There has been a lot of focus on commonhold following on from the publication of the White Paper on Monday 3rd March 2025.
Here are some links to articles that have featured comments on this:
and also in the Daily Mail
Leasehold ban: What does it mean for flat owners now – and in the future? | This is Money
What is very clear is that the government plans to seek to ‘switch off’ leasehold as a form of land tenure for residential properties and Mr Pennycook has indicated that he would like to bring legislation on this forward ‘before the end of this parliament.’
There is a fair amount to do to ‘fix’ commonhold but it is good to see the government’s response to the Law Commission’s work on this.
Clearly before any ‘digital switchover’ to commonhold can take place it will have to be made fit for purpose. The work to do this will be in a Commonhold and Leasehold Reform bill to be announced later on in the year. Once we see that we will know what the scale of the proposed legislation will look like and I for one look forward to reading that. Mr Pennycook has realistically said that he anticipates that this legilsation may be on such a scale that it will take more than one Act of parliament to bring it into effect and that it may be that this wider programme of reform may stretch beyond this session of parliament.
We await further news of the draft bill in due course.
Mark Chick
7th March 2025