King William The Conqueror: No Smiles As Plans To Rewrite His Property Law Come Unstuck

It was never going to be easy to undo a thousand years of history by abolishing the unique leasehold property system in England and Wales. Nobody expected to erase as many as 10 million leasehold contracts in one go.

Now it seems the plan, which would have a major impact on apartment development, has been kicked into the long grass after opposition from backbench Conservative members of parliament.

Leasehold's roots lie in the feudal property system introduced by William the Conqueror after his invasion in 1066, and was left largely untouched by the abolition of most feudal property rights in the 1920s. 

Opposition to the plan from Downing Street is thought to have been decisive, amid concerns such a root-and-branch reform would take too much time and political capital, the Guardian reported.

Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove pledged to abolish leasehold earlier this year, but opposition from landlords appears to have scuppered attempts to include the plan in new legislation and to promote commonhold alternatives instead.

The legislation, which would also stop no-fault tenant evictions, has been criticised by politicians on the right for adopting policies long campaigned for by the political left.

The complaint is that reforming leasehold, which currently covers 1 in 4 homes, most of them flats or apartments, will stymie plans to build more houses.

The Renters Reform Bill had been expected to make its first parliamentary outing this week.

Leasehold is in stark contrast to the U.S. condominium system, or commonhold tenures. 

Leasehold allows landlords to grant the right to occupy property for a fixed period, which may be hundreds of years, but leaseholders do not own the bricks and mortar. Yet leasehold protects the landlord from responsibility for the building, and most of the costs of upkeep are transferred to the leaseholder.

Leaseholders must also insure the building, but have little control over the cost of insurance. Last year legislation was passed outlawing new ground rents, an annual fee that existing leaseholders continued to pay freeholders.

New legislation is nonetheless expected to introduce changes, including a ceiling on existing ground rents and improved powers for leaseholders to choose insurers. Freeholders would have their rights to pass on costs to leaseholders curtailed.