{"id":460294,"date":"2025-09-29T11:34:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/460294\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T11:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:34:21","slug":"leasehold-reform-needed-urgently-says-london-assembly-committee-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/460294\/","title":{"rendered":"Leasehold reform needed urgently, says London Assembly committee chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zoe Garbett warns capital is \u201cuniquely exposed\u201d to leasehold issues with high service charges and poor quality, reports Kumail Jaffer, Local Democracy Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"GreenLondon Assembly member Zoe Garbett outside City Hall (credit Noah Vickers-LDRS)<\/p>\n

Leasehold homes are a \u201csource of problems and financial stress\u201d for Londoners who \u201ccannot and should not wait any longer\u201d for radical reforms to the system, ministers have been told.<\/p>\n

Zoe Garbett, chair of the London Assembly\u2019s housing committee, said the capital was \u201cuniquely exposed\u201d to leasehold issues, which include high service charges and poor quality buildings.<\/p>\n

Over a third \u2013 36% \u2013 of London\u2019s homes are leasehold, meaning that buyers purchase the right to live in the property for a set number of years, compared to 16% in the rest of England.<\/p>\n

This means the freeholder \u2013 who owns the property outright and the land its built on, and is responsible for upkeep and repairs \u2013 can impose service charge bills on any leaseholders.<\/p>\n

Ground rent payments also apply to older flats, while leaseholders are also responsible for extending the length of the lease.<\/p>\n

In July ministers, who have pledged an end to the \u201cfeudal\u201d system, announced a consultation on reforms which would increase transparency around service charges. The typical service charge for a flat in England and Wales rose 11% during 2024 to reach an average of \u00a32,300 per year, or \u00a3192 per month. The consultation closed last week.<\/p>\n

In response, Garbett wrote: \u201cIssues with leasehold as a tenure and service charges are longstanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call on the government to prioritise implementing these measures as a matter of urgency as leaseholders cannot and should not wait any longer for greater transparency in their service charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said that leaseholders should be enabled to \u201cwithhold unjustified service charges\u201d and\u00a0challenge such charges more easily,<\/p>\n

Other recommendations included compelling developers to ensure they use quality components during construction to avoid leaseholders being hit with increased service charge further down the line if repairs need to be carried out.<\/p>\n

Garbett also said the housing committee was also keen to see the measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 apply to social tenants.<\/p>\n

In July the committee, then chaired by assembly member Sem Moema, recommended that potential leasehold purchases be given an estimate of how much they will be paying service charges for the first ten years of ownership.<\/p>\n

Moema said at the time: \u201cLondon has more leaseholders than anywhere else in the country \u2013 over a third of all homes in our city are leasehold. Behind the doors of these homes are often stories of residents paying thousands of pounds for opaque service charges, battling for basic transparency, and facing mounting costs through no fault of their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before coming into office, the Labour Party promised to bring an end to leasehold by the end of this parliament \u2013 expected to be 2029.<\/p>\n

But campaigners have been concerned about the slow progress made so far, with ministers putting the speed down to\u00a0 the need for extensive secondary legislation and public consultations.<\/p>\n

Harry Scoffin, housing campaigner and founder of Free Leaseholders, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): \u201cWe back this intervention by Zo\u00eb Garbett and the London Assembly housing committee. Leasehold is a cost of living emergency. The government\u2019s consultation policies are little more than sticking plasters on an exploitative system that has made London an international pariah.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a crisis in the flats market and we\u2019re not seeing a crisis response from the government. Leaseholders are trapped and being looted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told the LDRS: \u201cFar too many leaseholders across the country are being asked to pay unreasonable and extortionate charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will fix this and have published a consultation on detailed plans to drive up transparency of service charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the London Assembly\u2019s views on the proposals and will provide a government response to the consultation in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independent news outlets like ours \u2013 reporting for the community without rich backers \u2013 are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Choose the news. Don\u2019t lose the news.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monthly direct debit\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Annual direct debit<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a35 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month\u2019s paper before anyone else, \u00a310 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month\u2019s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month.\u00a0\u00a350 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else. \u00a384 annual supporters get a print copy by post and a digital copy of each month’s before anyone else.<\/p>\n

\"Donate<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>More information on supporting us monthly\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

More Information about donations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zoe Garbett warns capital is \u201cuniquely exposed\u201d to leasehold issues with high service charges and poor quality, reports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,26387,393,4884,6333,257,16130,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-460294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-housing","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-london-assembly","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115287377404613402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}