ENGLAND AND WALES — Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said a ban on new leasehold properties in England and Wales is unlikely to come into force until after the next general election. Speaking to an audience in London, he said bringing an immediate end to the leasehold system was impossible.

"It's highly likely that we don't switch on the ban in this parliament," Pennycook said. He said the long-promised end would take years to "switch on," and that the process needed to be rolled out slowly to avoid undermining housing supply and falling into legal pitfalls.

The government is planning to ban the sale of new leasehold homes, cap ground rents, encourage residents to convert their existing leasehold homes to commonhold, and bring in measures to boost shared ownership schemes. A ban on leaseholds for new houses was passed in 2024, and the government intends to pass a ban on new leaseholds on flats soon.

Pennycook outlined the rationale for a phased approach. "What we're trying to get through this consultation is: what's the commencement date where we've got everyone lined up in a way that the transition is going to be really smooth? That's our objective." he said.

Pennycook rejected calls for an instant abolition of the system. "Those advocating for such an approach cannot answer how it would be lawful, how the impact on the mortgage market would be managed, how it would even be feasible for the land registry to delete millions of leasehold and freehold titles and replace them with commonhold ones overnight," he said.

Last year, Pennycook said he intended to bring the leasehold system to an end before the next election. Addressing the timeline, he said: "While our detractors will continue to cry betrayal, and opportunistic populist parties will continue to try to sell false promises to hard-pressed leaseholders across the country, we will continue with the hard graft of doing what is necessary to bring the system to an orderly end in this parliament."

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said the government had U-turned on its election pledge to end leasehold and placed the issue at the heart of his local election campaign. Harry Scoffin, founder of the campaign group Free Leaseholders, said: "With developers resorting to free furniture and two-year service charge holidays to lure people into buying their new leasehold flats, foot-dragging is only going to worsen the housing crisis."