In March, I hosted a roundtable for leaseholders in Bow.
Dozens of local residents attended, each sharing their own stories of dodgy landlords or bad managing agents – of a lack of transparency, of skyrocketing service charges, of works that never happen or never seem to end, and much more besides.
For anyone with experience of the leasehold system, none of this will be shocking news.
Because, fundamentally, the challenge isn’t just mitigating the worst excesses of dodgy landlords or bad managing agents, as important as that is. The entire leasehold system is broken.
That is why, the week after my roundtable, I raised this issue directly with the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Questions.
“Leasehold is legalised extortion”, I said to him. This Labour government promised to put an end to this system once and for all – and that is exactly what we will deliver.
Whilst I accept that this isn’t an overnight fix, we are already making good progress.
The Government has recently activated a new provision in legislation, giving tenants a more transparent breakdown of their service charges so landlords have to explain exactly what residents are being made to pay for.
At the time of publication, leaseholders will have just started paying their service charges for the new financial year – in many cases, these service charges will have substantially increased over the past few years.
Are these increases really paying for a better service? Judging from the residents I spoke to at my leaseholder drop-in, the answer is a resounding ‘no’.
As Labour’s Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill – the Bill that will finally put a nail in the coffin of the unfair leasehold system – passes through Parliament, I will be speaking up for leaseholders here in Stratford and Bow, every step of the way.
But equally, I know that it’s not just leaseholders getting short-changed by an unfair system. Renters are too.
Labour’s Renters’ Rights Act comes into force on the May 1 – meaning no more ‘no-fault evictions’, exploitative fixed contracts or bidding wars.
It means that landlords can’t unfairly hike your rent, ask for more than one month’s rent up front, or refuse tenants because they receive benefits or have children.
In short, it is the biggest uplift in renters’ rights in a generation.
Whatever your housing tenure, I know that the housing market still feels impossible to access or to navigate for so many people here in Stratford and Bow, especially young people. But, in me, you will always have an MP who is unapologetically on your side.
- Uma Kumaran is Labour MP for Stratford & Bow.
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