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The Commonhold White Paper was published today, 3 March 2025. It contains the Government's proposals for legislating that all new flats, subject to certain unspecified exemptions, will be offered for sale under the commonhold model instead of the current leasehold model.
The much-anticipated updated version of the National Planning Policy Framework ("NPPF") was published on 12 December 2024, following a period of industry-wide consultation. The NPPF sets out the Government's high level, national planning policies and carries particular importance as a 'material consideration' which local planning authorities ("LPAs") must take into account when deciding planning applications.
The Older People’s Housing Taskforce published their long-awaited report entitled 'Our Future Homes: Housing that promotes wellbeing and community for an ageing population' on 26 November 2024. Its intention is to explore how best to support people to live well and longer in an age-friendly home and neighbourhood of their choice.
As of 30 June 2023, there are only 184 properties registered as "commonhold" within England and Wales, which is less than 0.01 % of the total number of properties in the same area. This evidences the extent to which the current form of commonhold ownership in the UK is unsuccessful.
The abolishment of ground rent in residential long leases comes as part of a package of Government reforms designed to curtail unfair practices in the leasehold market, which we explored in our previous briefing. From 1 April 2023,[1] this applies to all new leases granted with a term of more than 21 years in the senior living sector, though will not impact existing ones. The changes, brought about by the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 (the Act), have necessitated developers, investors and owners of retirement housing reforming their existing leasehold structures, which have typically relied upon ground rent as a way to recoup the enlarged capital costs of constructing enhanced communal spaces within retirement schemes.
Amid widespread concern about the workings of the housing market in the UK, in February 2023 the Competition and Markets Authority (the "CMA") launched a consumer protection project into the rented housing sector, alongside a separate market study into housebuilding, discussed here. Whilst acknowledging that some of the problems in the rented housing sector are not within its remit, it has stated its intention to ensure that ineffective competition or unfair business practices do not increase costs, limit choice or reduce quality for tenants. Following an initial 3 month period of engagement, the CMA has published an update report into the rental housing sector which summarises the feedback it has received from a wide variety of stakeholders, and identifies the four areas on which it intends to focus in the next stage of its project.
The Competition and Markets Authority (the "CMA") has powers under the Enterprise Act 2002 to conduct inquiries into the workings of a market. The framework is a two-stage one: a preliminary market study (lasting for 12 months), followed by an in-depth market investigation in cases where the CMA considers there to be reasonable grounds to suspect that a feature (or combination of features) of a market in the UK prevents, restricts or distorts competition.
The Government issued a consultation in December 2022 about its proposed changes to the NPPF. These represent the first set of changes to the NPPF that the Government intends to make in order to reflect its levelling-up agenda, and will be followed by a wider review once it has implemented its proposals for wider changes to the planning system, including the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill.
In the first of 3 briefings looking into the range of tenures available for use in developing new retirement accommodation schemes, this piece discusses the report published this month by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People called: ‘Making retirement living affordable: the role of shared ownership housing'. The report results from an enquiry set up by the group in December 2021, supported by a panel of 6 independent members from both the profit and not-for-profit housing sectors, to investigate whether the shared ownership model could help make high-quality retirement housing in England accessible to a much larger market than the other main options of purchasing properties outright or renting from a social housing provider.
Landlords, operators and managers of buildings in England that contain 2 or more residential units which share communal spaces will be impacted by the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 (the "Regulations") that come into effect on 23 January 2023. They are laid under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 ("Fire Safety Order"), and implement the majority of the recommendations set out in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report.
In this briefing we look at some of the key changes to law and practice that we anticipate taking place in 2023 which will affect the real estate sector, focussing on real estate development, real estate investment, real estate M&A, real estate occupiers, the senior living sector and the private rental sector.
We reported last summer on the Government's 2021 consultation about the design and implementation of the Building Safety Levy (the "Levy"). It is intended to contribute to the costs of anticipated building safety expenditure to ensure that neither the taxpayer nor tenants have to pay for the remediation of safety defects in the existing high-rise housing stock. Since that consultation, the scope of the Levy has expanded to apply to all new residential developments that require building control approval (with a few exceptions). The Building Safety Act 2022 has also been enacted, section 58 of which gives the Secretary of State broad powers to raise a Levy on any in-scope building.
Is it reasonable for care home operators to charge new residents an administration fee on admission, separate from the costs of care or accommodation? Do fees of this sort merely compensate care home operators for the internal costs incurred in managing the personalised admission of a new resident, or are they unfair charges which take advantage of the stress and complexities of arranging residential care?
In February, the Government announced a package of measures intended to resolve the problem of unsafe cladding on high-rise residential buildings.
The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill 2021 will prevent landlords in England and Wales from charging ground rents in new leases of residential properties. This is intended to protect tenants from unfair charges, but presents a particular problem in the context of retirement housing.
"Housing with care" is a type of retirement housing in which older people can receive the services, facilities and help that they need without losing their independence.
On the 16 March 2020, the Care Quality Commission ("CQC") wrote to all registered health and social care providers about how they were adapting their regulatory approach in response to the COVID-19 outbreak (the "CQC Guidance").
The decision in the LifeCare appeal (APP/X5210/W/18/3198746 10 June 2019), in which the Planning Inspectorate held that future income should be included in a viability analysis, adds further fuel to the fire about how various kinds of retirement living and elderly accommodation, with or without care services, are classified under planning law, and the impact that this will have on the viability of such developments.
The question of which use class applies to a care-home for the elderly or others in need of care has been addressed once more in a recent Cornish appeal decision, in which dwellings for over-55s were classified as C3 rather than C2, despite being intended for occupiers needing a minimum of two hours of care per week. This is subtly distinguished on its facts from a case in Devon last year, and highlights the need for national planning policy to classify care-homes as either a flexible C3-C2 use, or within a use class of its own.