A Note on the Response from Lord Greenhalgh to ALEP

As can be seen from Lord Greenhalgh’s letter, he states that the Leasehold (Reform Ground Rent) Act 2022 is the first two-part programme of leasehold reform within this Parliament.

This indicates that whilst there is nothing tabled in the current session of Parliament by way of legislation, it is clearly the Government’s intention to introduce something in the second and final session of this Parliament.

His note re-states the Government’s commitment to change the law relating to valuation and there appears to be a clear commitment to ‘reform the process of valuation’ and also to deal with the abolition of marriage value. In addition, there are plans to ‘prescribe rates for the calculations at market value,’ as well as introducing an online calculator.

Lord Greenhalgh’s letter restates the promise that the length of a statutory lease extension will be increased to 990 years and whilst the third paragraph of his letter does broadly reiterate the same things as the 7th January 2021 MHCLG statement, this letter does appear to answer the question as to when the next phase of legislative change will be – within this Parliament.

With that in mind, I think it is fairly safe to say that we can expect to see a reform in the process of valuation and to at the very least legislation tabled to increase the lease of a statutory lease extension to 990 years within the lifetime of this Parliament.

What does seem certain is that there are going to be some interesting times ahead in leasehold over the next two years.

Mark Chick