Leasehold ban in England and Wales unlikely before next general election, minister says

A ban on new leasehold properties in England and Wales is unlikely to come into force until after the next election, the housing minister has said, as he defended the government’s piecemeal attempts to dismantle the system. The long-promised end would take years to “switch on”, Matthew Pennycook said, even though the ban of leaseholds on new houses was passed in 2024 and the government intends to pass one on new flats soon. Pennycook was giving a speech defending the government’s approach to bringing a de facto end to the feudal-era system after years of complaints from leaseholders about crippling service charges and crumbling buildings. He said the process needed to be rolled out slowly to avoid undermining housing supply and falling into legal pitfalls. “I think it’s highly likely that we don’t switch on the ban in this parliament,” he told reporters afterwards. “It’s really complex, and so what we really want to do on all of these fronts is have all the primary legislation that we need to end leasehold in place … but switching on the ban involves some really quite complex trade-offs with housing supply.” Referring to the government consultation on the issue, he added: “What we’re trying to get through this consultation is: what’s the commencement date where we’ve got everyone lined up in a way that the transition is going to be really smooth? …