[UK News]Government U-turn on leasehold abolition date
2026.04.30
The government appears to have made a dramatic climbdown on the timescale of its commitment to ban new leasehold properties.
Instead of the ban happening during this Parliament, it now won’t come into force until after the next General Election, scheduled in mid-2029.
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook says outlawing leasehold flats and houses “involves some really quite complex trade-offs.”
He revealed the U-turn in comments to journalists after a speech on leasehold reform.
He continues: “I’m not saying there’s no chance, but I think it’s highly likely that we don’t switch on the ban in this parliament.”
And he adds: “Anyone, with even the most rudimentary knowledge of leasehold, knows that the outright and immediate abolition of circa five million English and Welsh leases is almost certainly impossible.”
In particular, he says the mortgage market and HM Land Registry would have difficulty deleting millions of leasehold and freehold titles and replacing them with commonhold ones.
The draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill was published on January 27 this year.
Its measures include capping ground rent at £250 a year for leaseholders in England and Wales and banning new leasehold flats and making commonhold the default tenure.
However, the timeline of if and when this will become law and how exactly this will work is not yet clear, prompting criticism from many leasehold campaigners.
Pennycook says: “This is how leasehold ends – not through an abrupt and chaotic single moment of destruction…but by taking a methodical approach, firmly shutting the door on leasehold’s future use, and opening easy and effective escape routes for those living under it today so that we rapidly reduce the prevalence of existing leasehold.”
But Sky News reports that Harry Scoffin – founder of campaign group Free Leaseholders – is unhappy.
He is quoted as saying: “Listening to the minister’s list of excuses of complexity and powerlessness, you could be forgiven for missing that this Labour government enjoys the second-largest majority in the party’s 126-year history.”
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