Leasehold: Reform

(asked on 16th September 2021) - View Source

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Greenhalgh on 20 July (HL Deb, col 201), what plans they have to grant the Crown Estate “exemptions from the parliamentary undertaking on enfranchisement rights for leaseholders in the next stage of the leasehold reform programme".


Answered by
Lord Greenhalgh Portrait
Lord Greenhalgh
This question was answered on 29th September 2021

The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. We are taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market. On January 7 the Government announced reforms to enfranchisement valuation, 990-year leases, removing the retirement exemption from zero ground rent measures and commonhold. This was the first part of the Government's response to the Law Commission's reports on enfranchisement, Right to Manage and commonhold.

The Law Commission's report on enfranchisement includes recommendations relating to the qualifying criteria for enfranchisement and lease extensions, including the applicability of these to leaseholders of the Crown. We will bring forward a response to these and the other remaining Law Commission recommendations in due course.

We will translate these measures into law as soon as possible, starting with the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rents) Bill in the current session. This is the first part of major two-part legislation to implement leasehold and commonhold reforms in this Parliament.

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