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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Minister for Housing and Planning’s statement on 27 January (HC Deb col 750) that there is a difference between regulating the creation of new leases and affecting existing contracts and investments, what is the legal basis for this analysis, and what role the ECHR has had, if any, in informing this analysis.

When considering reforms to leasehold, the government naturally takes account of number of factors including the right to peaceful enjoyment of property under Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights. The courts have held that the government has a wide margin of appreciation in this area, including when making changes that have a purely prospective effect on existing leases.