Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress his Department has made on bringing forward legislative proposals to reform leaseholds and registered social landlords.

The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for leaseholders and freeholders and on 21 December 2017 set out a range of measures to tackle abuses and unfair practices in the leasehold market.

This includes introducing legislation to prohibit the development of new build leasehold houses, other than in exceptional circumstances; restricting ground rents in newly established leases of houses and flats to a peppercorn (zero financial value); and working with the Law Commission to support existing leaseholders - including making buying a freehold or extending a lease easier, faster, fairer and cheaper.

We will bring forward legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows.

We are also aiming to publish the Social Housing Green Paper in the spring. We have met a number of Registered Social Landlords and their tenants as part of this wide ranging review of the issues and concerns relating to social housing.