The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill received Royal Assent on 8 February 2022. The main elements of it, i.e. the ground rent restrictions themselves, remained to be brought into force by regulations. This has now taken place; The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 (The Act) will come into force on 30 June 2022.

In 2018, the then Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid announced a “crackdown on unfairly sold practices” that would include setting ground rents on new long leases to zero and working with The Law Commission to make the process of purchasing a freehold or extending a lease of a flat “much easier, faster and cheaper”.