Leasehold has turned the dream of home ownership into a nightmare. It’s time to end it.
We’re a grassroots group of leaseholders fighting for true home ownership. Together, we are raising our voices to take back control of our homes, our money, and our lives.
Leasehold is a long-term tenancy agreement where you pay for the right to occupy the property you live in, but you don’t truly own the flat itself or the bricks and mortar.
When you buy a home, you shouldn’t gain a landlord. But that’s the case for 5.3 million households like ours across England and Wales. We’re subject to ground rent to stay in our homes, crippling service charges, the constant threat of forfeiture if we don’t pay up, and have no control over how our homes are managed.
The leasehold system has turned our dreams of home ownership into a nightmare.
It dates all the way back to 1066 – and it doesn’t exist in most of the world and where it used to, they’ve worked out it’s no longer fit for purpose.
But for decades, governments have been pledging to abolish it but each time they’ve given in to pressure from powerful lobbies that benefit from leasehold.
That’s why leaseholders across the country are coming together - we need to be louder than the vested interests. Together, we can call on politicians to stand their ground and end this broken system once and for all.
WHY?
WE ARE CALLING:
For leaseholders to be freed from the threat of forfeiture and crippling costs
For every leaseholder to have control over how their homes are managed
For commonhold, which is true home ownership, for the 5.3 million households trapped in leasehold
OPEN LETTER
Sign the open letter calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to end leasehold for good and deliver commonhold for the many, not just the new.
COMMONHOLD FOR THE MANY, NOT JUST THE NEW
Dear Keir Starmer,
Millions of leaseholders across England and Wales lent Labour their votes at the last election because your party’s manifesto pledged to end the leasehold system.
In your first King’s Speech, you promised that you would act “quickly” on leasehold and the 5.3 million leasehold households expect you to deliver.
We welcome your government’s push to reinvigorate commonhold, but there is dismay among existing leaseholders that we may be left behind while future buyers benefit – and will have to wait at least four more years for commonhold.
Meanwhile, Big Freeholders are trying to thwart the will of the people. They’re suing your government and will no doubt take their judicial review trolling all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
You must not cave to this campaign of intimidation by rich vested interests.
By requiring commonhold for new properties only, you create a two-tier housing market: one where legacy leaseholders are denied freedom and forced to live under different rules from buyers of new flats, who enjoy outright ownership and democratic rights as commonholders.
This will make it almost impossible for existing leaseholders to sell their homes – and leave them being milked by freeholders and their managing agents.
That’s why we’re calling on you to say no to two-tier, Keir – and deliver commonhold for the many, not just the new.
In 1995, Labour under Tony Blair promised they would deliver “an end to feudalism” by introducing commonhold and, 30 years on, leaseholders are still waiting.
Please don’t be paralysed by Big Freeholders’ lawfare. Leaseholders cannot be forced to wait for Strasbourg. Your government has the second biggest majority in Labour’s 125-year history – use it!
Truly ending leasehold means commonhold for the many, not just the new.
Read the Free Leaseholders privacy policy here