Campaigners have welcomed the Government’s plans for leasehold reform, even though some measures do not go as far as previous proposals.

In the King’s speech yesterday, the Government revealed it would draft legislation to “bring the feudal leasehold system to an end” by “banning the sale of new leasehold flats so commonhold becomes the default tenure”.

The new Government promised to tackle ground rents for existing leaseholders “so they no longer face unregulated and unaffordable costs”.

But after former housing minister Michael Gove failed to bring about many of the reforms he had hoped to enact, the new Government’s plans have dropped certain measures which could have resulted in legal action.

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership says that setting ground rents to zero, as Gove had originally planned, would  “almost certainly prompt litigation from freehold owners on human rights grounds”.

But LKP director Sebastian O’Kelly is pleased with the Government’s plans overall.

He says: “Labour has said it will finish off the reforms that the Conservative government did not complete, even though it had been sitting on the blueprint for reform from the Law Commission since 2020.

“I exclude Michael Gove from criticism, but Number 10 had limited enthusiasm and opportunities were wasted.

“Labour has undertaken to complete the enfranchisement and right to manage reforms that were missing from the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, which was rushed through in abbreviated form just before the election.”

O’Kelly welcomes Labour’s pledge to end “the disproportionate and draconian threat of forfeiture as a means of ensuring compliance with a lease agreement” – whereby leaseholders who refuse to pay sky-high charges can face the threat of losing their home.

On this, he says there has been “near universal consensus for nearly two decades, but nothing has been done in spite of a Law Commission report dating back to 2008”.

The Government also promised to “consult on the best way to address the injustices of ‘fleecehold’ private housing estates” – where homeowners can end up facing huge extra charges for maintenance.

O’Kelly says: “These fall on younger, new home buyers who pay fleecehold charges in addition to council taxes, whereas older owners in older, freehold homes don’t.

“Councils and housebuilders are complicit in creating these management companies, which provide a legally enforceable income stream. 

“So our cartel of housebuilders have created yet another income-eroding element into their customers’ home purchase, which is now happily traded among ‘entrepreneurs’, who so blight the residential property sector.”