{"id":383485,"date":"2026-01-22T04:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T04:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/383485\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T04:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T04:02:09","slug":"keir-starmer-warned-of-labour-rebellion-if-leasehold-reforms-watered-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/383485\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer warned of Labour rebellion if leasehold reforms watered down"},"content":{"rendered":"

It comes after former Housing Secretary Angela Rayner urged the government to stick to its manifesto pledge and cap ground rents, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ministers had promised a draft bill would be published before the end of the year, aimed at reforming the leasehold system in England and Wales and moving towards abolishing it. <\/p>\n

However this was delayed, with the issue of ground rents believed to be behind the hold up.<\/p>\n

There are around five million leasehold homes, where people own the right to occupy the property via a lease for a certain number of years from a freeholder.<\/p>\n

Ground rents – which can often be hundreds of pounds a year – were abolished for most new residential leasehold properties in England and Wales in 2022 but they remain for existing leasehold homes.<\/p>\n

It is common for a lease to include a clause that the ground rent increases by a certain percentage or RPI inflation at fixed intervals, which can make it difficult to sell or get a mortgage for a property.<\/p>\n

In 2024, when Labour was in opposition, the current Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said his preference was for ground rents to be capped at a peppercorn rate – meaning a nominal sum such as \u00a31 a year.<\/p>\n

However, campaigners now believe a cap of \u00a3250 a year is more likely.<\/p>\n

Some reports have suggested there are divisions between the Treasury and housing department over the issue, with officials concerned about the impact of a cap on pension funds which own freehold properties.<\/p>\n

Treasury sources acknowledged there were difficulties over where to draw the line over annual charges.<\/p>\n

But they played down the idea of tensions between departments and said ministers were trying to strike the right balance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It comes after former Housing Secretary Angela Rayner urged the government to stick to its manifesto pledge and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-383485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}