Commonhold and Leasehold Reform

Monica Harding Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. For various reasons, commonhold failed to take off after its introduction in 2004 and the legal framework is now hopelessly out of date. That is why we have to reform and reinvigorate commonhold as a tenure. We want to put in place an easier conversion mechanism. We have given a great amount of thought to the Law Commission’s recommendations in this area, and we have tried to strike the right balance to ensure that our approach meets those objectives, but my hon. Friend is more than welcome to contribute to the scrutiny process for the draft Bill outside the Select Committee, and I hope that the does so.

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

In my constituency, managing agents are still imposing excessive service charges with very little transparency. Flats in retirement developments often will not sell, even at well below the market value, and families are left paying deceased relatives’ service charges. Restrictive lease terms ban rentals, trapping those families with empty, unsaleable homes. I note the Minister’s commitment to the consultation on service charges, but will he hurry up with the action?

[Matthew Pennycook]

I can assure the hon. Lady that we are going as fast as we possibly can, but I hope she would not want us to follow the example of the previous Government, who rushed forward legislation that contained serious specific flaws that a future Government—this Government—would have to fix in due course.