The Prime Minister has vowed to bring forward a leasehold reform bill before Christmas.
Speaking at the Labour conference in Liverpool yesterday, Andy Burnham put housing high up the agenda, pledging more council homes, an end to rough-sleeping and help for first-time buyers through the Your First Home scheme.
He also said: “We will not forget our promises to leaseholders.
“We will introduce a Bill before Christmas for long overdue Leasehold Reform.
“To the millions of leaseholders across the country, you have my word.
“The days of you being squeezed for every penny are coming to an end.”
Successive governments have struggled to implement the full range of reforms that they originally promised.
The previous Conservative government, under housing secretary Michael Gove, introduced the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill in 2023.
The legislation was fast-tracked through Parliament in the wash-up before the 2024 general election and some of the wider reforms originally proposed did not make it into the final Act.
The Labour government’s forthcoming Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill aims to go further, including by capping existing ground rents and making commonhold the default for most new flats.
National Leasehold Campaign co-founder Katie Kendrick says: “The Prime Minister has now made a personal promise to millions of leaseholders.
“But after years of consultations, delays and missed deadlines, leaseholders are entitled to be sceptical.
“We welcome the commitment to introduce the bill before Christmas, but the government missed an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to ending leasehold altogether and replacing it with commonhold.”
Kendrick also supports housing secretary Angela Rayner’s pledge to regulate estate, letting and managing agents.
But she adds: “Any regulator must be genuinely independent, properly funded and equipped with real enforcement powers.
“It cannot become industry self-regulation dressed up as reform.
“Leaseholders should not be expected to pay for the policing of an industry that has failed them.”
