Leasehold Knowledge Partnership

The registered charity for leaseholders

Menu
  • Home
    • Site map
    • Archive of posts by category
  • What is LKP
    • Privacy and Data Protection Statement
    • Site map
  • HELP FORM
  • News
      • APPG
      • ARMA
      • Bellway
      • Benjamin Mire
      • Brixton Hill Court
      • Canary Riverside
      • Charter Quay
      • Chelsea Bridge Wharf
      • Commonhold
      • Communities Select Committee
      • Conveyancing Association
      • Countrywide
      • DCLG
      • E&J Capital Partners
      • Exit fees
      • Fleecehold
      • Forfeiture
      • FPRA
      • Gleeson Homes
      • Ground rent scandal
      • Cladding crisis
      • Hanover
      • House managers flat
      • House of Lords
      • Housing associations
      • Informal lease extension
      • Insurance scams
      • IRPM
      • Jim Fitzpatrick MP
      • John Christodoulou
      • Justin Bates
      • Justin Madders MP
      • Law Commission
      • LEASE
      • Leasehold Valuation Tribunal
      • Local authority leasehold
      • London Assembly
      • Louie Burns
      • Martin Paine
      • McCarthy and Stone
      • Moskovitz / Gurvits
      • Mulberry Mews
      • National Leasehold Campaign
      • Oakland Court
      • OFT / CMA
      • Park Homes
      • Persimmon
      • Peverel
      • Philip Rainey QC
      • Plantation Wharf
      • Prostitutes
      • Quadrangle House
      • Recognised Tenants’ Association
      • Redrow
      • Retirement
      • RICS
      • Right To Manage Federation
      • Roger Southam
      • RTM
      • Sean Powell
      • SFO
      • Sinclair Gardens Investments
      • Sir Ed Davey
      • Sir Peter Bottomley
      • St George’s Wharf
      • Taylor Wimpey
      • Tchenguiz
      • West India Quay
      • William Waldorf Astor
      • Windrush Court
  • Accreditation
    • Accredited Companies
        • Block Managers Limited
        • Clear Building Management
        • Diamond Managing Agents
        • Dixon Emerald Associates
        • HML Group
        • Home from Home
        • Home Management Group
        • JFM Block & Estate Management
        • Jones Associates Letting & Management
        • Norwich Residential Management
        • Premier Block Management
        • Red Rock Property Management
        • Sapphire Property Management
        • Town & City Management
        • Urang Property Management
        • Vestra Property Management
  • Fighting back
      • Lease Extension
      • Q&As
      • Right to buy freehold
      • Commonhold
      • Bottomley blasts leasehold crimes on video
      • LVT/Property Chamber Survival
      • Tribunal triumphs … and defeats
      • Recognised Tenants’ Association
      • Right To Manage
      • Video
      • Find MP … and see how many leasehold voters
      • LEASE: what’s the point?
      • Pensioners win £68,500
      • Most damning LVT ruling ever made
      • Insurance racket
      • Local authority leasehold
      • Remember to extend your lease
      • St George’s wins £1 million
      • Leasehold law: the reforms
  • Sub-letting
  • Press
  • Contact
  • Parliament
      • Communities Select Committee
      • APPG
      • APPG December 14 2016
      • Commons Debate 20/12/16
      • APPG April 19 2017
      • APPG July 5 2017
      • APPG December 14 2016
  • Right To Manage
  • Lease Extension
  • National Leasehold Campaign
    • Louie Burns
    • Ground rent scandal
    • Michael Epstein
  • Donate
You are here: Home / News / The Social Housing Green Paper – the government should do more, says ex-civil servant

The Social Housing Green Paper – the government should do more, says ex-civil servant

September 19, 2018 By Admin2

Today the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Chief Executive, Terrie Alafat, told Inside Housing that she welcomed the Government’s Green Paper on Social Housing, but explained that it doesn’t go far enough.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/bigger-thinking-is-needed-from-the-government

The Green Paper

For leaseholders and shared ownership leaseholders, the Green Paper begins to look at a number of important issues. At section 3.5 of the document and in particular para 87 the Green Paper States:

A lack of transparency around service charges can lead to fears that leaseholders are cross-subsidising other residents. Consultation over major works can often be seen as failing to obtain meaningful input from leaseholders or to take their views on board, especially when maintenance and repairs are managed through broad framework agreements or longer term contracts. And, unlike in the private market, there is no real sanction for social landlords who do not comply with requests for information because the local authority can be both the landlord and enforcer.

A copy of the green paper can be found here and we would urge leaseholders, shared owners and social rental tenants to respond to this request for their input.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/a-new-deal-for-social-housing

The online response form can be found here:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/A_new_deal_for_social_housing

The most relevant section is section 3 and questions 21 to 51.

The survey can be part saved so don’t worry that you have to complete it in one go.

Turning back to the thoughts of the CIH Chief Executive:

Ms Alafat might look in the mirror first, when advising the government to do more, and ask herself why she didn’t do so when she was a civil servant and in charge?

Alafat lists herself as Director of Housing at DCLG from 2002 to 2015, when she left the civil service. The announcement of her appointment as Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing took place in December 2014.

During her role at DCLG, where she was responsible for housing issues, Director Alafat had overall responsibility for leasehold issues. By 2011 however her allocation of resources to leasehold matters had become so small that not a single civil service manager had the term “leasehold” in their job description. In addition no one in her department had any idea how big the sector actually was. It was also under Alafat’s reign that the Department was at its most vociferous in arguing that there were no major problems in the leasehold sector and that the legislation was well balanced between the landlord and the leaseholders’ interests.

During this period the DCLG funded Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) were at their worst. They happily provided help to landlords and developers to gain an advantage over leaseholders. Under her leadership the Department was also less than keen to do anything to encourage commonhold. Yet, like a number of other civil servants, Alafat was given a CBE – for doing her job.

LKP would suggest that CIH and the wider social sector has, for far too long, turned a blind eye to some of the inefficiencies in building maintenance costs. These costs are then passed on indirectly to their rental tenants and more directly to their shared ownership tenants and their right to buy leaseholder tenants.

One big source of problems, as highlighted in the Green Paper, is the use of Framework Building Maintenance Agreements in the social sector, also known as Qualifying Long Term Agreements (QLTA’s). In our submission to the Green Paper LKP will assert that there is often NO legitimate justification for the use of these agreements.  The sector has spent far too many years wrongly asserting they are following the “Egan Principles”, European Procurement rules, and complying with government value for money statements as a justification for the use of QLTA’s.

LKP is aware that many in the social sector will claim that it is simply a myth that leaseholders are overcharged, and that there are protections in place to stop any form of cross subsidy. The problem is that’s not how it works in practice for many sites. More than one or two social landlords are also happy to spread dissent among their three groups of tenants by allowing each to think that the other groups may get some level of subsidy. LKP would suggest all three types of tenants are being disadvantaged, not at each other’s expense, but due to the inefficiency of their social landlord.

We are not suggesting that all social landlords do things badly, but we are suggesting that the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation could have done a lot more a long time ago, as indeed Ms Alafat could have done, including in her previous incarnation, when she herself was a senior official in the relevant part of government.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related posts:

Government considers adding leasehold abuses to consumer protection law LKP and LEASE thank DCLG civil servant for helping leaseholders Martin Boyd flags controversial civil servant letter to City Hall at fire safety meeting Default ThumbnailGround rents to be allowed in retirement housing, says government Leaseholders in local authority and housing association blocks will have Grenfell cladding bill paid by government

Filed Under: Latest News, News

Contact LKP

Need help?

LKPhelp2The leasehold game is weighted against ordinary home-owning leaseholders, who aren’t professional players. LKP was set up to redress the balance, to help you win your disputes or at least avoid disasters.

If you have a leasehold problem, you can email sok@leaseholdknowledge or take a chance on calling 07808 328 230.

Or fill out this form, which ensures that you provide the essential information.

LKPnewsletter3

Professional services

The following advertisements are from firms that seek business from leaseholders. Click on the logos for company profiles.

Law

Right to manage

Lease extension / enfranchisement


capitalleasehold6-9ins

Insurance

Landscaping

limetree

LKP Managing Agents

Big managing agents are big because they have got business from developers or large-scale freehold owing companies. Doubtless they are very obliging.

Not a single one is big through consumer choice.

Managing agents accredited to LKP want business from leaseholders. Many are former leaseholders.

All have signed undertakings of good practice and have provided extensive references … from leaseholders.

They can also hand-hold leaseholders through right to manage at minimal cost.

Contact Sebastian O’Kelly at LKP for further details: sok@leaseholdknowledge.com, 07808 328 230

Please click on logos for link and details

Comments

  1. David Colin McArthur says

    September 20, 2018 at 8:16 am

    The latest crock of shit (oops, report) from The Law Commission on leasehold reform was made available at one minute past midnight this very day. Eight hours and eleven minutes later and nothing from LKP, simply not good enough LKP – you guys don’t sleep, do you?

    A summary of what this means for owners of leasehold houses:

    “Options to reduce premiums payable by leaseholders of houses including:
    • a simple formula (ground rent multiplier, or percentage of capital value)”.

    Thanks for that Nick old boy, things are a lot clearer now.

  2. Fiona says

    September 21, 2018 at 7:58 pm

    URGENT…. PLEASE, please complete the LAW COMMISSIONS SURVEY ON LEASE ENFRANCHISEMENT before the 20th November 18.

    Thank you.

  3. Fiona says

    September 21, 2018 at 8:00 pm

    URGENT…. URGENT….URGENT…
    PLEASE, please complete the LAW COMMISSIONS SURVEY ON LEASE ENFRANCHISEMENT before the 20th November 18.

    Thank you.

  4. ollie says

    September 23, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    Yes, lets all agree on the following terms and keep it very simple ::

    For statutory 90 years lease extension , the cost shall be 10 x annual ground rent in 1st year of lease.

    For enfranchisement of block of flats, the cost per flat shall be 10 x annual ground rent in 1st year of lease.

    For enfranchisement of leasehold house, the cost of freehold shall be 10 x annual ground rent in 1st year of lease .

    The reason why I say annual ground rent in 1st year of lease is because so many freeholds were sold off by developers without prior offer of RFR to leaseholders.

    If any freehold companies suffer financial loss , they can claim against the original developer which sold off the freehold title.

  5. stephen says

    September 24, 2018 at 10:52 am

    This proposal is so simplistic; the danger is that the Law Commission will probably not give it any serious thought and an opportunity will have been lost.

    The Law Commission have made it patently clear in the supporting documentation issued that they need to have regard to the human rights of the freeholder. The publication by the law commission gave three summarises: one for leaseholders of houses, one for leaseholders of flats and a third for freeholders. It then published a fourth summary of the human rights issues it needs to consider.

    Therefore any formula will need to consider the loss of ground rent , its review pattern and of course the value of the reversion. Marriage value may be more debateable

    • Simon says

      September 24, 2018 at 2:26 pm

      Stephen, the freeholder has had a stream of ground rents from the building since it’s creation, in many cases doing nothing for this income. They probably also got a healthy profit when the flats were sold in the first place. So in that situation, how has the freeholder suffered in human rights terms, other than losing the ability to keep going back to the well by charging for lease extensions, or increasing ground rents ? If an investor owns the freehold and purchased it from say Persimmon expecting a tidy income, then as you know with any investment, values can fall as well as rise depending on circumstances. I would make a lease extension also an option to buy a share of the freehold, if that is what the leaseholder desires. Eventually the freeholder would lose their majority interest, leaseholders would be commonholders and be able to exercise other rights like Right to Manage more easily. Over time in this way Leasehold would die off in England and Wales.
      I read part way through the Law Commission latest report, 500+ pages. There is a danger that the rotting, complex edifice that is leasehold now is replaced with something that is also too complicated, and continues to be a feast for solicitors and surveyors. 10 to max 20 times annual ground, or 1% of the property value for 100 year lease extension, or share of the freehold. Take all the nonsense like marriage value out of it !

      • stephen says

        September 24, 2018 at 4:06 pm

        The lease is very clear that the ground rent is for nothing. It is viewed as a burden on the property and results in the freeholder getting less for the property, He would get more on the sale of the lease if it was a peppercorn and 999 years. Therefore the imposition of a ground rent and offering a less than 999 years is a form of deferred consideration. Therefore if it is to be removed it should be valued properly

        We have had 25 years of legal arguments over capitalisation rates, deferment rates and marriage value. It should now be possible to draw the threads together from the thousands of published case. For flats and houses which fall within certain perimeters (i.e. the vast majority) a formula should be capable of being devised with the capitalisation rate, deferment rate and relativity being prescribed with a calculator being available on line to calculate the figure

        • Simon says

          September 24, 2018 at 5:39 pm

          No, ground rent is often used just to show it is a leasehold as opposed to freehold property, a legacy issue from the Middle Ages. I disagree that our freeholder would have got more selling the flats under a commonhold regime in 1997 (even though commonhold did not exist then) when the building was developed compared to the 125 year leases then offered. However the story is very different today because resale prices for the flats have plummeted, despite over 100 years left on the lease. People are more aware of leasehold and put off by it, and mortgage lenders much more cautious now with a leasehold as opposed to freehold.

What is LKP?

The All Party Parliamentary Group for leasehold and commonhold reform ceases with the dissolution of Parliament. But we will be back after the election …

Sebastian O’Kelly
Martin Boyd
sok@leaseholdknowledge.com
martin.boyd@leaseholdknowledge.com

Please use the HELP FORM for ALL non-urgent matters.

Only call the numbers below if you are familiar with the LKP website and feel your issue can only be dealt with on the phone.

020 8050 2602
07808 328 230

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, a registered charity and the secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold reform, is explained here

Managing agents can apply to become an accredited managing agent here




LKPnewsletter3

Find everything here …

The reason why

OFT price-fixing cheat Glyn Jackson is back working at Peverel sites

More reasons "why" ...

Tweets by @LKPleasehold

Press

Pinsent Masons believes ban on ‘almost all’ new leasehold houses to have retrospective effect

Full Press archive

MPs don’t like what they see …

Questions for MPs to ask Taylor Wimpey and Long Harbour today …

Developers like Taylor Wimpey and ground rent investors such as Long Harbour (Adriatic Land, Abacus Land, HomeGround) appear before the Select Committee today. Taylor Wimpey is fielding a relatively junior employee, with courageous CEO Pete Redfern staying well clear. Here are a couple of questions: Taylor Wimpey Ground Rent Review Scheme has £130 million set […]

Questions from APPG attendees: Ground rent sale prices have risen tenfold since 2007

A number of key figures in leasehold were in the audience of the All Party Parliamentary Group and several asked questions. Ground rent sale prices have risen ten-fold since 2007 David Thomas, CEO of Barratt Developments In the North East and in the North West houses have traditionally been sold leasehold whether on the second […]

More Posts from this Category

Ground rent scandals

Housebuilders ‘pimp their profits’ by selling freeholds, says Financial Times columnist

Another page on leasehold in the Financial Times last Saturday, and it is not good reading for the developers, freehold investors and leasehold sector hangers-on. It can be read here  Merryn Somerset Webb, the newspapers investment columnist, looks at this form of tenure and blows loud raspberry. It is the kind of article that the […]

Who are Dublin-based Boardwalk Finance DAC and Jetty Finance DAC? Why do they own freeholds to people’s homes? And why are they based abroad?

Who are Dublin-based Boardwalk Finance DAC and Jetty Finance DAC? Why do they own freeholds to people’s homes? And why are they based abroad? Boardwalk Finance DAC and Jetty Finance DAC, which share the same offices in Dublin, emerge as large scale owners of UK residential freeholds, according to the Guardian today. Jetty Finance DAC […]

Retirement housebuilders and speculators plead to be allowed ground rents in the Evening Standard

As government – and the Law Commission – reel from a barrage of special pleading by housebuilders over the government’s proposals to set ground rents as low as zero, their lobbying efforts were considered in London’s Evening Standard yesterday. It featured contributions from the soon-to-be-let-go CEO of McCarthy and Stone Clive Fenton and Spencer McCarthy, […]

More Posts from this Category

Grenfell cladding

20,000 leaseholders trapped in blocks with Grenfell cladding, says Telegraph

The Grenfell cladding disaster for private flat owners got another airing last Saturday, this time in the Daily Telegraph. It claims that 143 private blocks have failed the governments fire safety tests involving 20,000 leaseholders. “The Government has said that the building’s owners have a “moral responsibility” to ensure that the bill does not fall […]

Slough Council v Benji the Binman over Grenfell cladding costs at Nova House

Slough Council – which made the unaccountable decision to buy the freehold of Grenfell cladding site Nova House for £1 – was in tribunal earlier last week against a formidable opponent, Benjamin Pell, better know to journalists as Benji the Binman. Mr Pell, who came to national attention after raiding the dustbins of London’s leading […]

More Posts from this Category

When leaseholders unite …

Legal army to stop West India Quay getting … a recognised residents’ association

Giving recognition to a residents’ association at the most exclusive apartment block in Canary Wharf posed the sort of “risks that you see with the trade unions”, the First-Tier Tribunal was told last Thursday. The remark was made by the freeholder’s professional witness, chartered surveyor Bruce Maunder Taylor – and was greeted with guffaws of […]

More Posts from this Category

Disgraceful …

Martin Paine ‘is a crook who is turning sleaze in leases into an art form’, MPs told

Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative, Worthing West) named the leasehold-gameplayer Martin Paine as a “crook” in the Commons yesterday. “We should not have to rely on the chance action of a campaigning charity such as LKP [the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership] or  the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation—or a passing Member of Parliament, to get things put […]

More Posts from this Category

RSS Latest news from Better Retirement Housing

  • The Times says families ‘lost £3 billion’ on resales of leasehold retirement flats, while developers and freehold speculators made millions
  • Churchill Retirement donates £150,000 to Conservatives. To retain ground rents, by any chance?
  • Guardian reports dismal retirement flat re-sale prices, as seller ponders £28,000 offer
  • Your Housing Group shared equity retirement flat that sold for £38,000 on ITV
  • Elderly Accommodation Counsel says ‘recent retirement flat resales have increased in value’

LKP Managing Agents

Herts

Essex

London and South East

Tyne and Wear

Colchester

Swindon

Manchester

 

JFMManagement

London

Town&City

Nationwide

UrangFulham

RedRock

Essex / Middlesex

NRMlogoNorwich

 

Nationwide

Diamond

Epsom, Surrey

BlockManagers

Essex

jonesassociates

Macclesfield

DIrection

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Find Everything

Essential reads …

  • Ground rent scandal
  • Parliament
  • MPs’ APPG on leasehold
  • Benjamin Mire
  • Moskovitz / Gurvits
  • Oakland Court
  • McCarthy and Stone
  • Persimmon
  • Recognised Tenants’ Association
  • Cladding crisis
  • Canary Riverside
  • John Christodoulou
  • Peverel
  • Peverel Cirrus story so far
  • Charter Quay
  • Forfeiture
  • Plantation Wharf
  • Law Commission
  • Plantation Wharf
  • West India Quay
  • LEASE: what’s the point?
  • Tchenguiz
  • Sean Powell
  • Press
  • Exit fees
  • William Waldorf Astor
  • Martin Paine
  • LKP anthem
  • LVT/Property Chamber Survival
  • Most damning LVT ruling ever made
  • Pensioners win £68,500
  • Park Homes
  • Redrow
  • Retirement

Copyright © 2019 Leasehold Knowledge Partnership