Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to cap ground rents for existing leaseholders.

The Government understands the difficulties and frustrations of some existing leaseholders who are unhappy about the amount of ground rent they are required to pay and feel their leases should be changed. There are no current plans to legislate in this area.

To address the problem of doubling ground rents on existing leases, the Government has encouraged industry to fix the problem they created. We announced a ‘Public Pledge for Leaseholders’ on 28 March 2019, now signed by over 60 leading property developers, freeholders and managing agents.

This contains a commitment for freeholders to identify any existing leases within their portfolio which contain ground rents that double more frequently than every 20 years. They have also committed to contact the relevant leaseholders and offer to vary their leases.