Commonhold and Leasehold Reform

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

I very much agree with my hon. Friend that the draft Bill will be life-changing for leaseholders across the country, freeing them from the unjust and discriminatory practices that so many of them face, and from the financial cost of high ground rent terms. I am more than happy to write to her on the specific issue she raises. It is these nuanced points that we want to work through, and that is why we have brought forward a draft Bill for enhanced scrutiny.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

I welcome many of the Government’s announcements today. Across Twickenham, I hear regularly from leaseholders who suffer when service charges are jacked up without any notice or transparency, often for spurious maintenance issues. I note that the Minister has said that he does not want to cap service charges and that help will be on the way at some point, but he has refused to put a timeline on that. Why does he not use this Bill as a golden opportunity to bring forward Lord Best’s recommendations on having a property regulator that can look at this area in a nuanced and sensible way?

[Matthew Pennycook]

We have given serious consideration to how we will take forward Lord Best’s recommendations from his 2019 report and, as I have made clear, we are taking some of them forward already. This Bill introduces reform in a number of specific areas and, as I have said in response to previous questions, it does not need to do everything. There are other pieces of legislation, not least the 2024 Act, that do lots of the work that hon. Members are calling for, but we want to ensure that the whole agenda is a comprehensive one that benefits leaseholders in the way that the hon. Lady and I both want.