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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the oral contribution of the former Secretary of State of 11 January 2021, Official Report, column 131-132WH, what progress has been made on implementing the recommendations on leasehold reform referred to in that oral contribution; and what steps his Department is taking to tackle the imposition of unregulated fees on freehold homes.

The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and making sure that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service.

The former Secretary of State (Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP) announced ambitious reforms covering enfranchisement valuation, 990-year leases, removing the retirement exemption from zero ground rent measures and commonhold on 7 January. This was followed by a Statement in Parliament from the former Secretary of State on 11 January.

The announcement is part of Government’s response to the Law Commission’s reports and we will respond to their remaining recommendations on enfranchisement, commonhold and right to manage in due course.

The Government has since established the “Commonhold Council” as a partnership of industry, homeowners and Government that will help prepare consumers and the market for widespread take-up of commonhold.

We have also introduced the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill, currently in Parliament. The Ground Rent Bill is the first of major two-part legislation to reform the leasehold system in this Parliament. We aim to legislate further on wider reforms within this Parliament.

The Government also intends to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rentcharges, as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services. In addition, we will ensure that where a freeholder pays a rentcharge, the rentcharge owner is not able to take possession or grant a lease on the property where the rentcharge remains unpaid for a short period of time. We will translate these measures into law when parliamentary time allows.