Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to commence section 32 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the Noble Baroness to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 27 January 2026 (HLWS1278) (attached).
Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Ministerial Statement by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 27 January (HLWS1278), when they intend to commence Part 1 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 on the ban on the grant or assignment of certain long residential leases of houses.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This government is committed to ending the feudal leasehold system. We will reinvigorate the commonhold legal framework and ban the use of leasehold for new flats so commonhold can become the default tenure for the ownership of new flats, and we will implement measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 to ban new leasehold houses.
Following consideration of responses to the ‘Moving to Commonhold’ consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny of the Draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, we will confirm commencement plans.
Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Ministerial Statement by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 27 January (HLWS1278), which specific flaws in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 are referred to as requiring rectification through primary legislation.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the Noble Baroness to the response given to UIN HL14534 (attached) on 25 February 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to commence section 29 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the Noble Baroness to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 27 January 2026 (HLWS1278) (attached).
Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government for what proportion of leasehold properties development value makes the exercise of collective enfranchisement prohibitively expensive; and what measures they will take to ensure that enfranchisement is financially feasible for affected leaseholders.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
My Department does not hold the requested data.
We are committed to implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, which will make enfranchisement cheaper and easier. I refer the Noble Baroness to the response given in the House of Commons on 14 January 2026 UIN 103549 (attached) about these provisions.
Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Ministerial Statement by the Minister of State for Housing and Planning on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244), when they will launch the public consultation on enfranchisement valuation rates under the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the Noble Baroness to the response given to UIN HL14534 (attached) on 25 February 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many homes for social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership were promised to planning authorities in England as part of section 106 agreements, but not delivered following viability assessments in each financial year from 2016–17 to 2024–25; whether these figures can be broken down by local authority and compared to the numbers of affordable, social rent and shared ownership properties required by those local authorities’ policies; and how these figures compare to the total numbers of homes built by private developers that do not fit into those three categories.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The requested information is not held by the Department.
The government is committed to strengthening the system of developer contributions to ensure new developments provide necessary affordable homes and infrastructure.
Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Leader of the House when she expects a Written Answer to be given to the question asked by Baroness Thornhill on 3 July (HL9096).
Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The question was answered by the Department for Health and Social Care on the 4 September 2025. I apologise for the delay.
Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 19 March (HL5631), whether the Collection of Client Level Adult Social Care Data (No 3) Directions 2023 will be revised to mandate collection of data on sex and not gender following the publication of the Sullivan Review and the decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our guidance to local authorities on the adult social care data collections is kept under continuous review to ensure that it is fit for purpose and in line with the relevant legislation.
The Collection of Client Level Adult Social Care Data (No 3) Directions 2023 set out the data that local authorities are required to collect and submit, for the Department to produce national data on the provision of adult social care in England. The 2023 Directions do not preclude local authorities from collecting any further information, including for example sex, that local authorities may consider necessary to effectively discharge their legal obligations.
Asked by: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent a two-tier market for shared ownership properties, where new properties have a peppercorn ground rent, lower rent increases, longer leases and protection from repair costs for 10 years unlike legacy shared ownership properties.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The changes described have been implemented through successive amendments to the shared ownership model lease. Once a lease agreement is entered into, its rights and obligations become legally binding. It is not, therefore, possible to apply policy changes to legacy shared owners without contravening legal agreements between individual shared owners and their social landlords.
Legacy shared owners will, however, benefit from the Government’s wider leasehold and commonhold reforms. Measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, once commenced, will grant shared owners the right to a statutory lease extension of 990 years.
The Government continues to give close consideration to ways to improve the experience of all shared owners, including those existing owners who were not captured by changes to the model lease.