At the state opening of parliament, the King announced in his speech that renters will have ‘greater rights’ and draft legislation on leasehold and commonhold reforms.
MPs made their way to the House of Peers from the commons today to attend King Charles and Queen Camilla for the King’s second speech since being crowned monarch. Prime minister Keir Starmer could be seen walking next to former conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Shabana Mahmood presented the King with the speech from a ceremonial purse. The King opened the speech by stating the new government will be ‘mission led’ and that ‘stability will be the cornerstone of economic policy, tax and spending changes’.
The King said in his speech: “My government will provide legislation to give greater rights to people renting their homes, including ending no fault evictions and draft legislation will be published on leasehold and commonhold reform.
“We will get Britain building, with planning reform and accelerate delivery of high quality infrastructure and housing investment. There will also be investment in industry skills and new technology. There will be legislation on AI models, new powers to metro mayors and combined authorities, local growth plans with an economic benefit to communities.”
This came alongside promises to elevate the country’s bus services, improve railways rail franchising, and put the ‘great British railways trains’ into public ownership.
The King stressed the importance of keeping the country ‘green’ and wants to see significant investment in offshore wind farms, alongside the creation of a ‘clean energy transition’ which will ‘eventually see lower energy costs for consumers’.
The speech comes ahead of two state visits to Samoa and Australia for the King and Queen, whilst the traditional parliamentary debate following the speech will see MPs discuss the government’s plans for the year ahead.
