Leasehold: Reform

(asked on 16th May 2022) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of leasehold reform on the UK insurance industry.


Answered by
Eddie Hughes Portrait
Eddie Hughes
This question was answered on 24th May 2022

The Government is committed to creating a fairer and more transparent housing system that works for everyone and to delivering the second phase of our major two-part leasehold reform within this Parliament. Leasehold and commonhold reform supports our mission to level up homeownership and promote true homeownership for all by addressing the power imbalance at the heart of the leasehold system and putting the power into the rightful hands of homeowners.

The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 (which comes into force on 30 June 2022) is the first part of leasehold and commonhold reforms in this Parliament. The Act will make homeownership fairer and more transparent for thousands of future leaseholders, by preventing landlords under new residential long leases from requiring a leaseholder to pay a financial ground rent. The impact assessment for the Act was published on 12 May 2021 and can be accessed via the Parliamentary Bills website ( https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2864).

On 11 January 2022, the Government launched a consultation on a number of recommendations made by the Law Commission aimed at broadening the rights of leaseholders, and reinvigorating commonhold. We are currently analysing the feedback and we will provide a response in due course.

This is a long-term reform programme; it is complex with many interdependencies and will take time to get the detail right. Once it is enacted the effect will be felt for generations and so we are determined this work considers all the implications and impacts with care.

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