95% of Britons want to own a home. While Right to Buy is a policy of the 1980s, the ambition of empowering tenants to own their own home is still a noble one. The security, dignity and control that comes from owning a home is irresistible and the political party that delivers a revolution in homeownership will create a hegemonic bloc of voters for years to come.

Invoking Right to Buy may seem like an odd choice in 2024. Ending leasehold is a pro-homeownership, pro-prosperity and pro-democracy agenda. It lets the little people take back control of their homes, money and lives. Done properly, including a mass shift to commonhold, would be a Right to Buy 2.0 for over five million households.

Sadly, leaseholders aren’t as well organised or financed as the freeholder lobby who are coercing and gaslighting politicians to shape law reform to benefit their rent-seeking and vice-like grip on leaseholders’ bank accounts. We are up against a multi-billion pound industry that has succeeded every time in nobbling leasehold reform legislation to keep the gravy train on the tracks.

While commonhold – which was championed by Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair – is out of scope of this government’s legislation, it is our ultimate aim for the next Parliament. For Leasehold and Freehold Reform, our focus is on achieving:

• Abolition of forfeiture, a mediaeval tool used by extortionists to take money from hapless leaseholders under threat of them losing their home and all equity inside it.
• Share of freehold on all new leasehold flats so residents have control of their buildings and service charges from day one, which will also heap pressure on an incoming government to prioritise liberation of existing leaseholders.
• To unleash the forces of competition on block management and hand rightful control to paying leaseholders, Ministers must slash red tape governing Right to Manage and collective enfranchisement.

Free Leaseholders is a 100% grassroots campaign led by a network of volunteers who care about fair play, popular capitalism and the UK housing crisis. Donate today if you believe in real homeownership and want to see an underdog campaign achieve a political upset.

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