‘Tory leasehold reform won’t fix this feudal system – here’s how Labour can’

“An End to Feudalism” was the promise our party first made to leaseholders in 1995. It was the title of a pamphlet authored by Nick Raynsford and Frank Dobson, Keir Starmer’s predecessor in Holborn and St Pancras, and it gave hope to millions of leaseholders in advance of the 1997 election.

We failed them. The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act of 2002 was a weak act that watered down key demands and failed to do away with the corrupt rentier system.

Nearly 30 years later and we are back here again, with a weak Conservative bill too afraid of the property industry and unwilling to give people true ownership over their own homes. Soon it will fall to on an incoming Labour government to remedy this long-standing injustice.

Over five million people now live in leasehold properties in the UK. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has just concluded its clause by clause scrutiny stage in Parliament.

The Bill makes it slightly easier for existing leaseholders to extend their lease or buy their freehold, but does nothing for millions of leaseholders trapped in properties they can neither afford nor sell.

The government’s bill is 133 pages of tinkering with a fundamentally unjust system. Leasehold needs abolishing, not updating. It’s a relic of a feudal system.

My documentary tells the story of trapped leaseholders

Every other country in the world has abolished it because it leaves people as tenants in their own homes. It reinforces the imbalance of power between the freeholder/landlord and the leaseholder/tenant. I’ve seen it lead to bankruptcy, mental health issues and suicidal thoughts.

I sat on the Bill Committee, and along with my Labour colleagues we submitted a number of amendments to try and salvage what we can from this sorry legislation. But it really is like polishing the proverbial “turd”, and the government is simply not willing to do what is necessary to give people the real freedom of commonhold.

We Need an End to Leasehold.

Tomorrow I go onto the Bill Committee for Leasehold Reform. It is 133 pages of tinkering with a fundamentally unjust system.

This is the trailer for my upcoming documentary telling the victims’ stories.https://t.co/upVetWNPtp pic.twitter.com/fYkbSjBFmo

— Barry Gardiner (@BarryGardiner) January 15, 2024

This is why I have created a new 40-minute documentary telling the stories of leaseholders trapped in their own homes. It features residents across England and highlights the imbalance of power that keeps leaseholders’ prisoners in their own homes. The documentary is launching next week, and will be available to watch here.

We in the Labour Party are uniquely placed to finally put an end to this draconian system of housing. Whilst the Tories are in hock to the big property money interests, an incoming Labour government must have the courage and the resolve to take this step in the fight for self-determination and housing equality.

Scrapping leasehold must be in the manifesto

I have been encouraged by Keir Starmer’s call to “back the builders not the blockers” when it comes to Labour’s house building ambitions. He is right, Britain needs more homes.

But we as a party need to make sure that, not only do we build more homes, but that people who we help onto the property ladder do not become the next generation to have their lives imprisoned in their property, fleeced for extortionate ground rent, trapped under the weight of exorbitant service charges, and without the freedom to sell.

In her excellent opening speech at the 2023 Labour Conference, Angela Rayner made specific mention of Labour’s ambitions to abolish leasehold.

The government Bill is a game of smoke and mirrors promising big and delivering small. The five million leaseholders in the electorate will not be fooled. They know the Tories have failed.

But they need to believe that this time Labour will be as good as our word and deliver. Nothing short of a clear manifesto commitment to end residential leasehold will do, and the rapid introduction of Commonhold in Labour’s first term.

That is what will win leaseholders’ trust. We must live up to our 1995 promise. It is our duty to abolish leasehold and finally put An End to Feudalism.