For the second time this morning, I find myself thanking Amy Borrett providing me with data for thought!
For those of us who live in cities (especially London) this is a particular problem
No one’s buying , everybody seems to be selling and those who let and live where they are trying to sell are getting out at whatever cost. The most afflicted are not those buying to let, it is those who need to move (for whatever reason).
For a year I have been amplifying Harry Scoffin who has been complaining that there is no love for the leaseholder who is trapped in flats that cannot be sold at what they were bought and drain the pocket through service charges and leasehold-only payment like a freehold rip off that’s there for the privilege of living on a patch of earth.
I may sound aggrieved but last week I sent over £1100 to my freeholder; it was no great feeling that this will go down to £250 in two years time when I’ve been paying this amount for the 12 years I’ve bothered this bit of land!
Leasehold flats may be good to live in but they are very expensive and made more so by service managers acting on instructions by freeholders who can overcharge for every aspect of maintenance. The leaseholder is trapped and has not yet seen relief as Government after Government put off the reform needed to reduce the cost of living (where they live).
This is my contribution to Andy Burnham’s campaign. I am sure it is the same in Manchester and Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle, Cardiff and Swansea, no matter where you are in England and Wales and you lease a property or rent one, you will find yourselves vulnerable. Scotland is much saner.
Government can make a change and when it does , leaseholders will move again, a captive population will be released. The sooner that we down here learn from them up there, the bettr.
I leave the last word to my friend Harry Scoffin who is speaking to London
‘Andy Burnham is too good a politician to leave leaseholders hanging’
✍️ @harryscoffin for LBC Opinionhttps://t.co/DIavP9FwVS
— LBC (@LBC) August 16, 2026
If you use this link you can get into the FT article and watch the excellent video that ends it. The article’s on my free share.
Mr B, St Andy of t’North, will observe that more people are leaseholders than freeholders and will therefore rob Peter to pay Paul. That’s how politics works. Corrupt as hell, and not a thing you can do about it.