Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Today, the Government published the second of 2023’s quarterly reports summarising our engagement with the devolved Administrations on gov.uk.

This report covers a period of engagement between the UK Government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government, and Northern Ireland Executive from 1 April to 30 June 2023. During this reporting period the Administrations worked together on a number of key areas, such as ways to tackle the cost of living, supporting the NHS, and marking key milestones such as the 25th anniversary of the Belfast agreement. The report highlights that through our collective work we demonstrate a stronger ability to face and tackle big changes and challenges.

The report is part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to transparency of intergovernmental relations to Parliament and the public. The Government will continue with publications to demonstrate transparency in intergovernmental relations.

[HCWS26]

The Government are committed to promoting fairness and transparency in the residential leasehold sector, and giving homeowners a fairer deal.

Today we have published a consultation on capping existing ground rents. It cannot be right that leaseholders can be required to make payments that require no service or benefit in return, have no requirement to be reasonable, and can cause issues when people want to sell their properties.

Today’s publication builds on the success of the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, which put an end to ground rents for new, qualifying long residential leasehold properties in England and Wales as part of the most significant changes to property law in a generation.

There are nearly 5 million leasehold homes around the country and 86% of owner-occupier leaseholders report paying a ground rent. Historically, ground rents were typically small sums, even a peppercorn. But in this century, we have seen an increase in these rents, often rising at frequent intervals. This can blight people’s homes and lives, leaving them facing ever rising costs yet unable to sell the property easily due to these charges.

Service charges offer a way for freeholders to charge leaseholders for legitimate expenses. The measures we are bringing forward as part of our leasehold reforms will make them transparent to leaseholders and make it easier to challenge unfair or unreasonable charges.