Baroness Pinnock (LD)

My Lords, I thank everybody who has spoken in this debate and for the wide—in fact, unanimous—support, certainly in principle if not in practice, from all those who have contributed. In what I have said and in the Bill I have deliberately not pointed the finger of responsibility or blame at any particular Government. That is not what this is about. This is about seeking justice for leaseholders. It is a difficult and complicated issue but in the end, what this House and the Government need to do, with support from across the House, is to finally address the issues in favour of the leaseholders. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, very much for the expertise that he has again shared, including what the then Opposition—now the Government—said at the time about the importance of finally nailing this issue. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Bourne, for raising an issue that I feel very strongly about: that the manufacturers have so far evaded responsibility. If that does not come through the courts, it has to come through Parliament, and we look forward to seeing whether criminal prosecutions are brought. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, that I like being radical. The challenge she made was that if we do this to the building sector, it will not have the capacity to build the new homes that we need. By the way, Devonshire, which she quoted, described the Bill as “powerful”, and that will do. My challenge back is this: take the car industry. Whenever there is a systemic problem—brakes or something—it calls its cars in, deals with it and faces the consequences, which sometimes means billions of pounds, and it does it quickly. When it comes to people’s homes, 10 years on we are still seeking to protect the building industry and others. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, for her praise, although I do not think I deserve it, and the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, for pointing out some of the legal issues that are now coming. I am just sorry that the Government and the Opposition have been a bit lukewarm in saying, “Yeah, we agree, but we don’t agree”. All I want is for this issue to be finally dealt with properly in favour of leaseholders. That is what I want, and I shall continue to raise it in this House.