Alistair Strathern MP secures Bill to tackle Fleecehold Scandal

PRESS RELEASE FROM ALISTAIR STRATHERN MP

THURSDAY 27th FEBRUARY 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Alistair Strathern secures Bill to tackle Fleecehold Scandal

Alistair Strathern, Labour MP for Hitchin, is continuing his fight against the  ‘fleecehold’ scandal by introducing a Bill to Parliament next week. 

More and more new homeowners have found themselves in estate adoption limbo. With as many as 80% of new housing estates going unadopted, leaving households on the hook for private charges for services others receive through council tax.

The Bill will highlight the growing plight of these homeowners who, despite owning the freehold to their homes, are forced to pay extortionate fees for the upkeep of communal spaces on their estates. These charges are levied by private management companies, who often provide woeful services, leaving homeowners with little control and no real means to recourse.

Strathern’s Bill will call for:

• A right for freeholders on unadopted private or mixed-use estates to manage their own communal spaces.

• Minimum standards for public amenities on new housing estates.

• Clear timelines for local authorities to adopt and maintain communal spaces where appropriate.

Speaking ahead of the Bill’s introduction, Alistair Strathern MP said:

“Too many homeowners across the country are being left in estate adoption limbo, with some estates now unadopted over a decade after completion. 

“In the meantime, households are forced to pay eye watering fees for services that all too often fall short, with little power to hold developers to account.

“We need to call time on the exploitative fleecehold scandal and rip off management companies. 

“The Government is rightly committed to ensuring thousands more families across the country can finally have the security owning their own home. Delivering on the spirit of this promise means delivering on our commitment to end fleecehold once and for all.”

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Notes to Editors

In a leasehold system, residents buy the house or flat, but not the land with which the house sits on. In many cases, residents in this system pay peppercorn rent.

The Bill will be introduced on 4th March 2025, the draft text of the Bill can be see here, and pasted below:

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Housing estates

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for a right to manage for freeholders on unadopted private or mixed-use housing estates; to set minimum standards for public amenities on new housing estates; to make provision about the enforcement of those standards; to make provision about the adoption by local authorities of public amenities on new housing estates; and for connected purposes.

Strathern has continuously met with leasehold residents across his constituency, see here and here.

Strathern previously wrote about the issue here and brought the Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, to Stondon to discuss the issue of leasehold, see here.