Labour concedes ending leasehold isn’t feasible before next election

Leasehold is the strange bit of English housing where you can buy a flat, pay a mortgage, and still not really control the building you live in. That has made it one of the ugliest consumer issues in UK property — ground rents, permission fees, service charges, and very little power for the people paying them. Now the big political shift is out in the open. On 29 April, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said it is “highly likely” the ban on new leasehold homes will not be switched on before the next general election, even though Labour still says it wants to dismantle the system. (gov.uk) ### What did Labour actually concede? Not that leasehold is fine — basically the opposite. Pennycook called it a system that is “blighting lives” and said the goal is still to end it. But he drew a line between passing the law and actually bringing a full ban into force. The new line is: legislation before the election, full implementation later if needed. That is a much slower version of the promise voters heard in 2024. (gov.uk) ### Why can’t they just abolish it? Because leasehold is not one rule you can flick off. It sits inside millions of existing legal titles, mortgages, contracts, and building-management arrangements. Pennycook said there are about 5 million leasehold homes in England and Wales, and argued nobody serious has explained how you would lawfully erase t(gov.uk). That is the government’s core defense — the catch is legal plumbing, not lack of intent. (gov.uk) ### What is commonhold, then? Commonhold is the replacement model Labour wants. Instead of owning a long lease from a freeholder, flat owners would own their unit outright and collectively control the building. It already exists in law, but hardly anyone uses it. The government published a Commonhold White Paper on 3 March 2025 laying out how a r(gov.uk)en stretched. (gov.uk) ### What still happens before the election? Labour says it still plans to introduce and pass a Leasehold and Commonhold Bill in this parliament. Pennycook has framed that as the mechanism that starts the transition — easier conversion, more leaseholder control, and a route toward commonhold becoming standard for new flats. But there is a difference between passing a framework b(gov.uk)ents. That second part now looks likely to slip into the next parliament. (news.sky.com) ### Why are campaigners angry? Because this sounds like a downgrade from “end leasehold” to “begin ending leasehold.” Critics, including Green Party co-leader Zack Polanski, say Labour is backing away from a clear promise. The political pain is obvious — when you campaign against a “feudal” system, people expect a clean break, not a phased transition with delayed commencement dates. That gap between slogan and timetable is the whole row. (mortgagefinancegazette.com) ### What about current leaseholders? They are the hardest part of the story. New-build reform matters, but millions of people are already stuck inside the old system. Pennycook used examples from his own constituency — one leaseholder whose service charges rose from just over £1,230 to more than £4(mortgagefinancegazette.com)ears of charges under a system ministers say is broken. (gov.uk) ### So what’s the real takeaway? Labour has not abandoned leasehold reform. But it has now admitted the hard part out loud — abolishing leasehold is a multi-year legal conversion, not a quick political win. If the bill lands, ministers can still say they started the teardown. But unless implementation speeds up fast, the next election will arrive before voters see the promised end state. (news.sky.com)