Polanski schools Khan on leaseholds

Zack Polanski has provided some much needed clarity to the issue of leasehold properties.

Showing he’s a Labour man through and through, Sadiq Khan is tackling the problem by acknowledging it exists while doing sweet eff-all to fix it:

Polanski speaks out

In response to Polanski, the group Free Leaseholders posted the following:

The group explain the following on their site:

Leasehold is a long-term tenancy agreement where you pay for the right to occupy the property you live in, but you don’t truly own the flat itself or the bricks and mortar.

When you buy a home, you shouldn’t gain a landlord. But that’s the case for 5.3 million households like ours across England and Wales. We’re subject to ground rent to stay in our homes, crippling service charges, the constant threat of forfeiture if we don’t pay up, and have no control over how our homes are managed.

The leasehold system has turned our dreams of home ownership into a nightmare.

It dates all the way back to 1066 – and it doesn’t exist in most of the world and where it used to, they’ve worked out it’s no longer fit for purpose.
But for decades, governments have been pledging to abolish it but each time they’ve given in to pressure from powerful lobbies that benefit from leasehold.

That’s why leaseholders across the country are coming together – we need to be louder than the vested interests. Together, we can call on politicians to stand their ground and end this broken system once and for all.

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The group also said that leaseholds could “collapse the property market”:

Lending credence to this idea, many of the homes which are currently losing value in London are – you guessed it – leaseholds:

It’s almost as if people don’t want to buy something you can’t own.

Leasehold London

The problem with leasehold properties is they combine the cost of purchasing a house with the downsides of not actually owning one, as HG wrote for the Canary in January this year:

Most flats in the UK are leasehold, along with some shared ownership houses.

Freehold means a resident owning their property and the land it is built on. On the other hand, leasehold means owning the property for a fixed period, while still paying ground rent to the landlord, who either owns the building (such as a block of flats) or the land.

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When the lease ends, ownership returns to the landlord.

In comparison, commonhold provides freehold ownership for flats or other interdependent buildings.

Labour now have a reputation for betraying the public’s trust on leaseholds, as HG added:

in the run-up to the 2024 General Election, Labour promised to:

act where the Conservatives have failed and finally bring the feudal leasehold system to an end.

Labour literally promised to end leasehold. Whilst we shouldn’t be surprised that Starmer has made yet another U-turn, a £250 cap is a shitshow when it should be zero. And yes, after 40 years, it will change to ‘peppercorn’, or zero. But why in 40 years and not now?

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Then, as now, Zack Polanski called Labour out on the issue:

Promote ownership or get owned

The constant betrayals from Labour politicians are why the Green Party are doing so well against the governing party.

Politicians like Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan need to remember that much like this nation’s leaseholders, they don’t have the inherent right to remain in their offices forever.

Featured image via Barold