Starmer ignores Property Fund “pension bleating” and overrules Rachel Reeves to cap ground rents

Harry Scoffin has every right to feel proud of himself

I have not been taken out by the property cartels.

Not yet, anyway!

Thank you to our supporters, including those who have recently joined us from Zack Polanski, who has been giving Labour hell over its backsliding on promises to leaseholders.

The Circular is usually a weekly affair, but you have not had any in 2026. Sorry.

At the height of the fighting, it has been difficult to maintain our usual rhythm.

Anyway, expect a full update later this week, bringing you up to speed with what we have been up to so far this year.

When most of you read this email, the government will already have made its announcement ahead of markets opening.

What we will say for now is this: we will be the only group in this space actively opposing any freeze or £250 cap on ground rents.We are not interested in crumbs from the table or in playing insider games.

In opposition, Labour pushed to set ground rents to peppercorn, meaning zero financial value.If we are paying for nothing, we should be paying nothing. Labour has a colossal majority to deliver for the people.Peppercorning will also drain the value of overpriced freeholds, which is essential for a mass shift to commonhold

.Please see our statement below, which was first posted on X/Twitter alongside an interview I gave to LBC’s Matthew Wright at the crack of dawn on Saturday.

GROUND RENTS: A STATEMENT FROM FREE LEASEHOLDERS
26/1/25

At the last general election, 9.7 million people voted for “change”.

In the manifesto, Labour promised to “act where the Conservatives have failed and finally bring the feudal leasehold system to an end”.

In the months building up to the election, Matthew Pennycook told Parliament that the Tories needed to be “courageous” and that he supported slashing money-for-nothing ground rents to a peppercorn, meaning zero financial value.

Pennycook, Angela Rayner and Sadiq Khan rightly rounded on the Tory government for dropping its plans for immediate peppercorning.

Let’s be clear, freezing ground rents or even capping them at £250 per annum keeps leasehold on life support.

It would be the opposite of ENDING leasehold, which is what the Labour manifesto promised.

If Labour announces a freeze or cap tomorrow, they will be betraying hardworking leaseholders to protect the ground rent grifters and offshore property mafia.

In fact, a freeze or straight £250 cap would be WORSE than what we going to get under the Tories had Rishi Sunak not called an early election.

Sunak sided with Michael Gove against the Treasury and the freeholder lobby by agreeing to a £250 cap with a phaseout to peppercorn over time. This policy featured in the 2024 Conservative manifesto.

The political economy of housing is changing.

Even Donald Trump has told these murky investors to stay out of people’s homes.

This May, local elections will be taking place across the country, including in London, where there is a super high proportion of leaseholders.

No wonder disruptors like Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage are licking their lips at a government servile to wealth-destroying corporates and captured by weird ECHR legalism.

Homes are for people, not corporations.