Leasehold reform in England and Wales: What’s happening and when?

Hannah Cromarty

Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act (LFRA) 2024 received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024. The remaining parliamentary stages of the bill were fast-tracked in the wash-up period before the 2024 general election.

The act applies to England and Wales. It implements commitments in the Conservative government’s 2017 housing white paper to “improve consumer choice and fairness in leasehold”. It also takes forward many of the leasehold reform recommendations made by the Law Commission in its reports of 2020.

The LFRA 2024 will strengthen leaseholders’ rights. It will:

make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders in houses and flats to extend their lease or buy their freehold, including by removing the requirement to pay marriage value.
increase the standard lease extension term to 990 years, with ground rent reduced to a peppercorn (zero financial value), upon payment of a premium.
change the qualifying criteria to give more leaseholders the right to extend their lease, buy their freehold and take over management of their building.
ban the granting of new leasehold houses (with some exceptions).
improve the transparency of:
- service charges and give leaseholders a new right to request information about service charges and the management of their building.
- administration charges and buildings insurance commissions.
remove the presumption that leaseholders pay their landlord’s legal costs when challenging poor practice and give them a new right to apply to claim their legal costs from their landlord.
extend access to redress schemes for leaseholders where the freeholder manages the property directly.
ensure that relevant property sales information is provided to leaseholders in a timely manner.

The act will also strengthen the rights of homeowners on private and mixed-tenure estates. The Library briefing on freehold estate management provides further information about these measures.

The explanatory notes to the LFRA 2024 provide further information on its provisions.

The act follows on from the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, which put an end to ground rents for most new residential leasehold properties in England and Wales.

When will leaseholders benefit?

Although the LFRA 2024 has received Royal Assent, the majority of the provisions are not yet in force. Many require further consultation on the details and secondary legislation to be commenced.

To date the government has:

laid regulations to permit leaseholders to extend their lease or buy their freehold without having to wait for two years after purchasing their property. The regulations came into force on 31 January 2025.

laid regulations to implement the act’s right to manage (RTM) provisions. This includes changing the qualifying criteria to give more leaseholders the RTM and removing the requirement for leaseholders to cover the freeholder’s legal fees when making an RTM claim. The regulations came into force on 3 March 2025.

consulted on proposals to prevent freeholders, property managing agents and landlords from imposing opaque and excessive charges related to building insurance, often in the form of commissions.

consulted on measures to strengthen leaseholder protections over charges and services. The government’s response, published on 15 July 2026, confirmed the government will:

implement measures to drive up the transparency of service charges, including standardised service charge demand forms, an annual report and enhanced leaseholder rights to obtain information on request.
reform the litigation costs regime to address the imbalance between leaseholders and landlords.
introduce a transparent and fair permitted building insurance payment.

Secondary legislation will be laid in Parliament in 2026, with the reforms being implemented as soon as possible from 2027.

The LFRA 2024 sets a standard method for calculating the cost of a statutory lease extension or freehold acquisition. Marriage value will no longer form part of the calculations. The act also provides new powers for the Secretary of State to prescribe the deferment and capitalisation rates to be used in the calculations. The government is consulting on the applicable rates. The consultation closes on 23 September 2026. The rates will then need to be set out in secondary legislation.

The rates consultation was initially delayed due to legal challenges from groups of freeholders. The High Court dismissed the legal challenges on 24 October 2025. The Court of Appeal has subsequently given permission to five groups of freeholders to appeal the decision. The Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook, said the government will defend any appeals “tenaciously”.

There are also a number of technical flaws in the LFRA 2024 that will need to be rectified before the act’s provisions on purchasing a freehold or extending a lease can be implemented. The government intends to make these changes through the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill (see below).

The government’s Leasehold toolkit – England provides more detailed information about the government’s implementation plans.

The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) has published information for leaseholders who are considering extending their lease: Should I wait or extend my lease now? The government has also published a Plain English explainer: Extending your lease or buying your freehold?

Regulation of property managing agents

The government also intends to strengthen the regulation of property managing agents. As a first step, it has consulted on proposals to introduce mandatory professional qualifications for managing agents in England. The consultation also sought views on whether a similar approach should be taken in Wales. The consultation closed on 26 September 2025 and the government will respond in due course.

The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill

The Labour Party manifesto 2024 (PDF) committed to “bring the feudal leasehold system to an end”. To this end, the King’s Speech 2026 announced that the government will bring forward a Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill in the 2026-27 parliamentary session.

The bill, which would apply to England and Wales, would:

create a new legal framework for the commonhold tenure. Commonhold was introduced through the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 as a way of enabling the freehold ownership of flats and avoiding the shortcomings of leasehold ownership. However, it has failed to be used as a widespread form of homeownership. In 2020, the Law Commission published a report on reinvigorating commonhold. The government published a commonhold white paper on 3 March 2025, setting out its proposals for reforming commonhold.

ban the use of leasehold for most new flats to make commonhold the default tenure. The government has consulted on its proposals, including the scope and timing of the ban and any exemptions. The consultation closed on 24 April 2026 and the government is analysing the feedback.

cap ground rents at £250 a year, falling to a peppercorn after 40 years, with the cap likely to come into force in late 2028, subject to parliamentary approval. The government is consulting on whether ‘quid pro quo’ leases should be exempt from the proposed cap. The consultation closes on 27 August 2026.

abolish the threat of forfeiture, replacing it with a fairer and more proportionate lease enforcement scheme.

repeal the disproportionate enforcement powers (under the Law of Property Act 1925) that apply to estate rentcharges on private freehold estates and require rentcharge owners to provide notice before commencement of enforcement action for estate rentcharge arrears.

create a new right for leaseholders in flats to request improvements, such as a gigabit capable broadband connection. The government has consulted on legislative proposals to address broadband rollout in leasehold flats. The consultation closed on 16 February 2026 and the government is analysing the feedback.

A draft version of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, which was published on 27 January 2026, has been subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Select Committee. The committee’s pre-legislative scrutiny report, published on 27 May 2026, found that the government’s draft bill is a significant step towards giving leaseholders greater control of their buildings, but concluded that the government “must go further and faster” on commonhold and leasehold reform.

In particular, the committee recommended that the government should:

introduce the final bill in autumn 2026.

commence the £250 ground rent cap in late 2027 and consider whether ground rents should fall to a peppercorn within a shorter transitional period, such as 20 years.

create an independent regulator for property management agents, with powers to sanction rogue agents.

make technical changes to the bill to ensure commonhold works as intended, including by making conversion to commonhold the default outcome of a collective enfranchisement.

enact the remaining Law Commission recommendations on leasehold enfranchisement and the right to manage.

The government will consider the committee’s report before introducing the final version of the bill to Parliament. With regards to timing, the Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook, said (pdf): “it is my sincere hope that it [the government’s response to the committee report] will be provided soon after the House returns from the summer recess with a substantive Bill introduced to Parliament soon after.”

Right to manage

In 2020, the Law Commission published its report on the right to manage (RTM) with recommendations to make the RTM procedure simpler, quicker and more flexible. As noted above, the LFRA 2024 implements some of the Law Commission’s recommendations. The government has committed to implement the remaining Law Commission recommendations in this parliament. This will require primary legislation.

Leasehold reform in Wales

The legislation governing leasehold ownership currently applies in England and Wales but there are some differences in notices and other document requirements.

The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 applies to long residential leaseholds in Wales. The Welsh Government has published guidance for leaseholders, landlords and agents.

The majority of the provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 apply to Wales. The Welsh Government will introduce subordinate legislation to implement the act.

The then Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government, Jayne Bryant, provided an update on leasehold reform to the Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament on 7 March 2025 and a statement on the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill on 30 January 2026. The Welsh government continues to work closely with the UK Government on leasehold reform.