2026: Week 4 - Storms, Climate Change and Leaseholds

This week has seen some severe storms battering our beautiful constituency and causing widespread damage and flooding across the county.

It has been reassuring to see that the sea wall at Dawlish has largely done its job – protecting the line and enabling it to open again rapidly. There were several small breaches of the secondary wall between the sea wall and the railway itself, but Network Rail cleared that overnight and trains were running again the next day.

Sadly, the pier at Teignmouth suffered significant damage, my heart goes out to the owners of the structure and I hope that they are able to work with interested stakeholders and the people of Teignmouth to rebuild.  These old Victorian piers are part of our coastal heritage, but the costs of maintaining such old, vulnerable structures cannot be underestimated. 

We have also seen widespread flooding across our towns and villages, flooding is so destructive and devastating and can disrupt lives for months or even years.  Over the past few months I have been working with local organisations and community groups discussing flood resilience and gaining a deeper understanding of the particular issues our area faces, and what possible solutions can be put forward.

There is no denying that Climate Change is playing a huge part in these issues, with extreme weather events becoming increasingly common, but there are other things that can be done to increase our resilience to extreme weather.  Developers need to be more responsible in planning their building sites to take into account the possibility of flooding and put in measures to prevent it, water companies need to ensure their infrastructure is maintained and updated so it can cope with sudden deluges, and even homeowners can do their part in considering whether paving over lawns or replacing grass with an artificial surface is absolutely necessary.  I think that this will be something we have to continue to work on…

In Westminster, the Government is changing leasehold law. Their proposal is to limit ground rent increases and to cap ground rents paid to freeholders at £250 a year for each property, and making new developments use commonhold rather than leasehold.

This news will come as a relief for thousands of leaseholders who have had their finances wrecked by spiralling ground rents. However, there is more to do to get rid of the archaic and antiquated leasehold system for good.

The Government also need to look at the spiralling fees that are being charged for the maintenance of new estates.  These fees can run into thousands of pounds for homeowners, who often see very little return on their payments, and little control over any of it.

This week the Home Secretary set out changes to police forces across the country.  It involves reducing the number of police forces in England and Wales and instructing them to focus on serious and organised crime and creating a national police force.  I worry that we will lose what little local accountability we still have.

This potentially could place communities at risk. At a time when police stations and front desks are disappearing, people want visible, trusted officers and a clear local point of contact. Merging police forces could mean officers are even more distant from the people they are meant to protect.  Labour promised 13,000 more police officers, but instead officer numbers have fallen - that’s simply not good enough. If the Government is serious about restoring neighbourhood policing, it needs to step up, get this right, and get more officers back onto our streets.

Photo credit - Noreen Goodchild