MPs and campaigners are growing increasingly frustrated with the time taken to bring in leasehold reform, more than four months after an act was passed.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act was one of the only law changes that made it through the ‘wash-up’ in Parliament before the General Election was called in May.

It means a ban on leaseholds for new houses will become law, as well as extending the standard lease term to 990 years. But a controversial cap on ground rent was left out.

Reform quickly

Labour then said in the King’s Speech after the Election it will go further with reform and quickly. This would include giving leaseholders greater rights to extend their lease, buy the freehold, and take over the freeholder’s building management functions.

But ‘secondary legislation’ is required to make any of the measures become actual law, and this is where the hold-up is, with ministers admitting the changes are “highly complex”.

Joe Powell, the Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater, told The Guardian: “There were some useful steps forward in the recent legislation, but it doesn’t go far enough.

“The government should now take steps to get the implementation of that legislation right while simultaneously preparing wider legislation to finally bring the entire system to an end.”

Getting this secondary legislation right is far less glamourous than passing a new act.”

And Linz Darlington, MD of lease extension specialists Homehold, says: “Getting this secondary legislation right is far less glamourous than passing a new act, and arguably it is more complex and more contentious. There are already legal challenges on the horizon.

“While not all leaseholders will benefit from the new act, it is anticipated tens of thousands of people are waiting for it before extending their lease.”