Member

Amendments 146 and 147 seek to limit the local housing authority’s powers to impose financial penalties. I ask the Minister how the Government determined £7,000 as an appropriate upper limit for a financial penalty. What specific conduct would constitute a £7,000 fine? Any fine, especially one imposed outside a court of law, must align with the principles of proportionality. We must not accept disproportionate penalties that may unfairly harm those with limited means. Many landlords are not wealthy, industrial, or professionalised tycoons; they are people who own a single property. Perhaps they inherited it from a parent, rely on it as an alternative to a pension, or became what some call accidental landlords. Owning a property does not automatically confer great wealth and it does not equip an individual to shoulder disproportionate financial penalties. We therefore wish to probe Government’s imposition of the £7,000 limit. How did the Government reach this figure? Why have they chosen it? Who have they consulted with to get this right? Simply: is this proportionate?