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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill, as currently drafted, will bind the Crown, and if not, why.

The Government is implementing the Law Commission’s recommendations in relation to the Crown.

The recommendation sets out that the Crown should remain exempt from statutory enfranchisement rights, provided it gives an undertaking to act by analogy with the new enfranchisement regime, except in certain special circumstances.

The effect will be that most leaseholders of the Crown will have the same opportunity to exercise enfranchisement rights as any other leaseholder.