, I have imposed nothing. This was a locally led approach. [ Interruption. ] He was a member of the Cabinet, and he is trying to claim that Cabinets do not take decisions collectively. He was in the Cabinet that took these decisions and he backed them to the hilt. Now, in opposition, he believes the opposite. He seems to think he has become a Lib Dem. He is supposed to have consistency in what he believes. This is a locally led approach. I was guided by local councils, which came to me with their views. I respectfully suggest that his argument is with those Conservative councils and leaders who have requested postponement so that they can get on and deliver a reorganisation that will benefit their residents, but which he is now trying to block for party political reasons.

• 12 Jan 2026 · New Homes · Hansard source

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  I certainly urge all local authorities to ensure that they have a local plan in place. When we came into government, two thirds of local authorities did not have a plan, but they need one to help developers know what they can build and where, and to speed up house building, which we all want to see.

• 12 Jan 2026 · New Homes · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes the important point that we are trying to build not just homes but communities. Those communities need the facilities and infrastructure that allow them to meet their wider aspirations for the places where they are located. Some of those points will be addressed in the new NPPF that we have brought forward, but I am more than happy to ensure that she gets the meeting that she wants to ensure that the detail of what her constituents want to see is included in the changes that we bring forward.

• 12 Jan 2026 · New Homes · Hansard source

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  If the hon. Gentleman’s party had not scrapped house building targets around the country, we might see more of the kinds of homes that we need in every single part of the country—urban, suburban and rural. As for our targets, the judgment of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, which was set up by the previous Conservative Government, is that this Government will oversee the biggest increase in house building for 40 years. That will put the key to their own home into the hands of people who were denied it under the Conservatives.

• 12 Jan 2026 · New Homes · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend describes a situation in Blackpool that I am sure Members across the House will recognise from many other constituencies, with the desperate need for more social and affordable housing. He will be pleased to be reminded that the new social and affordable homes programme of £39 billion, which will deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in this country for a generation, opens for bids next month. I hope that his local authority will be keen to make applications to it.

• 12 Jan 2026 · New Homes · Hansard source

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  We are making changes to building standards and the Building Safety Regulator, as the hon. Gentleman will be aware. I am happy to look at the proposal that he makes and to engage with him further if it would be helpful.

• 12 Jan 2026 · New Homes · Hansard source

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  This Government inherited a housing crisis, with the sector flatlining nationally since 2023. In October, the Mayor of London and I launched a joint package to speed up house building in London. In December, the Minister for Housing and Planning launched a consultation on reforms to the national planning policy framework to increase housing supply, including moving to a default “yes” to applications near railway stations. All of that will increase house building and help us to achieve our targets during this Parliament.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Social Housing: Damp and Mould · Hansard source

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  I am very sorry to hear of how my hon. Friend’s constituent and her children have suffered in that circumstance, and I thank him for his question. Awaab’s law, which is now in force, will require social landlords to take urgent action to fix dangerous homes or they will face the full force of the law. As part of these reforms, landlords must now consider the circumstances of tenants that could put them at risk, including the presence of young children, or those with disabilities or other health vulnerabilities. Alternative accommodation must also be offered if homes cannot be made safe within the required timeframes. We all hope that these changes will save lives.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Social Housing: Damp and Mould · Hansard source

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  There are measures other than Awaab’s law in place that may be able to help, if I understood the detail of the case. I would be very happy to write to the hon. Gentleman. We could look, for instance, at warranties, or at building enforcement; those may be ways to get action taken. If he would be kind enough to write to me, I will ensure that he gets a full response on that point.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Social Housing: Damp and Mould · Hansard source

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  The death of Awaab Ishak, aged just two years old, was tragic and it was avoidable. Awaab’s law came into force for the social rented sector last October, and it forces landlords to fix dangerous damp and mould and make emergency repairs to fixed timescales. We have consulted on a revised decent homes standard, including proposing a new damp and mould standard, which will ensure that landlords keep properties free from damp and mould, and we will respond to the consultation shortly.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  House building in this country ground to a near halt in 2023 because the previous Government failed to reform our planning system, despite knowing that it is too slow and cumbersome and deters development. Our Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December last year. It delivers fundamental reform to the planning system, speeding up the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure. Thanks to this Government, young people who have been denied the chance of their own home will now get the key to their own front door at last.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Our planning changes will support affordable rural housing by giving rural authorities greater flexibility to require affordable housing on smaller sites. Our £39 billion social and affordable homes programme, which opens to bids next month, is available to rural authorities as well.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman knows that the measures put in place during the pandemic were always intended to come to an end; his Government were going to do the same thing. The Chancellor is looking at the impact of revaluation. She is fully aware of the concerns raised by publicans in Streatham and across the country, and is reviewing the situation, and we expect an announcement in due course.