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

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the statement on X by the Minister for Housing and Planning on 31 January that the Government could not commence the "relevant enfranchisement provisions" in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 until specific flaws within the Act were rectified, what specific flaws he was referring to; what plans they have to rectify these flaws through legislation; whether the Draft Leasehold and Commonhold Bill contains those legislative proposals; and if it does not, for what reason they are not included.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 contains a small number of specific but serious flaws which would prevent certain provisions from operating as intended and that need to be rectified via primary legislation.

The Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 HLWS240 (attached) outlined two flaws regarding a loophole in the valuation scheme set out in the Act, and an omission on shared ownership lease extensions.

Primary legislation will also be needed to address the following flaws:

• Allow third parties to leases, such as resident-led management companies, to recover contributions toward their process costs in some instances. Without this change, these companies may be at risk of insolvency, which would be an unintended outcome of the reforms requiring landlords to pay their process costs;
• Correct an unintended constraint on landlords’ existing redevelopment break rights that applies in certain limited circumstances; and
• Correct technical cross references and make consequential amendments to ensure the smooth implementation of the Act.

As set out in the WMS of 27 January 2026 HLWS1278 (attached), the government will rectify these flaws in primary legislation.