Sefton campaigner gives guarded welcome to leasehold ban plan

1st July 2019
Sefton campaigner gives guarded welcome to leasehold ban plan.

Councillor Pat Keith, who has been opposed to leasehold properties, has a given a tentative welcome to the Government’s announcement that they are to ban new leasehold homes.

But the Cambridge Ward Lib Dem representative also warns of the danger that the plan may get bogged down in the Brexit parliamentary saga.

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said the government was pushing ahead with axing leaseholds for all new houses, which would in future be sold as freehold unless there were “exceptional circumstances”.

Said Councillor Keith: “ The government announced two years ago that they were taking action on the iniquitous leasehold system and, at last, they have come up with proposals which they say will come into effect at some stage “

“ My big worry is that we’re going to see another long delay not only because that’s the norm in parliamentary business but also because the Brexit saga is dominating everything that happens at Westminster.

“ I worry too for the people who are already living in leasehold homes and caught up in this scandal which is a ludicrous hangover from the Middle Ages. So how are they going to be freed from these unjust and indefensible charges.?