MPs want the £250 ground rent cap brought into force a year earlier than planned, in late 2027, and ministers were reported in June 2026 to be ready to agree. Here is where the timetable stands, what MPs want next, and what leaseholders paying rising ground rents should do in the meantime.
There is growing pressure to speed up ground rent reform. The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has recommended that the £250 annual cap on residential ground rents be brought into force in late 2027, a year earlier than the government's stated aim of 2028, and press reports in June 2026 said ministers were preparing to accept that recommendation. The government has not yet confirmed the earlier date.
If it is confirmed, that would be welcome news for leaseholders who pay ground rent. This article explains what the cap is, why the timetable has moved, what MPs are pushing for next, and, importantly, what you can do right now if your ground rent is a problem.
Ground rent is a payment that many leaseholders must make to their freeholder simply for occupying the land their home sits on. Unlike a service charge, you get nothing for it: no maintenance, no insurance, no services. It is, in effect, money for nothing, which is why the Law Commission and successive governments have concluded it should go.
New residential leases have been unable to include a ground rent above a token "peppercorn" (a legal way of saying zero) since the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022. But that Act only helped people buying new leases. Millions of existing leaseholders were left with their old ground rent terms, some of which double every ten or fifteen years and can make a flat difficult or impossible to sell or mortgage.
The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, published on 27 January 2026, tackles existing leases for the first time. Under the proposals, ground rents in existing residential leases will be capped at £250 per year. The cap will then taper down over time, with ground rent ultimately reducing to a peppercorn, in other words nothing at all, after 40 years under the current draft.
Two points are worth stressing. First, this remains a draft Bill: it has been through pre-legislative scrutiny, and the Housing Minister has said he hopes a substantive Bill will be introduced soon after the government responds to the Committee's report. Second, the cap does not take effect the moment the Bill becomes law. It needs to be switched on by secondary legislation, and that commencement date is what the Committee wants brought forward.
When the draft Bill was published, the government said it aimed to implement the ground rent cap in 2028. That timetable drew criticism from leaseholder campaign groups and from MPs on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, whose pre-legislative scrutiny report published on 27 May 2026 recommended that the cap should commence in late 2027.
In June 2026 it was reported that ministers were preparing to accept the argument and introduce the cap by late 2027 rather than late 2028. That has not been confirmed: the government did not respond to the Committee's report by the 27 July 2026 deadline, and the House of Commons Library still describes late 2028 as the likely date. A year may not sound like much, but for a leaseholder paying £500 or £750 a year, or facing a doubling review in 2028, it is a material difference.
The Committee did not stop at the commencement date. Its report also recommended that the government consider whether ground rents should fall to a peppercorn within a much shorter transitional period than the 40 years in the draft Bill, suggesting something in the region of 20 years. Whether that recommendation survives into the final Bill remains to be seen: the government's response, originally due by 27 July 2026, has been delayed, and freeholder groups are fighting the reforms hard.
On that last point, it is worth knowing that a group of freeholders has challenged the related reforms in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 on human rights grounds. The High Court dismissed their claims in October 2025, but the Court of Appeal has given permission to appeal. The litigation does not directly block the ground rent cap in the new Bill, but it illustrates how contested this territory is, and why timetables in leasehold reform have a habit of slipping.
If your ground rent is modest and your lease is long, the sensible course is usually to wait. The cap, when it comes, will apply automatically. You do not need to do anything to benefit from it.
If your ground rent is high, escalating, or blocking a sale or remortgage, waiting until late 2027 or 2028 may not be realistic, and there is an important alternative: a statutory lease extension. When you extend your lease under the statutory procedure, your ground rent is reduced to a peppercorn immediately, for the whole of the remaining term, as part of the deal. You do not have to wait for the reform timetable, and the outcome goes further than the £250 cap: the rent disappears altogether.
Since the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 removed the old two-year ownership requirement, you can start a statutory claim as soon as you own the flat. Many lenders that refuse mortgages on leases with doubling ground rents will lend happily once a statutory extension has removed the rent.
If you are buying a leasehold flat, look carefully at the ground rent clause before you exchange. A £250 cap is proposed, not guaranteed, and its start date is not settled; a lease with an onerous escalating rent may still cause mortgage problems in the meantime. Your conveyancer should flag this, but it pays to ask the question yourself.
It might, at the margins. Part of the premium you pay for a statutory lease extension compensates the freeholder for the ground rent they will lose. Some leaseholders are tempted to wait for the cap in the hope that premiums will fall once ground rents are limited. The difficulty is that the interaction between the cap, the valuation reforms in the 2024 Act (which are themselves not yet in force and are subject to the freeholders' appeal), and the government's consultation on valuation rates, opened in July 2026, makes precise predictions impossible. Meanwhile, if your lease is heading towards the 80-year mark under the current law, the cost of delay can be substantial.
The honest answer is that the right course depends on your lease length, your ground rent, and your plans for the property. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.
The push to accelerate the ground rent cap is a sign that parliamentary pressure on leasehold reform is building. But even late 2027 is some way off, the earlier date is not confirmed, the Bill has not yet been introduced, and leaseholders with pressing ground rent problems have tools available today that go further than the cap ever will.
If you would like an informal view on whether extending your lease now makes sense in your circumstances, call us on 020 3540 9996 or use the contact form on this site. We are always happy to talk it through before you commit to anything.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Accurate as at 28 September 2026.
Have a no-obligation conversation with a specialist solicitor about your lease, your rights and your next step.
The government's consultation on the deferment and capitalisation rates that will set future lease extension and freehold premiums now closes on 21 October 2026. Here is what the rates do, what is proposed and how to respond.
On 15 July 2026 the government published its response to the Strengthening Leaseholder Protections consultation, confirming annual building condition reports, a standardised service charge demand form, and new protection from a landlord's litigation costs. Here is what was confirmed and when leaseholders can expect to see it.
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has published its verdict on the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, telling ministers to go further and faster. Here is what MPs recommended, what happens next, and what it all means for leaseholders weighing up their options.
Privacy Policy