The speech published on GOV.UK sets out the government's preferred route for ending leasehold: not immediate abolition, but a staged legislative programme designed to stop the model renewing itself and to give existing leaseholders more practical routes out. The Housing Minister anchors the case for reform in day-to-day costs rather than abstract legal debate, citing a Woolwich leaseholder whose service charges rose from just over £1,230 to more than £4,400 in four years and an East Greenwich leaseholder paying just under £800 in annual ground rent for no service. Those examples are used to support a wider argument that the current tenure still allows third-party control, rising charges and weak consumer leverage across roughly five million leasehold dwellings in England and Wales. The stated objective by the end of this Parliament is the dismantling of leasehold as an enduring tenure model, while avoiding the legal and administrative shock of trying to abolish every lease at once.
In policy terms, the speech presents leasehold as a long-running tenure built around landlord control, a wasting term and revenue extracted through rent, charges and permissions. It then places the current programme in a line of partial reforms, including the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 and the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. The minister's argument is that each measure addressed specific abuses, but none replaced the tenure structure that allowed similar problems to recur. That framing matters because it explains why the government is treating leasehold reform as a sequence of connected measures rather than a single headline announcement. The programme combines new primary legislation, commencement of provisions already on the statute book, consultation on valuation rules and further work on Law Commission recommendations.
The speech rejects immediate, blanket abolition of existing leases as neither lawful nor workable. The minister points to unresolved questions over title conversion, mortgage security, Land Registry processes, the overnight creation of commonhold associations and directors, and the treatment of buildings that have already enfranchised or exercised the Right to Manage. This is the government's central sequencing argument. The aim is to prevent leasehold from reproducing itself in future while reducing reliance on it over time in the existing stock. That approach is likely to disappoint campaigners seeking a cleaner break, but it also signals that ministers are designing the programme around legal resilience and market continuity as much as political commitment.
On the forward-looking side, the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Bill would make commonhold the default tenure and ban the grant of new leasehold flats, complementing the existing statutory ban on new leasehold houses. In the minister's account, commonhold is a governance model under which flat owners, rather than an external freeholder, control management, shared facilities and the related costs. If enacted in that form, the change would be significant for developers, lenders, conveyancers and managing agents as well as purchasers. New blocks would need to be structured around resident-led management from the outset, and the commercial assumptions that have supported ground rent income and freeholder control would narrow sharply. The main test will be whether the final bill gives enough operational detail for commonhold to work more effectively than it did under the 2002 framework.
The speech also tries to answer the question that has weakened earlier commonhold proposals: what happens to existing leaseholders. The draft bill proposes a revised conversion route aligned more closely with enfranchisement rules, allowing conversion where at least 50% of qualifying leaseholders agree. Alongside that, ministers say they will implement measures in the 2024 Act intended to make enfranchisement cheaper and easier once specific flaws in that Act are corrected through the substantive bill. The valuation changes set out in the speech are especially important. The government says it will consult on capitalisation and deferment rates, then move to a process that removes marriage value and caps the treatment of ground rent in the valuation calculation at 0.1% of freehold value. The draft bill would also cap ground rent at £250 and introduce mandatory leasebacks, so participating leaseholders are not forced to acquire costly commercial units or non-participating leases as part of a claim. For many blocks, that could make collective action materially more feasible.
The scale of the next bill explains why ministers are not promising a rapid single-step settlement. The substantive Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill is described as likely to run to about 260 clauses and 20 schedules, placing it firmly in the territory of major primary legislation. The government also says it intends to enact the remaining Law Commission recommendations on enfranchisement and Right to Manage during this Parliament, while still working through difficult questions such as development value. For the sector, that means reform will arrive in layers. Primary legislation will set the framework, but much of the effect on valuation practice, building management and dispute routes will depend on later regulations, commencement orders and technical guidance. That work is often less visible politically, but it is where the practical shape of reform is usually settled.
Alongside the long-term redesign, the speech promises more immediate protections for current leaseholders. These include a ground rent cap of £250 a year, moving to a peppercorn after 40 years, and the abolition of leasehold forfeiture in favour of a modern enforcement regime with judicial oversight. The government is also reviewing how best to regulate managing agents after consulting on mandatory qualifications and leaseholder powers to switch or veto them. Ministers say they want to bring into force 2024 Act provisions that standardise service charge information, permit only fair buildings insurance fees and rebalance legal costs so that leaseholders are less deterred from challenging a landlord. The speech describes this as a package of six statutory instruments, three subject to the affirmative procedure. In practical terms, that means some of the most visible consumer changes may arrive through secondary legislation before the larger bill completes its passage.
The minister briefly extends the programme to privately managed estates, where homeowners can face estate charges and enforcement powers without the protections usually associated with leasehold. The government says the draft bill will repeal disproportionate enforcement powers, that 2024 Act consumer protections for freehold homeowners will be commenced, and that a Law Commission project will examine stronger resident control over estate management. It is also considering how to reduce the use of estate management company arrangements over time. Taken together, the speech presents leasehold reform as a system rebuild rather than a single intervention. The minister describes it as the most ambitious overhaul of land and property law in at least a century, while acknowledging that delivery will be contested in Parliament and in the courts, including through the appeal linked to challenges against the 2024 Act. The policy direction is clear: no routine new leasehold, a more usable commonhold model, cheaper exit routes for existing leaseholders and tighter rules on charges, enforcement and management. Whether that becomes a durable settlement will depend on drafting, commencement and the pace of implementation during the remainder of this Parliament.