Stephen Morgan MP has blasted the government’s ‘decade of decline’ for local homeowners as new analysis reveals 7,262 homes have been sold as leasehold in the local MP’s constituency of Portsmouth South since 2010.
It comes as the Ground Rents Bill has its second reading today in the House of commons, ending ground rents for future leases but offering little for those already trapped in the scandal of spiralling ground rents.
The analysis from the House of Commons Library of Land Registry data shows the scale of the leasehold scandal over the last 10 years. This is when people buy a house, without also owning the freehold, meaning they often face unexpected, unfair costs with no right of challenge or recourse.
Homeowners across the country have been trapped in the feudal leasehold system since 2010, despite the Government promising for years to reform this arcane system. Labour has accused the Conservatives of being the “party of developers”, who use homeowners as cash cows and donate millions to the Tory Party.
New legislation to reduce ground rents to zero will only apply to new homes, meaning all those who have been sold leasehold homes since the Conservatives came to power will continue to be trapped in this feudal system, and developers will continue to make profit off leaseholders’ ground rents for years into the future.
Ground rent is the practice where some house buyers are forced to pay thousands of pounds each year to a company which owns the land their property is on, with usually nothing in return. Leaseholders face escalating ground rent charges attached to the ground on which their property sits. Often, they were unaware of this hidden cost at point of purchase.
The CMA has recently taken enforcement action against four developers Countryside, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon – which it believes may have broken consumer protection law by writing terms into their leases where ground rents double every 10 to 15 years. This has left many leaseholders clobbered by spiralling hidden costs and trapped in unsellable homes.
The Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, said:
“Homeowners in Portsmouth and across the country have been trapped in our feudal leasehold system over the last decade whilst Ministers have turned a blind eye to this injustice.
“The Government has long promised reform, but this Bill is a missed opportunity to help existing leaseholders. Ministers have the wrong priorities, they should be standing up for this group today, not leaving them behind.”
The city MP has also been engaging with local leaseholders who are being forced to pay sky-high fire safety remediation costs for their homes and has urged minsters in parliament to ensure they are not forced to pick up the bill.
