Today (11 November), Leigh Ingham MP for Stafford, Eccleshall and the villages spoke in Parliament as part of her mission to save the town's neglected buildings.

On 16 October, Ingham secured a Ten Minute Rule Bill slot in Parliament for her campaign to reform Compulsory Purchase Orders.

Earlier in the year, Ingham launched her No Reward for Neglect campaign to highlight the damage caused by neglectful landlords and push for changes to the way legal costs are handled when councils seek a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO).

Currently, local authorities are generally required to meet the legal and professional fees of the very owners whose neglect has made compulsory purchase necessary in the first place.

In situations when an owner has deliberately allowed a building to fall into ruin, there is presently no financial incentive for them to maintain the upkeep of their building and instead places the entire cost burden on already stretched local authorities.

Ingham has raised the issue in Parliament, lobbied ministers and has a successful petition with signatures from up and down the country.

In her speech in the commons Leigh said "I want to remove the barrier that councils face in having to pay for the legal and professional fees of property owners in cases where the property owner has deliberately allowed a building to fall into disrepair.

"If we are serious about revitalising our towns, high streets and delivering growth that people can see and feel in every postcode, we have to be honest about one of the barriers councils face.

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"Many local authorities are reluctant to pursue a compulsory purchase, even where the public interest is clear.

"Partly because of complexity, partly because of capacity, but very often it is because of cost and risk associated with it."

Click here to see the speech in full.