Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to provide support to owners of new-build leasehold homes who are charged fees other than ground rent by the freeholder.

The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for leaseholders and freeholders. We want to ensure that consumers only pay for the services that they receive, that costs should be transparent, communicated effectively and that there should be a clear route to challenge or redress if things go wrong.

As announced on 21 December 2017, the Government will introduce legislation so that, in future, ground rents on newly established leases of houses or flats are set at a peppercorn (zero financial value).

In addition, on 1 April, the Department published its response to the recent call for evidence on Protecting consumers in the letting and managing agent market. Proposals include establishing a working group to take forward work on regulating letting and managing agents as well as to consider under what circumstances fees such as service charges, administration charges and other charges placed on properties are justified, how they should be presented to consumers and to explore the best means to challenge fees which are unjustified.