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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the applications of provisions in the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 to ground rent on existing residential leases.

We are taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 will put an end to ground rents for new residential leasehold properties as part of the most significant changes to property law in a generation. The Act's provisions will lead to fairer, more transparent homeownership for thousands of future leaseholders. This is why we asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate potential mis-selling of homes and unfair terms in the leasehold sector. The Government has welcomed the action to tackle potential mis-selling and unfair terms in the leasehold sector and wants to see homeowners who have been affected obtain the justice and redress they deserve.

The CMA has secured commitments from Aviva, Persimmon, Countryside Properties and Taylor Wimpey to amend their practices, including commitments to remove lease terms that led to doubling ground rents, houses sold as leasehold and to support leaseholders to buy the freehold at the original price quoted. On 18 March 2022, the CMA announced that it has secured commitments on doubling ground rents from 15 landlords who bought freeholds from Countryside Properties. Further information is available at https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/leasehold . This is a hugely important step and demonstrates our determination to support affected leaseholders. We urge other developers to follow suit.