Statement from ALEP

The King’s Speech has confirmed the new Government’s commitment to implement the provisions of the Leasehold & Freehold Reform Act 2024.

As we asked in our recent letters to both the Secretary of State and the Minister, we are keen to understand timings and full details of the Government’s plans for secondary legislation – and the plans for  implementation/commencement of the new legislation – and this has to be a priority. Without this, limbo continues for the property market, leaseholders and the practitioners who are engaged to advise them.

We understand that the Government is also ‘determined’ to enact the remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to leasehold enfranchisement and the Right to Manage, tackle “unregulated and unaffordable” ground rents and remove the “draconian threat of forfeiture as a means of ensuring compliance with a lease agreement”.

The results of the ground rent consultation from 2023 have yet to be published so, once again, timings and details are a vital part of this commitment.

It has also stated its intention to “bring the leasehold system to an end, by reinvigorating commonhold through a new comprehensive legal framework, and consulting on restricting the sale of new leasehold flats so commonhold becomes the default tenure”.

Previous governments have ordered a raft of consultations relating to commonhold and leasehold over the last five years.

ALEP and its members welcome the opportunity to contribute to the important discussions that must take place around the restriction of sales of new leasehold flats, and how commonhold, which has been in the statue books since 2002 with little take up, might work as ‘default tenure’ in practice.

Mark Chick
John Midgley
ALEP Directors