The very experienced Tory MP for North Harrow Bob Blackman – who did such brilliant work on the Communities Select Committee over developers cheating ground rents – reminded MPs that leaseholders were not happy:
“Our manifesto commitment was clear: to promote fairness and transparency for leaseholders, and ensure that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. Clearly, that is a fundamental requirement. The Law Commission’s 2017 review of leasehold law represented it, and it is has taken us six years to get to this point in dealing with some of the abuses. We have to remember that 94% of people who have bought leasehold properties regret buying them and 70% of leaseholders are worried that they will not be able to sell their homes because they are leasehold. That is one fundamental thing we need to answer. We also need this leasehold reform to reform and support the housing market, because almost half of leaseholders are first-time buyers and 28% are under 35. At a time when fewer and fewer people are buying their first home at such an age, it is vital that we not only encourage people to buy their first home, but simplify the system.
He added that “transparency of service charges is vital” as he “well remembered the work of the Select Committee on the subject. “It is welcome to see that the Bill contains measures for minimum key financial and non-financial information to be supplied to those receiving the service on a regular basis, including through a standardised service charge and an annual report. That means leaseholders can scrutinise and better challenge costs if they are unreasonable.”
The same point applied to replacing building insurance commissions for managing agents, landlords and freeholders with transparent administration fees.
“I welcome scrapping the presumption for leaseholders to pay their freeholders’ legal costs, which in my opinion is outrageous.
But the Bill needed to go further:
“The promise to do away with leasehold — or fleecehold — completely was clear in the manifesto; in my view, that promise should be honoured, particularly on the sale of new-build flats. In London, they are now the most common property type; almost all flats are sold on leasehold basis, compared to just 6% of houses.
“Clearly, we all want to see the promotion of commonhold.”
Having criticised both Bellway and Persimmon, Mr Blackman turned to Ballymore, which is refusing to remove cladding from a site unless it is given planning permission to build on top of it.
“When the Secretary of State named certain building companies, he promised that if they refused to carry out the work that they should do, they would not be given planning permission to enable the development of more leasehold flats. I call on him to ensure that they are not given planning permission until such time as they are putting right what they have put wrong.”
https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/049c012d-0c14-4997-bfcb-c4c1a1c1ac69
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Greenhalgh to dump ‘affordable’ cladding bills on leaseholders, which they were promised AGAIN and AGAIN would not happen …
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