Leasehold Reform News: Matthew Pennycook’s appearance at the Select Committee sessions and the latest on the Human Rights Act Challenges
In the fourth and final session of the Housing Committee’s pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill (the ‘CLRB’), it was the turn of Matthew Pennycook MP, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, to be questioned by the Select Committee’s members.
The Housing Minister has been under pressure from both sides of the leasehold debate recently. Leasehold campaigners have been bemoaning how long the legislative process has been taking, whilst freeholders have highlighted the possible issues around the announced changes, most notably on ground rents.
During his 90 minute session in front of the Committee, Mr Pennycook continued to be grilled by the members around issues such the plan to drop ground rents to a peppercorn in 40 years’ time, why the ground rent cap has been set at £250 and the reasons as to why not all of the Law Commission’s recommendations have been included in the draft Bill.
The consultation on rates
In answering the questions, Mr Pennycook made a number of important clarifications. He confirmed that the consultation on valuation rates on enfranchisement premiums would be published ‘in the coming months’. He was at pains to point out, however, that the delay to the consultation was not the reason for the delay in switching on the enfranchisement provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (the ‘2024 Act’), but rather it was due to flaws in the 2024 Act that would need to be fixed through primary legislation. Although, he did not elaborate upon the details of those flaws and the fixes.
Other factors – the existing Human Rights Act challenges
In addition, although not expressly touched upon by Mr Pennycook, the Government must also be aware of the risk of pressing ahead with the 2024 Act whilst the Human Rights Act challenges are still ongoing.
In other news, we heard that last week (perhaps unsurprisingly) that the Court of Appeal had granted leave to appeal following the decision of the High Court in October of last year dismissing the challenges by six large freeholders. This means that the position as to the 2024 Act is likely to remain uncertain until this case is resolved.
Big news – we can expect a further leasehold reform bill
The biggest news from Mr Pennycook’s evidence to the Select Committee was the confirmation that the Government aims to enact the remainder of the Law Commission’s recommendations on leasehold enfranchisement and the Right to Manage during this parliament. In essence, this means that we can expect another bill on leasehold reform, and the Minister made it clear that it was always going to need more than a single piece of legislation to carry forward the government’s ambitions in this space.
Given that the Law Commission made 102 recommendations, legislation seeking to bring about the more detailed reforms to the system overall (including qualification) and harmonising the process between flats and houses will be a big undertaking. We should therefore expect that any draft legislation will be quite considerable. This forms part of the Government’s wider ambition to bring the current leasehold system to an end. Mr Pennycook was clear that the current draft CLRB would not be the last word on leasehold reform before the next general election.
Future legal challenges
The Housing Minister was firmly pressed on the Government’s approach to potential future legal challenges – aside to the 2024 challenges on Human Rights grounds mentioned above. There is a separate risk that the ground rent provisions including the proposed ban may also be subject to a challenge on Human Rights Act grounds.
Mr Pennycook pulled no punches and stated he would robustly defend any appeals to the High Court decision, and that he fully expects further legal challenges to come, which will also be robustly contested. While he acknowledged that any legal action could cause delays, he reiterated that the Government wants the reforms in place as quickly as possible, and that the choices that had been made on ground rents are deliverable and defensible.
So where are we now?
The session was certainly lively, and the Minister and his officials were given a good grilling by the members. Throughout, Mr Pennycook confirmed that the Government remains firmly committed to honouring ‘each and every one’ of the commitments that was made in its manifesto, and he was forthright in his objective to defend the legislation from any legal challenges.
So where does that leave leaseholders now? On the one hand, they will be pleased that the Government plans to press ahead. On the other hand, the timelines for the 2024 Act remain uncertain.
For freeholders, the ground rent reforms clearly cap the value of their interests, and they will be waiting to see how the draft CLRB takes shape as it makes its way through parliament, no doubt keeping their powder dry for a future challenge.
We know that the Government is committed to pursuing reform, and that, in context of the wider changes to property law in England and Wales, the introduction of commonhold represents a significant shift comparable in scale to the introduction of the Law of Property Act 1925.
As Mr Pennycook himself noted, the changes brought about by the 1925 legislation took around 84 years to bring to fruition. The progress of the 2024 Act and the CLRB’s proposed reforms to the residential leasehold system are major changes; these include the proposed banning the sale of new leasehold flats and the re-introduction of commonhold.
With that in mind, perhaps we should not be surprised that all of this will take some time, although we might hope, for the benefit of all property owners, that the process will not take as much time as the major changes of the last century.
Mark Chick
13 April 2026
Mark Chick is the Joint Head of our expert Landlord & Tenant team.
If you have a query concerning leasehold property, then please contact the experts at Bishop & Sewell’s Landlord & Tenant team by emailing leasehold@bishopandsewell.co.uk or call on 020 7631 4141.
The above is accurate as at 13 April 2026.
The information above may be subject to change. The content of this note should not be considered legal advice and each matter should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
