Leasehold Regulation

Thursday 12th November 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)]

This Government made a clear and unambiguous commitment in our manifesto to act where previous Governments had failed and finally bring the feudal leasehold system to an end. To prevent the renewal of that system, we will legislate through our forthcoming Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill to make commonhold the default tenure.

In the commonhold future that is on the horizon, existing leaseholders will not be left behind. We will legislate to ensure that more of them are able to take control of their buildings, and more easily convert to commonhold as and when they judge the time is right for them. We will also continue to strengthen protections for existing leaseholders in the here and now.

Our forthcoming Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill will contain a number of measures that provide existing leaseholders with greater rights, powers and protections over their homes, including capping ground rents at £250 a year, and the abolition of leasehold forfeiture and its replacement with a modern, proportionate lease enforcement system that addresses breaches fairly, with appropriate safeguards and judicial oversight.

However, providing relief to existing leaseholders struggling with the cost of living requires us to switch on a number of remaining measures from the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.

Leaseholders across the country are subject to a range of unfair and unreasonable practices but chief among their complaints are rapidly escalating and frequently opaque service charges that are placing huge financial strain on millions of hard-pressed leasehold homeowners.

Today, the Government are acting to protect them by introducing regulations that will improve the fairness and transparency of service charges and help transform the experience of home ownership for millions of leaseholders across the country.

We have laid a group of five complementary statutory instruments, three of which are subject to the affirmative procedure and will require parliamentary approval before they can come into force, that will work in tandem to help leaseholders better understand what they are paying for and empower them to challenge charges where they believe them to be unreasonable. Taken together, these SIs provide for the following:

Clearer, standardised information about charges, fees and buildings insurance

From 1 April 2027, leaseholders will gain stronger rights to request information about their service charges, building insurance, and the management, maintenance and repair of their buildings.

From 1 November 2027, landlords will be required to provide leaseholders with a standardised building insurance disclosure document, giving them clear information about their insurance cover and costs, how it was arranged and any financial incentives, relationships or potential conflicts of interest between the parties involved.

From 1 November 2027, all landlords other than social landlords must proactively give leaseholders clearer information through standardised service charge demands, annual reports and accounts. In addition, all landlords will have to provide up-front clarity about the administration fees that leaseholders are asked to pay in a clear, standardised administration charge schedule. Where these costs cannot be established in advance, the schedule must be clear on how these fees will be calculated.

From 1 November 2028, the requirement to provide leaseholders with clearer information through standardised service charge demands, annual reports and accounts will extend to social landlords. We have staggered the implementation of these measures to give affected parties sufficient time to prepare, while ensuring that leaseholders benefit from the reforms as soon as practicable.

Reform of the litigation costs regime

From 1 April 2027, the litigation costs regime will be reformed to address the current imbalance between leaseholders and landlords, thereby removing a significant barrier to challenging poor practice.

Landlords will in most cases need to seek court or tribunal approval before they can recover their litigation costs through a service or administration charge. Leaseholders will also have a new right to recover their own litigation costs from their landlord, with court or tribunal approval.

The measures include a targeted, proportionate exemption for litigation costs recovered via administration charge, which will allow lower value litigation costs incurred by landlords to be recovered without court or tribunal approval.

A further SI concerning litigation costs will be laid later this year and will come into force at the same time as the relevant litigation costs SI laid today.

Fairer and more transparent building insurance payments

From 1 November 2027, commission sharing with landlords and managing agents will be banned and replaced with transparent permitted insurance payments. This will ensure that leaseholders are only charged for specific insurance-related services provided to them by their landlord or managing agent, thereby preventing the cost of excessive commissions being passed on.

[HCWS470]