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Tory MPs are threatening to rebel over the government’s new housing proposals.
In a letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, more than 30 Tory MPs have stated their dissatisfaction with the current leasehold system and implores the government to scrap ground rent on leasehold properties.
Currently, there is no cap on the amount freeholders can charge existing leaseholders for “ground rent”. That’s the money to literally have property on the ground that their freeholders own.
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Housing Secretary Michael Gove previously called that “a charge for nothing” and has stated a personal preference to move towards a “peppercorn” system, where ground rent is as close to zero as possible.
Multiple Tory MPs who have signed the letter are also in favour of this proposal – citing that promise made in the Tory 2019 manifesto.
They wrote: “It’s time to finish what Margaret Thatcher started and implement peppercorn ground rents and other much needed reforms to leasehold.”
They also state that many of their constituents are stretched with the cost of living and that MPs have seen the “human misery and financial stress” the “feudal” system of leaseholding supports.
The letter says the reforms to leaseholds they want to see are crucial to upholding Tory aspirations of creating a “property owning democracy”.
The housing secretary has previously described leasehold as a “feudal system” and there have been repeated promises by former government ministers to scrap the system altogether.
Exclusive polling seen by Sky News shows that scrapping leaseholds is a popular policy.
Among UK voters, the majority want to see them gone altogether, and for Tory voters the number is higher at 65%. Despite pension funds reportedly facing losing the most from reforming the policy, the strongest support for scrapping leaseholds was with voters over 65 years of age.
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