Today Matt Pennycook, Housing Minister released an update on leasehold reform.
Campaigners have been asking for a timeline, and we now have this, but nothing is going to happen fast! The overall message is “this will take longer than we thought (and the other guys drafted it badly!)”
The reasons for delay are plausible (poor drafting, unintended consequences) but even apparently simple things like abolition of marriage value will not be happening until summer of 2025.
To be fair urgent reforms for the remediation of unsafe buildings were passed in July this year. And one reform will pass in January! This will allow someone buying a flat to begin the process of extending the lease immediately rather than waiting two years which the law currently requires. Also measures to make Right to Manage easier will arrive in March.
The whole question of how much leaseholders should pay to extend a lease is to undergo (yet more) consultations. However legal pundits on twitter/x say this is about how, not whether, marriage value will be ended.
Coincidentally this matter of the cost of an extension is also the subject of a judicial review requested by a group of freeholders, and this may also be a reason for the delay.
Here’s Pennycook’s statement in full –
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