The Housing minister missed an “ideal opportunity” to clarify when leasehold reforms will be implemented when answering questions in the House of Commons yesterday.
Matthew Pennycook once again expressed the government support for leasehold reform during a question session in the House of Commons. But Propertymark is disappointed that he again failed to commit to a timetable for changes in the law.
Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns at Propertymark, commented: “Yesterday’s questions on Housing, Communities, and Local Government held in the House of Commons contained reassuring commitments from the UK Government, such as ending the unfair practice of ‘fleeceholding’, which combines freeholding and leaseholding, promoting a brownfield-first approach to housebuilding that Propertymark has argued for in order to safeguard the green belt, and £1.5 million to go towards local councils to use their High Street Rental Auctions powers to bring life back to England’s empty high streets.
“However, Mr Pennycook missed out on an ideal opportunity to clarify when the Leasehold and Freehold Act 2024 will be implemented properly, which would provide much needed reassurance and a greater degree of fairness to leaseholders in England and Wales who are currently faced with excessive leasehold charges.”
They got the leaseholder vote based on deceit, and now they’re in power, they don’t need them any more. We are unlikely to see meaningful leasehold reform for years, if at all.
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Before I get into it, let me state that Leasehold Reform is LLLLOOOONNNNGGGG overdue. Due to the way it was set up (i.e. by rich and well educated landowners for their own benefit) the balance of power is unfair to the leaseholder.
But, it’s truly, epically complicated.
In one way shape or form there are over 50 other Acts of Parliament that must be considered whilst even contemplating change to leasehold law.
There is a significant amount of money tied up in the system too. An ill-considered tweak here or an incorrect modification there could wreak havoc.
The Law Commission was tasked with reporting on the state of the Leasehold system in 2017 and reported to Parliament in 2020. I understand that part of the reason that it took so long is that no minister in government at that time was prepared to actually receive the report!!!
The issue at hand is that we risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater…
In many cases leases are really useful – they set out rules of occupancy, delineate who owns what, and create a method for maintaining the building and sharing costs. In an ideal world that should be pretty much perfect.
Unfortunately, the world appears to be going to hell in a handcart because some of the people who “rise to the top” (i.e. Prime Ministers, CEOs, Managing Directors, managing agents, and etcetera across all walks of life and businesses) are sociopaths. These people are only in it for themselves and will do ANYTHING to get ahead.
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