This morning saw the formation of the new All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold under the joint chairmanship of LKP patron MPs Sir Peter Bottomley and Jim Fitzpatrick.
LKP is to provide the secretariat for the APPG.
This means that for the first time a rigorous consumer organisation is in a position to support the agenda of a parliamentary group examining leasehold and its many income streams without it being nobbled by the involvement or funding of housebuilders, parti pris trade bodies and supposedly neutral “think tanks”, which can be little more than PR / marketing operations.
The housing minister Gavin Barwell was informed of the formation of the APPG on Tuesday, at a meeting with LKP. In total 35 MPs and a number of Lords have signed up to the APPG.
The aims of the APPG were outlined this morning as:
- 1/ To reduce the opportunities for exploitation;
- 2/ To alleviate the distress and hardship of leaseholders, particularly the elderly;
- 3/ To do away with the high costs and legal gamesmanship that have distorted the original intention of the property tribunal as a low cost forum for redress.
- 4/ It will examine the incidence of lease forfeiture, and consider the case for its reform, as recommended by the Law Commission in 2006.
- 5/ It will examine why the values of retirement leasehold properties can have no relationship at all to the local property markets.
- 6/ It will unearth and publicise scandalous behaviour of professions involved in the leasehold sector.
- 7/ It will examine those matters where leaseholder pay for a service but are not deemed party to a contract and therefore have limited rights. On issues such as insurance the matter of commissions and the leaseholders rights under the terms of a policy will be reviewed
- 8/ To ensure that right to manage legislation acts as intended, although currently frustrated by freeholders’ legal actions in the property tribunal and, lately, the Court of Appeal.
Related posts:
20 MPs and Lords sign up for All-Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold
All Party Parliamentary Group: this is how to reform leasehold
APPG members list – current membership 183
All Party Parliamentary Group, April 26: Barratt praised at Citiscape; Galliard reviled at New Capital Quay; Taylor Wimpey scorned over ground rent review scheme
MPs call for all-party group on leasehold, and to stop right to manage being thwarted
Sir Roger’s quest for the Holy Grail … (or any other metaphor that helps his cosy leasehold world remain the same)
Congratulations on establishing this! I will, of course, be asking my MP to join.
Is it possible to put a link on the website, showing who the current members are?
Many Thanks.
I would also like to know about the list of current members.
We will be creating a APPG specific section of the web site in the near future. This will list the current APPG members, along with any papers submitted to the APPG. and the current topics under review by the group along with any calls for evidence..
The secretariat to a number of APPG’s are either charities or lobby groups funded by their particular sector or where interest groups takes funds from assassinate members.
LKP role as secretariat of this APPG falls under or charitable educational objective and we will seek to ensure that the interests of ALL groups in the sector are fairly represented..
Our role in the APPG will be to help organise and report the meetings,. Help the MPs and Lords gain access to relevant information to allow them to make their recommendations. To help them to produce any reports that may come our of their work..
Can you encourage Parliament through your work with the All Party Parliamentary Group to scrap the so-called ‘marriage value’ and the ’80 year rule’ – or should I say ’80 year trap’ – and replace it with say a minimal ground rent structure to compensate the freeholder. Can you also encourage Parliament to call for a greater level transparency amongst the professions (e.g. in say the information contained about leasehold law within the RICS Homebuyers Survey and the quality of legal advice) as the leasing game is shrouded in far too much mystery for my liking. The marriage value element has doubled the cost of my lease extension quote and made it unaffordable and I am sure that was not the original intention of Parliament when they first looked at leasehold reform. Thanks.