Bringing forward the proposed £250 cap on ground rent would deliver more benefit to home owners than the government’s plans to tackle the cost of living with plug-in solar panels, according to a national campaign group.
The National Leasehold Campaign (NLC), which represents more than 35,000 leaseholders across England and Wales, has written to the prime minister urging him to bring forward the “promised” £250 cap on ground rents which it says would be of more “immediate and guaranteed” benefit to leaseholders than other cost of living initiatives.
In an open letter to Andy Burnham, the NLC calls for swifter action on capping ground rents. It also urges the PM to reduce the current 40 year proposed period for the elimination of ground rents, accelerate wider leasehold reform, extend the plug-in solar reforms so that leaseholders are not excluded from the opportunity to save on energy bills, and prevent freeholders from using such initiatives as an opportunity to “impose permission fees, administration charges or additional service charge costs”.
Ground rent provides “no service, no maintenance, no repairs and no benefit to homeowners. It is a payment extracted solely because of an outdated legal framework that successive governments have promised to reform”, the NLC writes.
“An immediate cap on existing ground rents would provide direct financial relief to hundreds of thousands of households during a cost-of-living crisis. More importantly, it would send a clear signal that your Government is prepared to act decisively for existing leaseholders rather than asking them to wait once again for promised reform.
“After more than a decade of commitments from successive governments, leaseholders are increasingly concerned that reform is becoming a process of perpetual delay. Every consultation, review, working group and legislative timetable has one thing in common: leaseholders continue paying while they wait.”
In a statement accompanying the letter, the three co-founders of the NLC highlighted multiple issues leaseholders have with the plug-in solar initiative.
Katie Kendrick OBE said: “The prime minister has rightly recognised that leasehold is a cost-of-living crisis. The next step is delivering relief. The government is promoting potential savings from plug-in solar, but many leaseholders are still paying ground rents that ministers have already accepted have no place in modern Britain.
“For many households, an immediate £250 ground rent cap would save more than the annual savings currently being highlighted through plug-in solar. The difference is that those savings would be certain, direct and felt from the moment the policy takes effect.”
Co-founder Cath Williams pointed out that many leaseholders do not own the infrastructure where solar equipment may need to be fitted.
She said: “Ministers are advertising potential savings, but many leaseholders first have to navigate a maze of freeholder permissions, managing agents and potential fees before they can even find out whether the scheme is available to them.”
Jo Darbyshire OBE added: “Leaseholders are facing a cost-of-living crisis within a cost-of-living crisis. Alongside rising household bills, many are struggling with escalating service charges, insurance costs, administration fees and ground rents.
“The government has an opportunity to show that leaseholders have not been forgotten. Accelerating the ground rent cap would be one of the clearest and fastest ways to provide instant financial relief”
Kendrick concluded: “The government has already accepted these charges are unfair and promised a cap. If the prime minister is serious about tackling the cost-of-living crisis, he should end money-for-nothing ground rents once and for all. Leaseholders have waited long enough.”
