Starmer makes major policy announcement on TikTok in British first
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that leaseholders in England and Wales will have ground rent capped at £250 a year.
While the announcement has been expected for a long time, as it forms part of Labour’s election manifesto, it was unusual in that it was the first time a British prime minister has made a major government policy announcement on TikTok.
The Prime Minister’s TikTok account is @keirstarmer. As of the time of writing on Tuesday (27 January), he had amassed 85,000 followers on the platform – with a recent video appearing to make fun of French President Emmanuel Macron’s sunglasses.
“Good news for homeowners, we’re capping ground rent at £250. That means if you are a leaseholder, and your ground rent is more than £250, you’ll be paying less,” Starmer said.
“And I’ve spoken to so many people who say this will make a difference to them of hundreds of pounds.
“That’s really important because the cost of living is the single most important thing across the country.
“So this is a promise that we said we’d deliver and I’m really pleased that we’re delivering on that promise.”
New leasehold flats will also be banned and homeownership strengthened thanks to groundbreaking legislation that will give people control over their homes and calls an end to the feudal leasehold system which dates to medieval times.
Over 5 million leaseholders and future homeowners will benefit from stronger control, powers and protections, through the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill published today (Tuesday 27 January), which will fundamentally rewire homeownership across England and Wales.
It will cap ground rent at £250 a year before ultimately reducing it to a peppercorn after 40 years – marking the end of residential leaseholders paying over the top bills for no clear service in return.
This move will ensure leaseholders keep more of their hard-earned cash, with many seeing savings of over £4,000 over the course of their lease, improving cost of living for millions. This will also unlock house sales for leaseholders whose lives have been put on hold because of ground rent terms that make their homes hard to sell.
Forfeiture, whereby leaseholders can lose their home and the equity they built up by defaulting on a debt as low as £350, will also be abolished and a new enforcement regime will rebalance the system – making it fairer between landlord and leaseholder.
A new process to make it easier for existing leaseholders to convert to commonhold will also be introduced under a revamped commonhold model where homeowners will receive a stake in the ownership of their buildings and be given a stronger say in the issues that affect them, with greater control over how the building is managed and the bills they pay.
The reinvigorated commonhold system will ensure it works for all types of developments, as well as mortgage lenders, with strong management rules in place around repairs and leadership, and greater rights for homeowners.
Those living in the building will have a say in the annual budget and how the building is run, and new protections when things go wrong. Current leaseholders will also be given the opportunity to switch to commonhold, where the majority of residents agree to it.
The reforms build on action currently being undertaken by the government to implement the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, including increased transparency over service charges so that leaseholders can better hold their landlords to account.
