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1345279

registered interest
date	08/07/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring maintenance contracts and property enhancement contracts on leasehold properties to be independently reviewed before being awarded.
tabling member constituency	York Central
tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
uin	29838
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/07/2021 answer text <p>Leaseholders have existing rights of input into, and challenge of, decisions made by their freeholders on enhancements or maintenance of their properties or communal areas.</p><p>The law is already clear that service charges, and any increase in costs, must be reasonable and where costs relate to work or services, the work or services must be of a reasonable standard. The consultation process set out in Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 further sets out a process associated with major works. Leaseholders may make an application to the First-tier Tribunal for it to make a determination on the reasonableness of their service charges or on section 20 grounds.</p><p>Some leaseholders will also have access to redress schemes – if their freeholder is a social landlord or employs a managing agent, they are currently obliged to be a part of such a scheme. We intend to extend this requirement to all freeholders.</p><p>We also established an independent working group chaired by Lord Best to raise standards across the property sector, which considered how the service charge regime, including transparency of charges, potential caps and major works consultations, operated. The working group published its final report to Government (see: <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Fregulation-of-property-agents-working-group-report&amp;data=04%7C01%7CJennifer.Rawlinson%40communities.gov.uk%7C94733f49be2c447e72fe08d9453a32bc%7Cbf3468109c7d43dea87224a2ef3995a8%7C0%7C0%7C637616938518195477%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=7BEQr5KrJQSUGHAtpLgEUGo83vzfqIIDr8DW5md4ZGk%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulation-of-property-agents-working-group-report</a> ) and we are considering the report’s recommendations.</p> answering member constituency Walsall North answering member printed Eddie Hughes grouped question UIN 29839 question first answered 13/07/2021 15:50:38 answering member 4635 label Biography information for Eddie Hughes
tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1345280

registered interest
date	08/07/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to award leaseholders with increased right of appeal on decisions that their property management company and freeholder has taken on enhancements and maintenance to their properties or communal areas.
tabling member constituency	York Central
tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
uin	29839
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/07/2021 answer text <p>Leaseholders have existing rights of input into, and challenge of, decisions made by their freeholders on enhancements or maintenance of their properties or communal areas.</p><p>The law is already clear that service charges, and any increase in costs, must be reasonable and where costs relate to work or services, the work or services must be of a reasonable standard. The consultation process set out in Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 further sets out a process associated with major works. Leaseholders may make an application to the First-tier Tribunal for it to make a determination on the reasonableness of their service charges or on section 20 grounds.</p><p>Some leaseholders will also have access to redress schemes – if their freeholder is a social landlord or employs a managing agent, they are currently obliged to be a part of such a scheme. We intend to extend this requirement to all freeholders.</p><p>We also established an independent working group chaired by Lord Best to raise standards across the property sector, which considered how the service charge regime, including transparency of charges, potential caps and major works consultations, operated. The working group published its final report to Government (see: <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Fregulation-of-property-agents-working-group-report&amp;data=04%7C01%7CJennifer.Rawlinson%40communities.gov.uk%7C94733f49be2c447e72fe08d9453a32bc%7Cbf3468109c7d43dea87224a2ef3995a8%7C0%7C0%7C637616938518195477%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=7BEQr5KrJQSUGHAtpLgEUGo83vzfqIIDr8DW5md4ZGk%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulation-of-property-agents-working-group-report</a> ) and we are considering the report’s recommendations.</p> answering member constituency Walsall North answering member printed Eddie Hughes grouped question UIN 29838 question first answered 13/07/2021 15:50:38 answering member 4635 label Biography information for Eddie Hughes
tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1342280

registered interest
date	30/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to (a) reform the leasehold sector and (b) support leaseholders presented with high bills for major works.
tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
uin	25096
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/07/2021 answer text <p>The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. The Government is taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market.</p><p>This includes making it easier for leaseholders to buy their freeholds, extend their leases or exercise their right to manage buildings. We will reform the process of enfranchisement valuation that leaseholders must follow to calculate the cost of extending their lease or buying their freehold. The Government will abolish marriage value, cap the treatment of ground rents at 0.1% of the freehold value, and prescribe rates for the calculations at market value. The Government will also introduce an online calculator, further simplifying the process for leaseholders and ensuring standardisation and fairness for all those looking to enfranchise. These changes to the enfranchisement valuation process will result in substantial savings for some leaseholders, particularly those with less than 80 years left on their lease. Our reforms to enfranchisement valuation also ensure that sufficient compensation is paid to landlords to reflect their legitimate property interests.</p><p>The measures will be translated into law as soon as possible, starting with the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rents) Bill, which was introduced into Parliament on 12 May. This Bill will make homeownership fairer and more transparent for thousands of future leaseholders, by legislating to prevent landlords under new residential long leases from requiring a leaseholder to pay a financial ground rent.  This will be the first part of major two-part legislation to implement leasehold and commonhold reforms in this Parliament.</p><p>The law is clear that service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to work or services, the work or services must be of a reasonable standard.</p><p>The ‘Section 20’ consultation process (of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985) aims to ensure that leaseholders contributing towards the upkeep and maintenance of the building where they live have sufficient input into how their money is spent on major works.</p><p>Where the works relate to building safety, we have made direct funding of an unprecedented £5.1 billion available for cladding remediation on buildings of 18 metres and above, which will protect hundreds of thousands of leaseholders from the cost of remediating unsafe cladding on their homes.  We are also stepping in to provide a generous finance scheme for the removal and replace of unsafe cladding on medium rise buildings.</p> answering member constituency Walsall North answering member printed Eddie Hughes question first answered 05/07/2021 14:15:25 answering member 4635 label Biography information for Eddie Hughes
tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1342281

registered interest
date	30/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a cap on bills for major works to support leaseholders.
tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
uin	25097
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/07/2021 answer text <p>The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. The Government is taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market.</p><p>The law is clear that service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to work or services, the work or services must be of a reasonable standard. We believe very strongly that any fees and charges should be justifiable, transparent, and communicated effectively and that there should be a clear route to redress if things go wrong.</p><p>The ‘Section 20’ consultation process (of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985) aims to ensure that leaseholders contributing towards the upkeep and maintenance of the building where they live have sufficient input into how their money is spent on major works.</p> answering member constituency Walsall North answering member printed Eddie Hughes question first answered 05/07/2021 14:15:58 answering member 4635 label Biography information for Eddie Hughes
tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1329138

registered interest
date	27/05/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to seek a derogation from the European Convention on Human Rights in order to achieve comprehensive leasehold reform.
tabling member printed	Lord Truscott
uin	HL688
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2021 answer text <p>The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service.</p><p>Under the current system, too many leaseholders find the process for extending their lease or buying their freehold (a process known as enfranchisement) too complex, lacking transparency and prohibitively expensive.</p><p>We will reform the process of enfranchisement valuation that leaseholders must follow to calculate the cost of extending their lease or buying their freehold. The Government will abolish marriage value, cap the treatment of ground rents at 0.1% of the freehold value, and prescribe rates for the calculations at market value.</p><p>These changes to the enfranchisement valuation process will result in substantial savings for some leaseholders, particularly those with less than 80 years left on their lease. Our reforms to enfranchisement valuation also ensure that sufficient compensation is paid to landlords to reflect their legitimate property interests.</p><p>In line with usual practice, the Government’s intention would be to publish an impact assessment and a section 19(1)(a) Human Rights Act 1988 statement on our leasehold reforms as part of taking primary legislation through Parliament.</p><p>The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rents) Bill, introduced into Parliament on 12 May, will make homeownership fairer and more transparent for thousands of future leaseholders, by legislating to prevent landlords under new residential long leases from requiring a leaseholder to pay a financial ground rent.</p><p>The Government considers the provisions of the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).</p><p>Specifically, we consider that the Bill engages with the following ECHR rights: Article 6: right to a fair trial; and Article 1 of Protocol 1: protection of property, that the proposals are compatible with the ECHR, and that any interferences can be justified.</p> answering member printed Lord Greenhalgh grouped question UIN HL685 HL686 HL687 question first answered 10/06/2021 16:12:20 answering member 4877 label Biography information for Lord Greenhalgh
tabling member	3682 label Biography information for Lord Truscott

1314799

registered interest
date	14/05/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals on proposed limits on the cost of extending a lease; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	1286
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2021 answer text <p>Under the current system, too many leaseholders find the process for extending their lease or buying their freehold (a process known as enfranchisement) too complex, lacking transparency and prohibitively expensive. We will reform the process of enfranchisement valuation that leaseholders must follow to calculate the cost of extending their lease or buying their freehold.</p><p>The Government will abolish marriage value, cap the treatment of ground rents at 0.1% of the freehold value, and prescribe rates for the calculations at market value. The Government will also introduce an online calculator, further simplifying the process for leaseholders and ensuring standardisation and fairness for all those looking to enfranchise. These changes to the enfranchisement valuation process will result in substantial savings for some leaseholders, particularly those with less than 80 years left on their lease.</p><p>Through our reforms, the length of a statutory lease extension will increase to 990 years, from 90 years (for flats) and 50 years (for houses). Leaseholders will be able to extend their lease with zero ground rent on payment of a premium. Leaseholders will also be able to voluntarily agree to a restriction on future development of their property to avoid paying ‘development value’</p><p><br>The Law Commission’s report on enfranchisement includes recommendations relating to lease extensions, including payment of costs incurred by this process and the terms of the new lease. We will bring forward a response to these and the other remaining Law Commission recommendations in due course.</p> answering member constituency Walsall North answering member printed Eddie Hughes question first answered 24/05/2021 16:11:12 answering member 4635 label Biography information for Eddie Hughes
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1309774

registered interest
date	16/04/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the Government's timeframe is for bringing forward legislative proposals to make it easier for leaseholders to buy their homes, and to extend leases by 990 years.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Hallam
tabling member printed	Olivia Blake
uin	182121
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/04/2021 answer text <p>The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. We are taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market.</p><p>Under the current system, too many leaseholders find the process for extending their lease or buying their freehold (a process known as enfranchisement) too complex, lacking transparency and prohibitively expensive.</p><p>We will reform the process of enfranchisement valuation that leaseholders must follow to calculate the cost of extending their lease or buying their freehold. The Government will abolish marriage value, cap the treatment of ground rents at 0.1% of the freehold value, prescribe rates for the calculations at market value, and introduce an online calculator.</p><p>Through our reforms, the length of a statutory lease extension will increase to 990 years, from 90 years (for flats) and 50 years (for houses). Leaseholders will be able to extend their lease with zero ground rent on payment of a premium. Leaseholders will also be able to voluntarily agree to a restriction on future development of their property to avoid paying ‘development value’.</p><p>We will translate these measures into law as soon as possible, starting with legislation to set ground rents on newly created leases to zero in the upcoming session. This will be the first part of major two-part legislation to implement leasehold and commonhold reforms in this Parliament.</p> answering member constituency Walsall North answering member printed Eddie Hughes question first answered 21/04/2021 13:46:55 answering member 4635 label Biography information for Eddie Hughes
tabling member	4864 label Biography information for Olivia Blake

1304017

registered interest
date	18/03/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to implement the findings of the Law Commission on the leasehold market.
tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
uin	171712
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2021 answer text <p>The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service.</p><p>On 7 January 2021 we announced the first part of our response to the Law Commission’s reports.</p><p>Under the current system, too many leaseholders find the process for extending their lease or buying their freehold too complex, lacking transparency and prohibitively expensive. We will reform the process of enfranchisement valuation; abolishing marriage value, capping the treatment of ground rents at 0.1% of the freehold value, and prescribing rates for the calculations at market value. We will also introduce an online calculator, further simplifying the process for leaseholders and ensuring standardisation and fairness for all those looking to enfranchise. These changes to the enfranchisement valuation process will result in substantial savings for some leaseholders, particularly those with less than 80 years left on their lease.</p><p>Through our reforms, the length of a statutory lease extension will increase to 990 years, from 90 years (for flats) and 50 years (for houses). Leaseholders will be able to extend their lease with zero ground rent on payment of a premium. Leaseholders will also be able to voluntarily agree to a restriction on future development of their property to avoid paying ‘development value’</p><p><br>The Government will respond to the Law Commission’s remaining recommendations on enfranchisement, commonhold and right to manage in due course</p><p><br>We will translate these measures into law as soon as possible, starting with legislation to set ground rents on newly created leases to zero in the upcoming session. This will be the first part of major two-part legislation to implement leasehold and commonhold reforms in this Parliament.</p> answering member constituency Walsall North answering member printed Eddie Hughes question first answered 26/03/2021 11:49:11 answering member 4635 label Biography information for Eddie Hughes
tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1280861

registered interest
date	26/01/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Greenhalgh on 25 January (HL12025), whether 90 year lease extensions will still be an option after the proposed forthcoming leasehold reforms.
tabling member printed	Lord Truscott
uin	HL12623
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/02/2021 answer text <p>The Government remains committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service.</p><p>Through our reforms the length of a statutory lease extension will increase to 990 years, replacing the current 90 years for flats and 50 years for houses. Long leases provide long term security for leaseholders and saves them from paying for multiple lease extensions.</p><p>The Law Commission’s report on enfranchisement contains recommendations relating to lease extensions that are not on statutory terms. We will respond to the Law Commission’s remaining recommendations on enfranchisement as well as commonhold and right to manage in due course.</p> answering member printed Lord Greenhalgh question first answered 09/02/2021 17:32:59 answering member 4877 label Biography information for Lord Greenhalgh
tabling member	3682 label Biography information for Lord Truscott

1277125

registered interest
date	15/01/2021
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Leasehold
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on leasehold reform.
tabling member constituency	Slough
tabling member printed	Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi
uin	138488
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/01/2021 answer text <p>The Government remains committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service</p><p><br> Legislation to set future ground rents to zero will be brought forward in the upcoming session of Parliament. This is the first part of seminal two-part reforming legislation in this Parliament. We will bring forward a response to the remaining Law Commission recommendations, including commonhold, in due course.</p> answering member constituency Walsall North answering member printed Eddie Hughes question first answered 20/01/2021 13:26:18 answering member 4635 label Biography information for Eddie Hughes
tabling member	4638 label Biography information for Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi