Good to meet @mtpennycook He says @UKLabour “remain committed” to sorting “unregulated and unaffordable ground rent”. However, in the government statement, there was NO pledge to even publish the results of the ground rent consultation we all filled in under the last govt!

Rachel Reeves and the rest of the Treasury blob need to go. Absolute ghouls the lot of them.

@FreeLeasehlders @UKLabour Yes it definitely should be peppercorn. I know that a lot of leaseholders voted Labour (not me) believing they would get this done. It’s another outrageous mess.

@Victoria_Spratt @theipaper If the government gives a toss about inequality, they need to address this. The Treasury needs to back off.

Govt. refusal to back meaningful ground rent cap even after their High Court win. Why @UKLabour (elected to serve on a promise made to MILLIONS of trapped leaseholders) so inclined to bend to vested interests and green light rent seeking? @SteveReedMP @mtpennycook @RachelReevesMP

@Victoria_Spratt @theipaper Well I guess @UKLabour have a choice to make: Cave-in to big money, ignoring their moral compass and USP; OR Keep open the possibility of a second term. They can’t do both.

@FreeLeasehlders @theipaper @UKLabour @mtpennycook @mtpennycook so you lied to get our votes. Now you are in the office you show you are not a man or a party of your words. A vast number of ppl voted based on your manifesto pledge. If you don’t honour it, we will watch in delight Labour go from historic win to historic loss.

We called it! After having just beaten the freeholder lobby in a High Court judicial review, @UKLabour is throwing away the tournament on leasehold abolition by abadoning ground rent reduction. The self-styled government for working people is about to stab them in the back.

Peppercorning ground rents is the stake any govt serious about ending leasehold would drive through its vampiric freeholders to kill off the evil system for good. Yet after pushing peppercorn in opposition, @UKLabour has U-turned in power. Now too weak even to impose a £250 cap!

We are GROUND RENT SLAVES, and this parasitic industry should be driven into the ground! Their business model relies on MILKING us. The High Court just BURIED their lie that this rent affects pension funds! This cash is for the freeholders' "HOLIDAY FUND," NOT the UK economy!

So, why is Treasury trying to derail the reforms Labour promised? The freeholder lobby is powerful - and well-funded... They are making the same argument that they made when the Tories were in power...

The leasehold scandal is a really nasty aspect of the housing crisis, where complex legal contracts, which those who bought impacted homes often didn't understand and weren't advised properly on, have ruined people's lives

But, experts say that failing to cap ground rents at a maximum of £250 a year would make a move to commonhold impossible. Why? Simply, these trapped leaseholders wouldn't be able to afford to change their leases

More than that...Pennycook worked up proposals, which are now draft legislation to move away from the leasehold / freehold system towards a commonhold system like they have in Scotland, Australia, Canada, parts of the US...

In opposition, now-Housing & Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook promised to sort this out! He told Parliament he wanted to “cap ground rents at a peppercorn”, as he urged the then-Conservative government to “act to protect leaseholders from ground rent exploitation”.

This is a problem for Labour because they want to build 1.5 million homes...to do that, they're going to have to go for high-density...and build...flats...

This is because of "onerous" doubling ground rent clauses. It has made homes impossible to sell - particularly affecting new flats - and, as expert housing market analyst Neal Hudson has told me, is one of the reasons why flats are just simply not selling...

What sort of charges are we talking about? On top of mortgages and service charges...leasehold homeowners are often charged ground rents. These can double every ten years...meaning that even a modest flat could eventually incur rent of thousands and thousands....

First, let's go back to the Tories...the Leasehold Reform Act 2022 brought an end to ground rents on new-build leasehold properties. But, Labour had pledged to go further and help people in existing leasehold homes whose charges were not addressed.

EXCLUSIVE from me @theipaper - Labour's leasehold reform could be watered down due to Treasury nervousness So, why does it matter? This is about whether or not to cap ground rents It affects nearly 5 million leasehold homeowners And the housing market in a BIG way

REMEMBER THIS BETRAYAL, LEASEHOLDERS! £250 cap is an absolute JOKE. We were promised ABOLITION (Peppercorn!) by Pennycook. Labour are bowing to freeholder greed. FIGHT FOR PEPPERCORN OR FACE OUR WRATH! #GroundRentSlavery #LabourBetrayal