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.
On 27 May 2026 the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee published its long-awaited report on the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill. The verdict was broadly encouraging for leaseholders: MPs found the draft Bill to be a significant step towards giving leaseholders greater control of their buildings. But the headline message to ministers was blunt. The government, the Committee said, must go further and faster.
Parliament debated the report and the wider reform programme in the Commons on 2 July 2026, and an amended Bill is expected once the government has responded to the Committee. This article unpacks what the Committee recommended, where the pressure points are, and what it means in practice if you own a leasehold flat today.
The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill was published on 27 January 2026. Its central ambition is to end the creation of new leasehold flats and replace the system with commonhold, a form of ownership in which flat owners own their homes outright and jointly own and manage the building through a commonhold association, with no landlord and no expiring lease. The draft Bill also caps ground rents in existing leases at £250 a year, reducing to a peppercorn (nothing) over time, and strengthens protections around service charges and management.
Because it was published in draft, the Bill went through pre-legislative scrutiny: a select committee examines the text, hears evidence from experts and interested parties, and reports before the real Bill is introduced. That is the report we now have.
1. Commence the ground rent cap in late 2027, and consider a faster taper. The Committee recommended that the £250 ground rent cap should be switched on in late 2027, a year earlier than the government's assumed timetable, and that ministers should consider whether ground rents should fall to a peppercorn over a much shorter transitional period than the draft Bill's 40 years, suggesting something closer to 20. Press reports in June 2026 said the government was preparing to accept the earlier date, but it has not confirmed this, and its stated aim remains to implement the cap in 2028, subject to the Bill being passed.
2. An independent regulator for managing agents. Anyone who has dealt with an unresponsive or opaque managing agent will understand why this matters. The Committee recommended creating an independent regulator for property management agents, going beyond the current voluntary codes. The government has separately been consulting on strengthening leaseholder protections over charges and services, so some form of regulation looks increasingly likely, though its shape is not yet settled.
3. Make commonhold work in practice. The Committee supported the move to commonhold but called for technical changes to ensure it works as intended. This is the quiet battleground of the Bill: commonhold was first introduced in 2002 and failed almost completely, with only a handful of developments ever created, largely because lenders and developers would not touch it. Getting the details right this time, on mortgages, mixed-use buildings, insolvency of the commonhold association and conversion of existing blocks, is what will determine whether the reform is real or symbolic.
4. Enact the remaining Law Commission recommendations on enfranchisement and Right to Manage. The Law Commission made several hundred recommendations in 2020 covering lease extensions, collective freehold purchases and the Right to Manage. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 implemented some; many remain on the shelf. The Committee wants the rest brought forward, which would simplify and cheapen the processes leaseholders use every day.
The government was due to respond to the Committee's recommendations by 27 July 2026, but told the Committee it could not meet that deadline. The amended Bill is expected to be introduced to Parliament in autumn 2026, with the aim of Royal Assent by mid-2027. After that, individual provisions will be commenced in stages by secondary legislation, which is why the choice between late 2027 and 2028 for the ground rent cap matters as much as the passage of the Bill itself.
Two caveats belong in any honest account of this timetable. First, leasehold reform has a long history of slipping deadlines: parts of the 2024 Act are still not in force two years on. Second, freeholder groups are challenging aspects of the 2024 reforms in the courts on human rights grounds, and the Court of Appeal has given them permission to appeal after the High Court dismissed their claims in October 2025. Litigation of that kind tends to encourage governmental caution.
If you are waiting for reform before extending your lease or buying your freehold, the report does not change the fundamental calculation. The valuation reforms in the 2024 Act, which will remove marriage value (an extra element of the premium payable once a lease drops below 80 years), are still not in force, still depend on valuation rates that the government opened a consultation on in July 2026, and are still under legal challenge. Meanwhile, leases keep getting shorter every day, and a lease approaching the 80-year threshold remains the single most expensive thing to ignore in the current system. For some leaseholders waiting will pay off; for others it will cost dearly. It depends on your lease length, and it is worth taking specific advice rather than betting on a timetable.
If your building is poorly managed, the prospect of a managing agent regulator is welcome but distant. The Right to Manage exists now, lets qualifying leaseholders take over management of their block without proving any fault and without buying the freehold, and was made cheaper by the 2024 Act, which removed the requirement to pay the landlord's costs in most cases. The Committee's push to implement the remaining Law Commission recommendations would improve RTM further, but there is no need to wait for it.
If you pay a significant ground rent, the cap is proposed, but its start date is not settled: the Committee wants late 2027 and the government's stated aim is 2028, subject to the Bill being passed. If your ground rent is blocking a sale or remortgage today, a statutory lease extension remains the tool that solves the problem immediately, reducing the rent to a peppercorn as part of the deal.
If you are buying a flat, commonhold is coming, but not soon enough to affect your purchase. The leasehold system, with all its quirks, will govern existing flats for many years yet, so the usual checks on lease length, ground rent and service charges matter as much as ever.
The Committee's report is a serious piece of work, and reports that ministers may accept the earlier ground rent date suggest they are listening. But the phrase "further and faster" cuts both ways: it is an acknowledgement that, for all the announcements since 2020, most leaseholders have yet to feel any practical benefit. Until the reforms are actually in force, the rights that matter are the ones on the statute book today: the statutory lease extension, collective enfranchisement, the Right to Manage, and the service charge protections in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
If you want to talk through how the reform timetable affects a decision you are facing, whether to extend, buy your freehold or take over management of your building, call us on 020 3540 9996 or use the contact form on this site for a free initial conversation.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Accurate as at 28 September 2026.
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