Leasehold: Reform
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when the provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 relating to the removal of marriage value in leasehold enfranchisement will be brought into force, and what the current timetable is for implementation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook
The government is committed to implementing measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 to make enfranchisement cheaper and easier.
The Act sets the method for calculating the price of a statutory lease extension or freehold acquisition, known as the valuation process. It removes the requirement for marriage value to be paid, caps the treatment of ground rents in the valuation calculation at 0.1% of the freehold value, and allows government to prescribe the rates used to calculate the enfranchisement premium.
Valuation rates used to calculate the enfranchisement premium will be set by the Secretary of State in secondary legislation. We will consult on valuation rates and commence the relevant provisions as soon as possible.
As per the Written Ministerial Statements made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244) and 27 January 2026 (HCWS1278), primary legislation will be required to rectify a small number of specific flaws in the 2024 Act before the Act’s enfranchisement provisions are commenced.
It was confirmed in the King’s Speech on 13 May 2026 that fixes to these flaws will be included in the forthcoming Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill.
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