As promised, the government has announced a bill to ban new ground rents. Commitments were made during the #FireSafetyBill debates last month to also look at forfeiture.
2/8 Implementing the rest of the Law Commission's recent reports on #leaseholdreform is expected to wait until later.
The balance of the package outlined important reforms on cheaper lease extension, easier Right To Manage and improving commonhold.
We need all these reforms.
3/8 As expected, the government also promises that the #BuildingSafetyBill is to be introduced this session.
We wait to see if the deeply unpopular Building Safety Charge is still included and how "high risk buildings" will actually be defined in the new law.
4/8 The #BuildingSafetyBill was also touted as the way that the gov't is supposed to protecting leaseholders from building defects.
We shall see whether the detail of that involves #forcedloans, which will result in leaseholders having to pay all such costs plus interest.
We also need Australian-style implied warranties and duties to force better developer behaviour.
6/8 In less positive news, the gov't promises another huge boost to the developer lobby by relaxing rules on planning to build more houses, which means more profits (and possibly more taxpayer subsidies) for the sector.
So no sign of any consequences for #FireSafety defects.
7/8 We have no details yet on timing.
The gov't also announced other measures including abolition of fixed 5 year Parliaments, restricting protest rights and requiring voter ID.
All 3 are controversial and may be held up by the Lords, squeezing time for other measures.
8/8 The bottom line is that there will be a lot to look out for in the next few weeks and months.
Will the gov't keep its promises on limitation reforms and costs protection for leaseholders?
Will the freeholder lobby succeed in derailing the ground rents ban? #NotJustCladding
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2/6 Shocking answers from @teamgreenhalgh. He repeated the gov'ts incorrect assertion that works not covered by the BSF are "voluntary".
This is incorrect. The non-BSF works are often necessary to meet the standards of the Advice Notes but the gov't has chosen not to pay.
3/6 Unsurprisingly @teamgreehalgh blamed Ballymore for what happened to @npwlra with the fire on Friday, noting that the gov't has only offered £8 million to £12 million of works.
No mention of the fact that it took until last year for the gov't to put up any material funding.
1/5 A win for leaseholders in the Court of Appeal. The Court held that the landlord paying for a leaseholder expert to consider whether major works can be done more cheaply is a permissible condition of granting dispensation from consultation.
2/5 Where works cost more than £250 per leaseholder or involve certain types of contracts the landlord is obliged to consult leaseholders. However this process can be bypassed by landlord application to the First-Tier Tribunal.
3/5 It has become custom since a 2013 Supreme Court decision that dispensation from consultation is granted on the condition that the landlord pays its own application costs. Here the leaseholders persuaded the Tribunal to add the extra condition of also paying for their expert.
2/15 First and foremost, this is a failure of government. It has had nearly 4 years to identify and remedy buildings at risk.
It has failed to do so, instead preferring to push the problem onto anyone except itself and then standing idly by whilst others did the same.
3/15 Freeholders do not do the right thing. The freehold to this building is still owned by the developer, Ballymore.
Ballymore has not offered any meaningful contribution to the vast costs of removing cladding, instead dumping the costs on the taxpayer and its leaseholders
1/4 #EndOurCladdingScandal@Barrattplc reports this morning that it will pay a £76.3 million dividend for the half year (bit.ly/2R1Hls2). That is nearly half the £200 million a year the government proposed to raise from its new Developer Levy. Half. From one developer.
2/4 The trading statement also reports a £163 million total hit to the bottom line from cladding & legacy issues. Around £100 million of that appears to relate purely to defective concrete frames in buildings like Citiscape.
3/4 The government can and should go much further with the paltry Developer Levy. It should also reform the law to make it easier to hold developers to account. None of the people involved in the current mess will learn anything unless there are consequences for actions.
3/5 If @LordRoyKennedy motion does go to a vote and is passed, it forces the gov't to choose between losing the bill or compromising to protect leaseholders.
This underlines how deeply the Lords feels on this issue. It is extremely rare for their to be double insistence.
@nbdbuk#FireSafetyBill: Commons is just concluding the item before the bill on the agenda. MPs are asking questions regarding the UK's aid for India to help it cope with its coronavirus outbreak.
@nbdbuk#FireSafetyBill once this item is over the House of Commons will start to consider the bill. Debate will last no more than 1 hour.