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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps to (a) increase protections for owners of leasehold retirement properties and (b) ensure works to those properties are carried out in a timely fashion.

In the Levelling Up White Paper, we committed to a new taskforce on the issue of older people's housing, which will look at ways we can provide greater choice, quality and security of housing for older people, and support the growth of a thriving older people's housing sector in this country. Arrangements for the taskforce are still ongoing and further details will be released in due course.

The Ground Rent Act came in force on 30 June 2022 for most new residential leases, and from 1 April 2023 this will also apply to retirement leases.

Where retirement housing providers are registered with the Regulator of Social Housing, the Regulator has the role of ensuring that providers are well-managed and are able to meet the regulatory standards.

The Care Quality Commission oversees standards of personal care services in housing-with-care retirement settings irrespective of housing tenure.