© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
These were the concluding words of Jim Fitzpatrick MP at a recent Leasehold Roundtable held at the House of Commons.
Hosted by Sir Peter Bottomley MP and organised by Martin Boyd and Sebastian O’Kelly from the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, the roundtable discussion focussed on failures with archaic leasehold law, progress over the past 18 months and “the promise of success as we get leasehold policy right”. Cross-party Parliamentary support was evident with the event also being supported by Ed Davey MP, Lord Best, Lord Borwick, Brandon Lewis MP, Baroness Maddock, Baroness Warnock, Lord Whitty and Baroness Gardner. The event was also widely supported by leaseholder groups, industry trade associations, managing agents and others working in the sector.
Submissions were made by Darren Eade from the CMA, Ian Fletcher from the British Property Federation and Philip Rainey QC from Tanfield Chambers. Mr Rainey QC, together with input from other members of Tanfield Chambers has produced a detailed and thought provoking paper on Leasehold Reform which will be the subject of a separate article in News on the Block.
The next Leasehold Roundtable will be taking place on 9th July 2015. Meanwhile, Sir Bottomley MP continues to speak up for leasehold in Parliament, most recently during a debate on the Budget where he declared, “I say to the Government that there are some areas where money should not be restricted too much. On housing, we clearly have to improve leasehold, which requires civil servants in the Department for Communities and Local Government to watch what happens. We also need to bring in commonhold properly and make sure that resources are such that managing agents and freeholders do not get away with abusing leaseholders. I am not saying that they all do that, but it happens too often.”