I’m really excited about my play #Fleecehold being performed this summer and we’ve been busy auditioning some very talented actors for the six roles.
It’s a political comedy centred on three amazing women from the North-West of England who were mis-sold their new homes as leasehold under the Government’s Right to Buy scheme and took on the Government, housebuilders and powerful freeholders to bring about leasehold reform.
It’s also a tribute to long-term leasehold reform legend Louie Burns who sadly passed away in 2020.
Katie Kendrick, a paediatric nurse, Jo Darbyshire, a commercial manager, and Cath Williams, a medical imaging lecturer, were so angry with the housebuilders they set up the National Leasehold Campaign and galvanised support for over six million leaseholders living in mostly flats across England and Wales who were fed up with being treated like mugs.
Eventually, the housebuilders who mis-sold their homes were fined by the Competition and Markets Authority and now the sale of new leasehold houses is banned thanks to their efforts, alongside those of other leasehold reform heroes, including charity Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and Folkestone’s own Louie Burns.
Mr Gove has been making noises recently how it is time to outlaw the outdated leasehold system at last which has had a terrible impact on the mental health and pockets of leaseholders living in flats affected by the greedy freeholders and managing agents, not to mention those affected by the cladding scandal. I’ve lost count of the number of housing ministers we’ve had under the Tories – I think maybe 16. None of them stick around longer than a few months, something Tory PMs have now aped.
But it looks like the Government may just push legislation forward, possibly as a cynical ploy to bring back voters, before their time is up? Is it really happening? Will leasehold be reformed at last? Perhaps we will find out in the Autumn now the legislation on reform has been kicked further down the road thanks to a very famous landlord.
There is no further evidence needed that in the UK in 2023 we are still living in a feudal society; legislation that will benefit more than six million people is being put on hold because the king wants his crown and all the ridiculous pomp and ceremony that goes with it, right in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
It’s difficult not to be super-cynical with this Government because of their track record and the fact their coffers are bolstered by freeholders and landowners who do not want reform for obvious reasons. England and Wales are the only countries in the world to be fleeced constantly by this feudal system. Scotland and Northern Ireland dumped leasehold as soon as legislation allowed. England and Wales were left with the system because the Government wouldn’t stand up to the powerful. If you were to solely listen to the these freeholders and managing agents (which let’s face it is what many Governments have done for hundreds of years) leasehold is the best thing since sliced bread and no other system could possibly work, despite the fact that commonhold seems to suit the rest of the world just fine.
Meanwhile in England and Wales, flats continue to be sold as leasehold. Folkestone seafront’s building bonanza is one example where the £1.5 million flats and town houses are being sold as leasehold (apparently if you’ve already banked the land as many developers have done years before, the ban on building and selling leasehold houses doesn’t apply.) Essentially, leasehold is long-term rent of the space and should be advertised as such. You don’t own the property and you are at the mercy of managing agents and ridiculous service charges for anything from changing the colour of your front door to dubious extra service charges not to mention major works.
Kerching.