Labour MP pushing for law change handing leaseholders greater 'right to manage' buildings

16 June 2025, 14:41 | Updated: 17 June 2025, 15:26

By Aggie Chambré

@AgnesChambre

A Labour MP is trying to change the law to give leaseholders more control over their buildings, LBC understands.

Rachel Blake, the MP for Cities of London and Westminster, says the current law means leaseholders can be “significantly overcharged”, made to pay for services that are not provided, and forced to pay high management fees that agents are not able to defend.

Blake is bringing forward a 10-minute Rule Bill that would lower the threshold for leaseholders to be able to force control of their building via a legal mechanism called ‘right to manage’.

As it stands, leaseholders need support of 50% of the flats in the building to be able to force through ‘right to manage’. Blake is proposing changing that to 35%.

She told LBC that it can be really difficult to get hold of that many leaseholders, particularly in her constituency where there are lots of absent leaseholders, because they own the flat as a second home or they are a landlord.

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“Far too many of my constituents are really struggling with lack of transparency over their service charge costs.

"And I believe if more of them could get right to manage, they would be able to get more value for money for their service charges.

She added: “There's bad, terrible wastes of money that they're doing with people's own hard earned cash. And I think it's really important that these households have the chance to manage their own buildings.”

Blake said there was a chance the Government would back this bill - saying there was a real recognition from ministers that they wanted to “improve the transparency of service charges and the accountability for leaseholders”.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We are taking action to improve the lives of leaseholders through our Plan for Change, allowing them to take control of their homes more easily while also clamping down on unreasonable and extortionate charges.

“The government has already introduced vital new right to manage reforms with further action under review, and we are consulting this year on detailed plans to drive up transparency of service charges so that leaseholders can hold their landlords to account.”