What do we make of this?
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Angela Rayner has made a promise that the legal process will begin this year (they hope). Can there be a guarantee that the cap on ground rent so that it will come down? We have had these promises and every time the promise has been deferred to another Government
There is doubt now that this will be completed this year as there are “litigious issues”.
This is one of the big issues for this Government to show it is different, that it will not be overridden by the freeholder lobby and succumb to its litigious objections.
It is good news that “fleece-hold” is headline news. The more that Laura Kuenssberg devotes her show to this the better.
If you think this no business of pension folk…
Developer halts London project until market improves https://t.co/hsuGlrFuuj
— Harry Scoffin (@HarryScoffin) October 24, 2026
We saw last week with the first Mansion House Agreement report that the majority of new or “primary” money is not being in making Britain more productive but in our housing. Is it really sensible that we allow the sell-ability of flats to grind to a halt? People , as Harry Scoffin says, would rather rent or save up for a freehold than buy a flat in London.
As for existing leasehold holders, we see service charges, ground rent and the cost of mortgages at a rate which is not tenable for many. Rather than get into arrears they/we are having to downgrade the importance of other things. I know this for myself and for people whether young, middle-aged or elderly.
We are in a “cost of living” phase of Government when we think about who pays what for what. I feat right now we are paying too much for the ancillary costs of housing and 6m of us have purchased flats under leasehold and many more rent those flats at exorbitant rents. Surely it is time for us to say good bye to charges which do nothing but provide returns to shareholders of free-holders.
Which bring me to the pension funds which rely for their returns on everything from affordable housing to funds that provide inflation + interest on the regular reviews of ground rents purchased by the fund.
The Government regularly hear from the freeholder’s trade association that reducing the value of holding freeholds is taking money from pensions. This is not the case. We need to make that clear to Government.