Support for Commonhold

Andrew Boff AM moved and Lord Bailey of Paddington AM seconded the following motion: 

“The Assembly notes that London has the highest proportion of leaseholders in the country. In 2022/23, 36% of London’s homes were leasehold, more than double the proportion in the rest of England. 62% of London’s flats are leasehold, comprising just over 1.3 million. London leaseholders typically pay higher service charges, with the median annual service charge £1,450 in 2022/23, compared with £1,222 across England. In 2023, 20% of London leaseholders paid more than £4,000 per year in service charges.

The Assembly notes that commonhold offers a better alternative to leasehold, with each unit-holder owning the freehold of their home, along with a share of the commonhold association which owns and manages the common parts of the property. Similar forms of flat ownership are used around the world, with England being one of the only countries still to use the leasehold system.

The Assembly also notes that the Mayor’s 2021 and 2024 election manifestos both gave strong support for commonhold as an alternative to leasehold, with the Mayor pledging in 2021 to “pilot a commonhold scheme to show how this form of ownership can become the new national standard for new flats” and in 2024 to “continue to campaign for an end to the feudal leasehold system and its replacement with commonhold”.

The Assembly resolves to strongly support the development of commonhold as an alternative tenure to leasehold, and calls on the Mayor to lobby the Government to legislate for this as soon as possible. 

The Assembly also calls on the Mayor to introduce a pilot commonhold project on Greater London Authority (GLA) Group land, to ensure that new flats developed for sale on GLA Group land are either commonhold or freehold, and to use GLA housing funds to promote commonhold or freehold schemes where possible, rather than leasehold.”

Following debate and upon being put to the vote, the motion was agreed unanimously.