Starmer is set to “side with Angela Rayner” and freeze ground rent for leaseholders. Sky News’ Sam Coates reports that Starmer will make a decision today after the government briefed the same would happen last week…
To freeze ground rents at current levels could end up even worse than a £250 cap (another of the halfway house options) – some leaseholders paying above that level will be unable to remortgage or sell their properties. Matthew Pennycook – now housing minister – said before the election:
“As I have previously made clear, I personally share the Secretary of State’s preference to cap ground rent at a peppercorn… Labour is clear that the Government must act to protect leaseholders from ground rent exploitation, and that, as I said in Committee, they should be courageous in determining which of the consultation proposals should be enacted.”
Labour figures of all kinds backed the push for peppercorn rent (zero money value) prior to the election. The Treasury and Attorney General Richard Hermer have been pushing back over concerns regarding pension funds and the ECHR. Government figures are saying they expect to be sued if they go for full-bodied reform…
The Tory plan broadly coalesced around an immediate £250 cap with a reduction to peppercorn levels after 20 years or so. There will be disappointment among campaigners on this issue if Starmer falls short of full reform…
After being blocked from standing at the Gorton and Denton by-election, Andy Burnham said at the Centre for Social Justice:
“I’m very much focussing on my job. I’ve said everything I think I’m going to say about that.”