The government announced the introduction of the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill in January 2026. This Bill proposes several reforms to the current flat ownership system, including:

· A ban on new flats being sold as leaseholds – they would need to be sold as commonhold properties, which the Government is pushing to become the default form of flat ownership; and

· A cap on ground rents at no more than £250 pa, which will be reduced to a peppercorn after a 40-year transitional period has passed.

The Housing, Communities and Local Government (‘HCLG’) Committee has now launched a short public inquiry into the Government’s draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill (‘the Bill’), which was published for pre-legislative scrutiny on 27 January 2026.

The inquiry and the Bill represent the next formal step in the Government’s programme of leasehold reform and its stated intention to move away from traditional leasehold ownership and to expand the role of commonhold in the UK’s property system.

Purpose and scope of the inquiry

The Committee has invited written evidence submissions from leaseholders, freeholders and managing agents by 25 February 2026 on matters such as:

· Whether the draft Bill effectively meets the Government’s own policy objectives, including its commitment to bring the feudal leasehold system to an end;

· Whether the draft Bill provides a ‘workable legal framework to support commonhold as the preferred, default tenure for flat ownership by the end of Parliament’;

· The extent to which the proposals (such as the £250 cap on ground rents falling to a peppercorn after 40 years) would in fact strengthen the rights and protections of leaseholders;

· Whether the Bill’s proposal to end landlords’ right to forfeit the lease successfully ‘redresses the imbalance between leaseholders and landlords when there is a breach of covenant’;

· Whether the Bill effectively addresses the ‘respective property rights of leaseholders and freeholders’;

· The interaction between the draft Bill and legislation already introduced, including the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.

An oral evidence session has been scheduled in Parliament for 3 March 2026. Grosvenor Property, alongside other major players in the property sector such as the

Residential Freehold Association, has been specifically invited to attend as one of the UK’s largest freeholders.

At the conclusion of the inquiry, the Committee will publish a report with its recommendations, intended to inform revisions to the draft Bill before it undergoes Parliamentary scrutiny.

Input from leaseholders, freeholders and managing agents is particularly important given the scale of the Bill’s ambition to overhaul the UK’s feudal leasehold system, a reform that would fundamentally reshape the legal and management structures governing flat ownership.

Hence, stakeholders with hands-on experience in day-to-day flat ownership are given an opportunity to raise concern with its implementation and suggest refinements at this early stage in the Bill’s life.

Next steps

Once the inquiry concludes, the final version of the Bill is expected to be formally introduced to Parliament later in 2026.

We will continue to monitor the progress of the inquiry and report on any material developments, including the HCLG Committee’s recommendations and their implications for leaseholders, freeholders and managing agents.