Ending Fleecehold and the Great Property Rip-Of

Submitted by: 22 Party Members.
Mover: Cllr Charlie Clinton.
Summation: Cllr Rachel Bentley.

Conference notes that:

1. Liberal Democrats and Liberals have long called for leasehold reform, since Lloyd George introduced the People’s Budget in 1909.
2. England, Wales and Australia are the only countries still operating leaseholds.
3. A fifth of England’s housing stock is leasehold – 4.8 million properties.
4. The Conservatives’ Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act has failed to deliver meaningful change in the housing sector.
5. Labour’s delayed leasehold reforms will ban new leaseholds while offering no way out for the millions of existing leaseholders.
6. A YouGov survey in 2017 showed 51% of new homeowners reporting major defects.
7. Research in 2022 showed the average new-build home comes with 157 defects, up 96% since 2005, and with 94% reporting at least one defect.
8. The Financial Ombudsman reported in 2024 that complaints about building insurance claims had increased over 10 years to a record high.
9. Despite Government promises to legislate, there are still no proposals to regulate the property management sector.
10. It has been more than eight years since the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower and many high-rise buildings remain without safe cladding.
11. The Building Safety Regulator has been mired in delays in doing its proper work.

Conference believes that:

1. The cladding scandal proves that the leasehold model demonstrably fails to ensure tenant safety.
2. Many existing leaseholders still pay soaring ground rents and need to be freed from them, and from unfair service charges levied by unregulated property agents.
3. A national oversight body is required to ensure implementation of the Grenfell Inquiry Report recommendations.
4. The scandal of developers leaving serious defects unresolved must be urgently confronted.
5. Building Safety Regulator delays must be addressed.
6. Too many rogue developers and unregulated estate management companies force residents to pay over the odds to maintain shared roadways and public spaces within developments.
7. The property management sector should be professionalised and regulated.

Conference reaffirms our commitment to:

1. Abolish leasehold tenures for all properties, including flats.
2. Cap all ground rents on commonhold and commercial leaseholds to a nominal fee.
3. Remove dangerous cladding from all buildings, while ensuring that leaseholders do not have to pay a penny towards it.

Conference resolves to:

1. Regulate the construction industry by:
   1. Establishing rights for homebuyers, to ensure there is no way for developers or building insurers to avoid accountability for rectifying defects.
   2. Strengthening accountability to prevent reckless sign–off by building inspectors.
2. Regulate the property management sector by:
   1. Taking forward recommendations from the independent Lord Best report, including a new property regulator responsible for establishing:
      1. A code of practice for and licensing of property managers and agents.
      2. Minimum qualifications for property agencies, managers and agents.
      3. Standard industry cost codes for leaseholders and freeholders, and the power to block a landlord’s chosen managing agent where the leaseholders have reasonably exercised a veto.
      4. Standardised guidance to improve transparency about what charges cover.
   2. Capping unreasonable service and estate management charges paid by residents and urgently abolishing ground rents for existing residential leases.
   3. Enabling leaseholders to request alternative quotes for maintenance, where the freeholder is a local authority.
   4. Giving residents the power to act in common to take on ownership of management companies and common areas.
   5. Mandating management companies to hold AGMs and respond to residents’ correspondence in a timely way.
3. Strengthen local authorities’ power to:
   1. Adopt shared roadways and public spaces to prevent residents paying for the upkeep of expensive assets through estate management fees, recouping the cost of their completion from the developer or landowner.
   2. Sanction developers who fail to complete roads and other infrastructure.
   3. Enforce private landlords’ and management companies’ obligations to remediate.

Applicability: England.

Mover: 7 minutes; summation of motion and movers and summation of any amendments: 4 minutes; all other speakers: 3 minutes. For eligibility and procedure for speaking in this debate, see pages 6-7 of the agenda. You can submit a speaker's card online here from Monday 15 September up to 14.40 Monday 22 September or in person.

The deadline for amendments to this motion is 13.00 Monday 8 September; you can submit amendments online here, see pages 9–10 of the agenda for more information. Those selected for debate will be printed in Conference Extra and Monday’s Conference Daily. The deadline for requests for separate votes is 09.00 Sunday 21 September; you can request separate votes here, see page 5 of the agenda for more information.