Regulation of Financial Services (Land Transactions) Bill

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my maiden speech in the House of Commons today. I have listened with interest to the clear explanation of the Bill given by the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis), and to the helpful comments of the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field). This is an important Bill that has much to recommend it to my constituents, and I shall say more about it in due course. I intend first to follow the conventions of the House in addressing the characteristics of the constituency that I have the honour to represent, and of the Members who have served before me in representing it here. D. N. Pritt, the distinguished King’s counsel whose clients included Ho Chi Minh and Jomo Kenyatta, represented the Shepherd’s Bush area from 1935 to 1940 as a Labour Member, and from 1940 to 1950 as an Independent, following his expulsion from the Labour party for supporting the Soviet invasion of Finland. I wanted to get the Soviet invasion of Finland into the debate early, before any other Member raised it. Pritt was defeated at the 1950 general election by Frank Tomney, who sat as the Labour Member for Hammersmith, North—as it then was—until 1979. Tomney’s only reference to Pritt in his maiden speech was this:"““The Communists and the pro-Communist elements of the last Parliament have been scattered to the four winds and I am happy to say I played no small part in this myself.””" The convention that maiden speeches should be complimentary and uncontroversial is clearly of recent origin. It would be difficult to imagine two more different men than Mr.. Pritt and Mr. Tomney. Mr. Tomney also told the House:"““I have come directly from the benches of a factory to the benches of the Commons””.—[Official Report, 28 March 1950; Vol. 473, c. 296.]" D. N. Pritt was a bencher of the Middle Temple. They were both remarkable men. My predecessor-but-one on the Ealing, Acton side is of a more recent vintage. Indeed, I am delighted to see him in the Chamber today. I refer to the right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir George Young), who represented the then seat of Ealing, Acton between 1974 and 1997. He tells me that he continues to hold Ealing and Acton and their residents firmly in his affections. I can tell him that those sentiments are reciprocated. Eight years after his departure, constituents of all political persuasions remember him warmly, as much for his good nature as for his tireless work. The marriage of Ealing and Acton with Shepherd’s Bush in 1997 led to the election of my distinguished predecessor, Clive Soley. Clive was a member of this House for some 26 years as MP for Hammersmith, North—later Hammersmith—and, until his retirement at the recent general election, for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush. Clive had a distinguished political career in this House and beyond. While suffering 18 years in opposition, he was nevertheless a ground-breaking shadow Minister for housing, home affairs and, most notably, Northern Ireland. He was a popular and respected chairman of the parliamentary Labour party, and he has been a campaigner on some controversial topics, including the proper regulation of the press. Clive is perhaps best regarded for his work on conflict resolution and on promoting democracy and reconciliation around the world. In addition to his work in Northern Ireland, he has been active as an election monitor and as a founder of the Arab-Jewish Forum. He will shortly take his seat in the other place. I have known Clive for more than 20 years. He has been my MP, a party colleague and an eloquent advocate on behalf of his constituency. He will be greatly missed and I will find it difficult to meet the expectations that he has created. As its lengthy title implies, Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush covers a number of distinct communities in west London, not only those named in its title, but Hanger Hill, Southfield, College Park and Old Oak, and the White City, South Acton, Wormholt and Edward Woods estates. It is a mixture of Victorian and Edwardian terraces running along the routes of the District, Central and Piccadilly tube lines, of post-first world war homes for heroes, and of post-second world war local authority and housing trust estates. It is comparatively wealthy and leafy in the west, almost village-like in the centre, and assertively inner city in the east. It boasts some iconic institutions, including the BBC, the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Ealing abbey, Hammersmith hospital and Wormwood Scrubs prison. It contains a substantial part of Britain’s biggest industrial estate, Park Royal, and is dissected by several of the capital’s main arterial roads. Since the election of Labour Governments after 1997, Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush has seen considerable regeneration. Unemployment has fallen by half—and long-term unemployment by 85 per cent. Crime is down and police numbers are substantially up, in particular through the recruitment of safer neighbourhoods teams. The White City area is one of the largest development sites in any major European city. It promises to bring thousands of jobs, homes, businesses and shops to Shepherd’s Bush, along with the transport and environmental improvements to sustain them. With Government assistance, the boroughs of Ealing and of Hammersmith and Fulham are spending hundreds of millions of pounds on the improvement of local authority homes under the decent homes initiative. Almost every primary and secondary school has seen substantial capital investment. What distinguishes my constituency most—and is, in my opinion, its finest feature—is the sheer diversity of its population. There are 50 major first languages spoken there, and another 75 significant minority communities. It has third or fourth generation Irish and Caribbean residents, Polish and other eastern European communities, Bengali and other Asian groups, and Arab and African nationalities, including a large Somali population. Almost every country and continent is represented. As a model for integrated living, I recommend it. I am pleased to have played a part in the life of the constituency as a resident, a councillor for almost 20 years, and as leader of the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham from 1996 until last month. However, as someone rooted in this part of west London, where my family has lived for four generations, I also see what still has to be done. The view of London, and west London in particular, as a wealthy region is not an accurate one and it needs to be challenged, particularly in regard to allocating public funds. It is more true to say that this is an area of extremes—of wealth and poverty, and of opportunity and barriers to success. That the cost of living is so high and the stress on services so great is in itself a reason why those who struggle have a lower quality of life than they might do elsewhere. This is an issue that I will, with no apology, return to again in the House. The Bill that is before the House today is a significant measure for two groups that are well represented in Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush. The first are the elderly residents who are cash poor and wish to release equity tied up in their homes. The second are Muslim homebuyers who need to finance purchase schemes that are compliant with sharia law. There is a large and heterogeneous Muslim population in Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush, and the issue of ijara schemes has been often raised with Clive Soley and me. Two days ago, the House debated a controversial measure to outlaw incitement to religious hatred. Today’s Bill will not receive a fraction of the attention devoted to that one, but to my mind, it is a measure of equal significance. It affirms that all citizens of this country will be treated equally in all aspects of their daily lives. It is a sensible and constructive measure and I commend it to the House.