This week I chaired a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Leasehold and Commonhold Reform. Several MPs and campaign leaders were in attendance as well as representatives of the Government and countless leaseholders and supporters.
Housing minister Rachel Maclean spoke to those in attendance and pledged the overdue reform of the Leasehold Advisory Service, who have failed leaseholders for too many years. She also assured us that there would be an end to the “assured tenancy trap” and reiterated the government’s commitments to include reform to leasehold in the upcoming King's Speech.
Jack Spearman, chair of leasehold reform at the Residential Freeholders’ Association, signalled the RFA's support for the regulation of managing agents and Lord Best’s RoPA report.
Leaseholders are justified in their outrage that the same conversations are being had over and over again, that the same promises are being made year after year. Leaseholders are the ones left struggling every single day to pay their extortionate service charges, stuck in an unsafe home that they are not allowed to sell, and faced with rising debts and no hope of escape from the leasehold trap.
It is crucial that the Government include leasehold reform as a core part of the King's Speech this coming November. The can cannot be kicked any further - action must come now.
