Is this Labour party for rich investors or hard-working leaseholders? We must make that clear today | Angela Rayner

"The cost of living emergency is the issue of our time. In the face of this deep-set disillusionment, Labour in government has been at its best when challenging the status quo. By standing firm in the face of established interests who have had it their own way for decades that's exactly what the landmark Employment Rights Act and Renters' Rights Act have done, delivering new protections for millions."

"Millions of people suffering from this scandal expect action in the imminent draft commonhold and leasehold reform bill. Many of them are young families who have tried to do everything right. They entered the jobs market in the teeth of a great recession; they endured the worst collapse in living standards in generations; and they scrimped and saved and managed to get their foot on the housing ladder."

"Yet despite owning their home, they hand out hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of pounds a year in ground rents to unaccountable investors, often from overseas, for the right to occupy the land on which the home they live on was built. Unlike service charges, leaseholders get nothing in return for these payments. And for many this is made worse because the rates at which they pay can escalate with total impunity, in some cases doubling every five to 10 years."

The prime minister argued for a government serving those struggling, amid a cost of living emergency years in the making. Living standards have been depressed for over two decades, producing deep disillusionment and a sense that the system is stacked against ordinary people. Labour has used government power to challenge entrenched interests, delivering the Employment Rights Act and Renters' Rights Act to protect millions. The imminent draft commonhold and leasehold reform bill provides an opportunity to end unregulated, unaffordable ground rents. Many leaseholders, including young families, pay escalating ground rents to unaccountable investors and receive no equivalent services, undermining true homeownership.

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