The big housing reform that may be easier said than done

The compensation likely to be sought by English freeholders would be far greater.

On Scotland’s current system, which has similarities to commonhold, Gerber says it “generally works”.

“You’ll always find one that doesn’t want to stump up their money… that can be a problem,” he says.

Most of the experts agreed there is no perfect system where multiple people share responsibility for a building.

Hopkins believes commonhold will happen, regardless of further legal challenges. “The judicial review failed at first instance and failed quite comprehensively. A lot of the arguments, I think, have really been lost.”

He says there is now broad political support for reform.

Former housing secretaries Angela Rayner and Michael Gove both backed reform when giving evidence together to MPs. The Liberal Democrats and Greens also support commonhold, while Reform UK has stopped short of supporting the complete abolition of leasehold.

A spokesperson at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said their reforms would “transform the experience of flat ownership in England by giving homeowners “more power and control over high costs”.

Professor Sherry accepts that “stuff can be tricky, but it’s workable”.

“Commonhold is better because I don’t believe that people who don’t live in homes should own the underlying land and get the benefits that flow from that.”

Whether that vision becomes reality now depends on politics as much as policy.

The likely next prime minister, Andy Burnham, has previously expressed support for leasehold reform, but who he appoints as housing secretary will matter. With the draft bill described as “technical and long”, there is still a long way to go before the manifesto pledge comes to fruition.

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