§ Viscount Gormanstonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why, in the ministerial foreword to the consultation paper Residential Leasehold Reform in England and Wales, they state that leasehold "is totally unsuited to the society of the twentieth, let alone the twenty-first century … the Government believes the leasehold system is fundamentally flawed", when in the ensuing text of the consultation paper they propose retaining and supporting residential long leasehold tenure into the foreseeable future. [HL1508]
§ Lord WhittyThe Government are committed to introducing a new form of tenure—commonhold—which will enable flat-owners to own and manage their block collectively from the outset. We will consult separately on our proposals for its introduction in due course.
However, there are over 1 million existing leaseholders of flats in England and Wales. It is not realistic to imagine that all of these would wish to go to the trouble of converting to commonhold, even if a straightforward conversion procedure were devised. For the benefit of those who remain leaseholders, we propose a major overhaul of leasehold law to stamp out abuse and give leaseholders greater control over their own homes.