Leasehold Reform

Chris Bryant Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Betts]

On the first point, if a leaseholder at a tribunal asks at the beginning for a ruling that, if they win, costs cannot be passed on to the freeholder, the tribunal can so rule. The problem is that many leaseholders do not know about that requirement. The Government could do an awful lot immediately to publicise that.

Secondly, on service charges, we recommend that a standard format should be brought in, so that all leaseholders know what to expect and all information is given to them in a proper manner. The Government could publish guidance without having to wait for primary legislation. We hope that they will look at doing that very quickly.

On the Law Commission, I do not know how long it would take it to report, but the Government could make an immediate decision to ask it to produce a report. However, the Law Commission made it very clear to us that it currently does not have the resources in its budget to do that. It would need the Government to offer, and provide, sufficient funding.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

The whole system of leasehold and ground rent is a racket, and it has gone on for centuries. It was invented by aristocrats who had stolen all the land from the monasteries in the 16th and 17th centuries. It is a scandal that we, and successive generations of politicians, have continued to allow the thing to exist. Funnily enough, when it came to a moment when there was a dire shortage of housing, the house builders saw an opportunity. It is no wonder that we have ended up with the position we are in at the moment. Would it not just be simpler to scrap the whole system?

[Mr Betts]

I am tempted to say yes. What we said in the report was that we need to move to a whole new approach, where commonhold becomes the default option for flats, we abolish leasehold for houses, and if we put the sorts of restrictions on ground rents and permission fees that we have been talking about, there will not, ultimately, be any incentive for freeholders and that will drive it out of the market. I think the issue is twofold: stopping it on new properties and removing the incentive for freeholders, so their income streams, which are wrongly obtained now, will not be available in future.