Olivia Blake
MP for Sheffield Hallam · Labour · United Kingdom
“Mr Evans applied for early release of his civil service pension on health grounds because of terminal illness in November 2025, but sadly passed away this May. His case is still not resolved, despite repeated urgent representations from my office. Capita has failed inexcusably.”
“In my constituency, the consequences of the system are painfully clear, as has been mentioned by my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed).”
“Under this system, people who have bought homes find themselves paying escalating service charges, opaque administration fees and arbitrary costs imposed by freeholders.”
“At present, leaseholders of houses do not have this right, while leaseholders of flats do. If a freeholder decides to sell the freehold of a house, the leaseholder has no guaranteed opportunity to buy it. They may learn of the sale only once it has occurred, several months later.”
“I declare an interest as a leasehold homeowner, which is very common in Sheffield. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi) for securing this important debate. I agree wholeheartedly with the recommendations of her Committee, and of Lord Best, about a regulator.”
“A two-bedroom flat on that estate was advertised for sale with an annual service charge of £5,067, or £422 a month, which in Sheffield is a staggering amount of money, given our relatively low housing costs.”
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“Mr Evans applied for early release of his civil service pension on health grounds because of terminal illness in November 2025, but sadly passed away this May. His case is still not resolved, despite repeated urgent representations from my office. Capita has failed inexcusably. What actions can be taken to ensure that Mr Evans’s family receives the pension and payments owed without further delay, and to hold Capita to account? Will interest be paid on back payments?”
“I thank the Prime Minister wholeheartedly for this apology. Everyone present can see the pain, and the real need for this. I want to ask quite a technical point about the national online resource. Families often end up paying huge amounts of money to try to locate family members. Often, DNA is a way that people are reunited. Is that something that has been considered, in terms of the online resource, in order to help people reunite with family members in cases where records have been lost, heavily redacted or withheld?”
“A two-bedroom flat on that estate was advertised for sale with an annual service charge of £5,067, or £422 a month, which in Sheffield is a staggering amount of money, given our relatively low housing costs. Unsurprisingly, some of my constituents have struggled to sell their flats; they are trapped in the Catch-22 that others have mentioned. It is time that we ended that. We need to ensure that all the powers in the Bill are enacted, but we should also be looking at ways to future-proof it, and to root the regulator in fairness.”
“At present, leaseholders of houses do not have this right, while leaseholders of flats do. If a freeholder decides to sell the freehold of a house, the leaseholder has no guaranteed opportunity to buy it. They may learn of the sale only once it has occurred, several months later. If we are serious about empowering leaseholders, the right of first refusal must be extended. That should be included in the Bill. It is not just freeholders who cause problems. We have heard about the problems caused to residents by managing agents, including in my constituency, where leaseholders were made to find £22,000 within five months for major works after an inept management company left balconies and walls to crumble, and the eventual repairs to become more expensive.”
“Under this system, people who have bought homes find themselves paying escalating service charges, opaque administration fees and arbitrary costs imposed by freeholders. A significant number of my constituents own leasehold houses, and their lease requires them to ask permission from their freeholder before building a loft conversion or extension, and even before selling on their home. Those permissions are demanded in return for ground rents of little worth—often £10 a year—yet they give freeholders extraordinary control over the lives of leaseholders. That is not a fair housing system. My constituents have a clear ask. They have rightly suggested that leaseholders of houses should be given a statutory right of first refusal when their leaseholds are sold.”
“In my constituency, the consequences of the system are painfully clear, as has been mentioned by my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed). Not only have my constituents experienced threats of forfeiture, but they have been asked to pay thousands of pounds to their freeholder for minor breaches of their lease. The ability of a freeholder to strip someone of their home is an extraordinary concentration of power, and I am pleased that the Government’s commonhold and leasehold reform Bill proposes abolishing forfeiture entirely. However, abolishing forfeiture alone does not resolve the fundamental injustice. Leaseholders remain trapped in a system that, at its core, is a feudal relic—a structure designed not to empower people, but to extract value from them.”
“I declare an interest as a leasehold homeowner, which is very common in Sheffield. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi) for securing this important debate. I agree wholeheartedly with the recommendations of her Committee, and of Lord Best, about a regulator. I welcome the fact that this Government have begun to take a close look at the injustices embedded in the leasehold system. It treats leaseholders not as full homeowners, but as a revenue stream for distant freeholders and managing agents. The draft commonhold and leasehold reform Bill is an important step forward in correcting the imbalance, and I believe that it will help address many of the structural problems that leaseholders have endured.”
“I declare an interest as chair of the climate and nature crisis caucus. I also refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. It is a pleasure to speak in support of the Carbon Budget Order 2026. As I stand here, the UK is experiencing a frightening heatwave and a rare red weather warning, which means a risk to all, not just the vulnerable. That is how hot it is outside. Another heat record has been absolutely smashed. It was 36.1°C last time I checked, but who knows if it has gone up in the minutes that we have been sitting here? Surely Opposition Members cannot now bury their heads in the red-hot sand and deny that climate change is real. It is coming fast, and we are living through it right now.”
“It is about ensuring that future generations inherit a safer and more sustainable world. However, support for the Government’s ambition should not mean complacency about the scale of the challenge ahead. We face many interconnected crises, such as the climate crisis, the cost of living crisis and the nature emergency. Families continue to face high energy costs, while communities increasingly experience the impacts of flooding and extreme weather. The answer is not to slow down the transition and make things worse, but to accelerate it in a way that delivers tangible benefits for our communities.”
“The economic impacts are staggering, costing the UK economy around £60 billion a year—about 2% of GDP and rising—through things such as flood damage, loss of crops and other forms of weather damage. We should also be mindful of the growing environmental footprint of our digital infrastructure. As data centres expand across the UK to meet rising demand, their substantial energy consumption underlines why decarbonising our power system is not simply an environmental imperative, but an economic one. That would provide more opportunities in that space. I welcome this budget. As we know, climate action is about more than meeting targets; it is about building a country where children are not exposed to toxic air, and where we have warmer, well-insulated homes, lower energy bills and greater energy security.”
“The UK has successfully halved its territorial greenhouse gas emissions compared with 1990 levels, as we have heard, with much of that progress driven by decarbonisation of the energy system. That is a significant national achievement that we should all be proud of, and it is evidence that ambitious climate policy can deliver real results. It is therefore fitting that it once again falls to a Labour Government to confront one of the defining challenges of our times. The seventh carbon budget commits the UK to reducing emissions by 87% by 2040 compared with 1990 levels. If achieved, that will mark substantial progress towards our legally binding commitment to reach net zero by 2050. However, at present the UK is built for a climate that no longer exists.”
“I wonder whether the hon. Member will vote against this measure. That would tell her constituents very clearly her view on this matter. Back in 2008, under a Labour Government, the UK became the first country to introduce a comprehensive climate framework through the Climate Change Act, which set out the legally binding five-year carbon budgets that we have been reviewing and looking at. As has been said, with carbon budget 6 we did not get the opportunity for scrutiny that we should have got. That legislation was groundbreaking and ensured that Governments can be held to account for delivering long-term climate action. I thank the Minister for her efforts to bring that about. Nearly two decades later, we can see the impact of that foresight.”
“As such, I support the order that is before the House, but I also urge Ministers to see it as the beginning of the task before us, not the end. Ignore the naysayers—the science demands urgency, our constituents expect leadership, and the opportunity is before us. Demand that we are bold, and let us meet this moment with the ambition it deserves.”
“If we are serious about meeting this budget, we must match ambition with action—accelerating clean energy, not abandoning it; upgrading our housing stock from what has historically been some of the poorest in Europe; supporting the industries of the future, which will provide jobs; and ensuring that communities across this country share in the benefits of this transition, leaving no community behind. The prize is enormous—we should not listen to the naysayers. Lower exposure to volatile energy prices, greater energy independence, more skilled jobs, better security, cleaner communities and a stronger economy are within our grasp. Climate action is not a burden to be managed; it is a necessary opportunity to be seized.”
“The Environmental Audit Committee, of which I am a member, has been clear that the UK’s climate credibility depends on not simply setting ambitious goals, but demonstrating how those goals can be achieved. The Committee has called on the Government to set out clearly how this budget will be met and how the policies that underpin it will be delivered, reducing emissions in the way it sets out to do. However, today marks an important first step, and I am proud to see something ambitious in front of us.”
“Obviously we cannot do this on our own, which is why the global leadership we show in this space is very important. We have international agreements that aim for 1.5°, but as we have heard, we are heading more towards 2°, 3° or 4°. Moving away from our own commitments will leave us further behind; globally, emissions must peak urgently and then decline rapidly. The UK’s influence has always exceeded its size—we have always punched above our weight, and I am proud of that—and our credibility depends on continuing to lead by example. That is why we must see this carbon budget not as a ceiling but as a floor. The budget broadly reflects the direction of current Government policy, but it must be accompanied by the bold action necessary to deliver it.”
“We need the data and the understanding, so we can make the right decisions when designing the clinical interventions and services that should be available to young people. Anyone who is denying that should think again about why they are making that argument. This issue is not about whether trans young people exist; it is about whether we choose to respond with the real—”
“By removing healthcare, we are not going to remove trans children; they will look for alternative access to treatments, including, as we have heard, starving themselves to prevent puberty starting. That is horrific to hear—as someone who has been very active on eating disorders, that is really quite terrifying. We should be focused on ensuring that the voices of those people who will be most impacted—the young people and their families—are part of the discussion. The way in which the trial has been put together is of course not perfect—no medical trial is perfect—but it is really, really important, and the risk of harm from not going ahead with the trial has to outweigh the risk of harm from doing the trial.”
“There are well-established scientific and clinical precedents for the use of puberty-suppressing hormones, supported by decades of research and medical practice, and for a variety of different conditions. Even fertility clinics use these drugs in some of their regimes with certain patients. As I have mentioned, placebos are not the solution to making this a safer trial. Puberty-suppressing hormones are not new and they are not experimental. They have been used safely since the 1980s, and we have decades of clinical experience of supporting their use in controlled settings. But instead of engaging seriously with the potential benefits of such a trial, the Opposition have framed the issue as part of a broader culture war that is trying to erase trans children’s identities.”
“In fact, very many—the majority—of young trans people will go on to be trans adults, and we also know that those who detransition do in some instances retransition, because they detransitioned for the social reasons of not having a supportive family and other social pressures. This is not as static as some may think, and in fact young people often raise that fluidity with me. Young trans people need this trial to move forward. For many, this represents the only legal route to access puberty suppressants at the moment. A pathway can be profoundly impactful, and we have heard people describe it as lifesaving. This has not fallen from the sky.”
“We have heard a lot about safeguarding children, and I think everyone in the Chamber agrees that that must be paramount, but I fear we are dividing trans children from other children when it comes to their medical needs and what support should be in place. I am pleased that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care confirmed yesterday that the Pathways trial will go ahead. We have heard many Members mention that young people getting better is a way through this, but that is very stigmatising for those who do hold on to their trans identity into adulthood.”
“If we are withholding a form of medical intervention from someone just to prove that the next best thing will be the next best thing, that is not ethically right, because we are withholding medical care when someone needs it. That is very different from a healthy patient model, in which we are treating healthy patients to see if there is a biological change that would be harmful to all patients. All too often, healthcare for the trans community is marked by lengthy wait lists, inconsistent treatment and discrimination—we have heard some of that stigma today—and there needs to be a concerted effort to change that.”
“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine), and I agree wholeheartedly with her comments about homophobia. I remind the House that I am a former biomedical scientist, and I have probably read lots more medical publications than many in this Chamber. I have also volunteered many times for medical research, either as a healthy patient in my younger years or as a patient now in my slightly older years, so I know the process from both sides. I think it is really important that we recognise that the UK has some of the highest standards for medical research, especially when it involves patients. There is talk about why there is no placebo, but sometimes it is not ethical to do a placebo-based trial.”
“Alongside the postcode lottery my hon. Friend outlines, the impact on young people accessing education has huge implications. Not being able to view that data also impacts our understanding of why children might not be attending school. Does he agree that that is why data is so important for under-18s?”
“I declare an interest: I chair the all-party parliamentary group on SEND, and my partner is training to be a teacher. I thank the Front Benchers for the way in which they have conducted this review. I have been pleasantly surprised to see in policy many of the things that constituents have raised with me. How will we ensure that the packages set nationally include the voices of those with lived experience, especially young people, as the process is developed?”
“I welcome the Secretary of State’s leadership in restoring momentum on net zero. Will he outline how the Government’s energy and climate strategies will be underpinned by clear delivery plans, milestones and transparent reporting to Parliament?”
“The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith), would do well to remember the measly £60 million that the previous Government spent on community projects, and the fact that they were opposed to GB Energy, whereas today’s plan clearly sets out the £1 billion for community projects coming through GB Energy. Community energy can deliver cheaper power, local jobs and, importantly, public support for clean energy and net zero. Will the Secretary of State set out how Great British Energy will remove barriers to community ownership, so that communities can directly share in the benefits of net zero?”
“I thank the Minister for his statement; the measures will radically improve the system. He will be aware that over 170 houses in my constituency have had their freeholds purchased by Andrew Milne, who is now demanding that residents pay sums sometimes exceeding £25,000 to buy out the freeholds, and is threatening forfeiture and High Court action if they do not pay up. I welcome the Minister’s commitment to ending forfeiture, but will he set out what additional steps that Government are taking to regulate rogue freeholders?”
“Even though my handwriting was atrocious, I struggled to read and I had very difficult emotional dysregulation, a lack of attention and fidgeting, no one would ever have considered back then that I was neurodiverse. It has been many years since I was at primary school, but I would have hoped that the situation would have progressed. Unfortunately, it is hard to hear, again and again, about parents and children battling a system to get their needs recognised. It is troubling to hear from constituents who are in similar situations to what I experienced in the early 1990s, and about the barriers they are currently facing in accessing ADHD assessments, medication and therapeutic input. Those are not isolated cases, as we have heard. For both children and adults, waiting several years has become routine.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) for securing this debate and for raising awareness of the case of Matty Lock. I declare an interest as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for special educational needs and disabilities, and as one of the openly neurodiverse Members of this House: I have dyspraxia, dyslexia and—surprise, surprise—ADHD. As someone with personal experience, I know how transformative a timely diagnosis and the right support can be—something I unfortunately did not receive as a little girl. I was often considered disruptive and described as having little focus, lazy and not meeting my potential. I was moved to the “naughty boys table”, aged seven, away from my friends.”
“Absolutely. Just to go back to myself again, in a very ADHD way, I did art and drama alongside sciences. I became a scientist before I came here, but without the art and drama I would never have succeeded in science. I think it is really important that we work with people’s strengths, because the alternative to not doing that is huge. We have heard about suicide rates, prisons and unemployment among young people, and young people being blamed for being unemployed even though they have ADHD and have gone through a system where they are not getting the support they need. The ADHD taskforce has all the answers and should be looked at urgently by the Government.”
“The review highlighted the lack of cross-Government working, so I wonder whether, for example, Access to Work could be looked at. Self-employed people currently have to wait six months to access it, and it is obviously a form of early intervention that gets people the support they need to stay in work.”
“I hope that the Minister will reflect on that and consider bringing something to the House, or at least allowing us to have a vote on this. I believe that this measure runs counter to what we want from a democratic society. It is fair enough that we have developed a policy on phasing out animal testing, but that is being completely undermined by the draft regulations. If people no longer feel able to stand up and protest for what they believe in, where will the pressure come from for companies in the pharmaceutical industry to change their models?”
“With the definition being stretched so far, will it cover every single premises with an Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act licence? That would mean a huge number of laboratories and institutions being protected, which would become almost unpoliceable. At a time when our criminal justice system is on its knees, further criminalising protests will only add additional pressure on those stretched services, whether that is the police, the law courts or the prison places that will be taken up as a result of these criminal sanctions. I know that this is a difficult and controversial topic, but this is too significant a change to make through a statutory instrument or delegated legislation and to debate in this room today.”
“I know of the abuse that scientists have suffered, but we have to balance that against the democratic right of people in our country to say, “Actually, no, this isn’t good, and we should be looking to alternatives.” Calling these premises “national infrastructure” is, quite honestly, hilarious, because a protest at a local site is not going to disrupt the whole country, or even a region. Yes, it might slow things down in the long run, but the reality is that the UK got the vaccine off the ground incredibly quickly in response to the last pandemic. I therefore find it a little distasteful that the main reason given in the briefing notes for this legislation is the protection of vaccine production and research. I do not think that is an accurate portrayal of how we managed during the pandemic.”
“They are also a messy environment: a scientist does not know whether the thing they are changing is ultimately what is making the difference; there is always the chance that something else is going on. So animal models are not the silver bullet that some people might think they are. I have a real problem with the definition of “key national infrastructure”, because I think this measure makes a mockery of it. We are not talking about a source of water or electricity, or a main road or transport hub; we are talking about the ability of scientists to go about their daily business.”
“I did most of my research through in vitro models in Petri dishes, and it was incredibly frustrating that we were not yet at a point where we could have full confidence in those models. That is why we will always need some form of human testing at the end of the process when it comes to pharmacology. With the advent of AI and the tools that are now available to scientists, we should be at the forefront of finding alternatives if we want to remain at the forefront of biological and life-sciences research in the UK. If we do not, I fear we will be left behind by other countries, which are also trying to speed up research. Animal models are slow; it takes a long time to get to the answer.”
“I am probably right in saying that I am one of the few MPs who has ever grown human cells in a flask or replicated DNA in a lab, but it is important that we can bring some of these arguments in, because there is a desire within the science community to move away from animal models. I do not think that anyone wants to use animal models where they are not necessary. It is undoubtedly true—undeniable—that advances have been made using animal models, but the fact remains that accuracy has always been a concern when using animal models, because to get closer to our biology, one would have to use animals that are no longer used in research, such as rhesus monkeys and other primates. That is why we need alternatives, and investment in alternatives.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Alec. I have to say, I was a tiny bit anxious about speaking on this issue today, because of the risk of being painted a hypocrite or a traitor to my scientific comrades. I am a biomedical scientist and have worked in premises licensed under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. I have worked in labs where animal models have been used—primarily fish embryos under five days. None the less, I will speak on this instrument because I am very concerned about a number of issues, and well-versed in the arguments about the necessity of animal models and testing versus investment in alternatives. I am disappointed that, instead of further regulation in this area, we are seeking to punish protesters.”
“Given that many of these institutions are universities with licences, and hundreds of scientists and labs work under the 135 licences that the Minister has described, many of which have nothing to do with vaccines, is this not a knee-jerk reaction to a concern that is yet to be fulfilled, given the extra emergency legislation that was brought in when we needed the vaccine?”
“Just days ago, the Government published their homelessness strategy. While I welcome the strategy—there are a number of measures contained within it—it is disappointing that it stops short of introducing meaningful action to tackle homelessness among one of the most vulnerable groups, which is migrants affected by the no recourse to public funds condition. As was highlighted in my previous debate, that group includes many children. Our understanding of homelessness remains partial and fragmented. Official data routinely fails to capture hidden homelessness, which is especially prevalent in migrant communities.”
“I beg to move, That this House has considered No Recourse to Public Funds and homelessness. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I point hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests for the help I receive from the Refugee, Asylum and Migration Policy Project for the work I do in this area. I am also the co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on migration. This is the second debate I have secured this year on no recourse to public funds. It is also the second time I do so with a profound concern that our stated ambitions of prosperity over poverty, and reducing homelessness and child poverty, are being actively undermined by immigration policies that are designed to do the very opposite. This debate could not be more timely.”
“Their statutory duties to support families with a child in need or adults with care needs means that councils end up supporting thousands of migrant households experiencing destitution and homelessness each year. Research from COMPAS, the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, estimates that if all local authorities recorded data consistently, the annual cost of supporting no recourse to public funds households would be around £102 million each year. In 2023 to 2024, Sheffield city council spent at least £1.2 million supporting people with no recourse to public funds.”
“In South Yorkshire alone, two out of the five legal aid firms have stopped delivering legal aid and immigration services entirely, and there was a gap between provision and need of nearly 9,000 cases in 2023 and 2024 across Yorkshire. Research has found that 90% of people surveyed who attempted to have their no recourse to public funds status changed unassisted were unsuccessful. Yet when professional advice was sought and provided, 95% were subsequently successful. Successive Governments have justified no recourse to public funds as a way to save money for the taxpayer and to ensure that migrants earn their settlement. The reality is very different for local authorities.”
“Those survivors are among the most vulnerable, yet they may be barred from welfare and housing support because of no recourse to public funds, leaving them unable to access safe accommodation, including refuges. Women’s Aid has found that over a quarter of women refused refuge spaces in the UK had no recourse to public funds, with many being forced to sleep rough, sofa surf or even return into the hands of their abuser. I know that some people can submit a change of conditions application to have the no recourse to public funds condition lifted, but the application process is complex and often requires legal advice to navigate and complete successfully. That advice is also in desperately short supply.”
“Once someone with no recourse to public funds becomes homeless, the reality they face is bleak. I have many examples, but most homelessness accommodation services have little or no provision for people excluded from the social security system. With services under immense pressure, more and more people are being forced to compete for fewer and fewer bed spaces. Too often, that leaves people relying on short-term emergency help from charities and faith groups that are already stretched beyond their limits. Nowhere are the consequences of no recourse to public funds more stark than for survivors of domestic abuse. Many migrant survivors have their documents, finances and movements tightly controlled by a perpetrator through coercion and abuse.”
“These include prolonged settlement routes, high visa fees, the immigration health surcharge, lack of rights to homelessness assistance, the local housing allowance and discrimination from private landlords due to the right to rent. As a result of being routinely locked out of social housing and housing-related benefits, people with no recourse to public funds are often forced to rely on overcrowded, unstable and often unsafe accommodation. When those arrangements break down, as they often do, people may be unable to access the last resort safety nets that exist to prevent homelessness. People with no recourse to public funds are therefore far more likely to fall into rough sleeping, not because services do not exist, but because their immigration status prevents them from being able to use them.”
“Around 4.5 million migrants in the UK are subject to no recourse to public funds, which means no access to universal credit, child benefit, personal independence payments if they are disabled, or social housing. The latest rough sleeping figures underline the scale of the problem. On a single autumn night this year, 27% of those sleeping rough in the UK were non-British citizens. That is the highest proportion recorded since 2017. This is clearly a growing problem. Migrants face the same pressures that could push anyone into homelessness, which is something we are all at risk of, including low wages, a shortage of affordable housing, the lack of support for mental health needs or substance abuse, but these challenges are compounded by the additional barriers imposed by the immigration system.”
“That is a very timely intervention, as we consider our aims to reduce violence against women and girls. As we know, many women are trafficked and suffer sexual abuse and sexual violence as a result. I absolutely agree: the least we could do is make sure they have a safe roof over their heads when they come forward for help and assistance. The hon. Member highlights an important point. The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has repeatedly highlighted the urgent need for robust data on migrant homelessness and no recourse to public funds. Will the Home Office commit to collecting better data on the number of people subject to no recourse to public funds who are at risk of, or are currently experiencing, homelessness? Even in the absence of comprehensive figures, every available indicator points to a growing crisis.”
“Applying the proposals retrospectively would be a profound injustice for the hundreds of thousands of migrants and their British families who have already invested years of their lives, built communities and contributed financially to this country. I remind the Minister that anyone can fall victim to homelessness. We are each of us in a precarious state in the UK. We can pretend that some of us are isolated from it, but certain communities are exceedingly vulnerable to it, including migrant communities.”