3 March 2025
The government has announced plans to abolish the leasehold system, empowering homeowners with greater rights and control over their properties. Under these reforms, commonhold will become the default tenure.
The Commonhold White Paper sets out government’s proposal for how the reformed commonhold model will operate.
Key changes include:
- New leasehold flats banned: Once the reforms are implemented, new flats will no longer be sold as leasehold.
- Easier transition to commonhold: The legal framework for commonhold will be overhauled, making it simpler for existing leaseholders to convert their properties.
- Greater homeowner control: Commonholders will have a direct say in building budgets, management decisions, and service charges, removing the influence of landlords.
- Improved protections: Commonhold properties will include mandatory reserve funds, public liability insurance, and stronger rules for appointing directors and managing agents.
The government also announced plans to introduce a code of practice.
Under commonhold there will be no need for updates to primary legislation as is the position with leasehold.
Commonhold simplifies housing management by allowing updates through standard codes of good practice that can be revised as needed.
Commonhold also makes it easier to upgrade buildings over time. Many leases often preclude improvements to the building as a way to protect leaseholders from landlords profiting, but commonhold resolves this issue, ensuring more flexibility for property owners.
Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook said:
“This government promised not only to provide immediate relief to leaseholders suffering now but to do what is necessary to bring the feudal leasehold system to an end – and that is precisely what we are doing.
“By taking decisive steps to reinvigorate commonhold and make it the default tenure, we will ensure that it is homeowners, not third-party landlords, who will own the buildings they live in and have a greater say in how their home is managed and the bills they pay.
“These reforms mark the beginning of the end for a system that has seen millions of homeowners subject to unfair practices and unreasonable costs at the hands of their landlords and build on our Plan for Change commitments to drive up living standards and create a housing system fit for the twenty-first century.”
The reforms will also enhance existing rights for leaseholders. It will become cheaper and easier to extend leases or buy freeholds, and service charge disputes will be easier to challenge.
A draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill will be published later this year, setting out the legal framework for these changes.
