Leasehold WILL be abolished if we get into power, promises Labour

Labour has vowed to abolish the leasehold system as soon as it comes to power following Michael Gove's U-turn earlier this month.

The Housing Secretary dropped plans after Downing Street officials argued there was not enough time to enact the major reform, particularly as the Renters (Reform) Bill moves through Parliament.

Speaking on Sky News, Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy (main pic) said her party would introduce legislation covering England and Wales in the first 100 days.

'We've said exactly what Michael Gove was proposing in January: end leasehold for new builds, end leasehold on homes, and for where you've got flats with lots of people who need to hold the lease in common, you introduce a form of commonhold so they can take over the lease of their own building together,'� explained Nandy.

She said England and Wales were outliers for having held on to the system, while commonhold worked in many parts of the world including Australia and the US. 'There's no reason why it couldn't work here,'� added Nandy.

Five million

'There are five million people in this country who are currently struggling with this feudal, archaic system. For some it's just an irritation, it's something that is unfair, but for a lot of people this is literally ruining their lives.

'You can be hit by arbitrary, unfair charges, you can't challenge them, you don't know where they've come from '� nobody's under any pressure to explain even why they're charging you that money.'�

Michael Gove is still set to announce a range of measures to protect leaseholders next month, including a cap on ground rents, more powers for tenants to choose their own property management companies and a ban on building owners forcing leaseholders to pay any legal costs incurred as part of a dispute.

Following Nandy's comments, property expert and media figure Henry Pryor (pictured) warned his Twitter followers that: "If [Labour] gets into office they will find that this will be much harder to deliver than a soundbite on telly".