John
Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, commenting on Government plans
to ban leaseholds on new-build houses, said:
“The
Government has known about and ignored the ground rents scandal for a long
time, allowing hard-working families to be ripped off under costly leasehold
agreements.
“Labour has said
for the last year that using leasehold to sell homes is unfair and unjustifiable.
And at the Election we said we’d end the routine use of leasehold ownership for
all new homes and cap charges on ‘ground rents’ to stop the scam.
“The Government’s
pledge is welcome but legislation is needed and this got no mention in last month’s
Queen’s Speech. Home-buyers need legislation to ensure the end of this
leasehold abuse, cap rip-off rises in ground rent and deal with existing
contracts that contain unfair buy-out clauses.
“Nearly half of all
newly-built properties were sold leasehold last year, and existing leaseholders
need stronger rights too.”
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