--- title: "The Long Goodbye to Leasehold: Matthew Pennycook's Vision for a Commonhold Future" url: https://manage.management/blog/long-goodbye-to-leasehold-pennycook-commonhold description: "Matthew Pennycook's commonhold speech analysed: the right diagnosis, the pace problem and what it means for your building and managing agent." author: "Franklin Baeza" published: 2026-04-29T16:00:00.000Z updated: 2026-10-29T12:25:38Z categories: ["Leasehold Reform","Housing Policy","Opinion"] publisher: Manage.Management language: en-GB --- # The Long Goodbye to Leasehold: Matthew Pennycook's Vision for a Commonhold Future Matthew Pennycook's commonhold speech analysed: the right diagnosis, the pace problem and what it means for your building and managing agent. [Matthew Pennycook MP, Minister for Housing and Planning, keynote speech at the Institute for Government — April 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqCFyqpuPPI) Matthew Pennycook delivered what may be one of the most consequential housing policy speeches in a generation today and it deserves to be taken seriously, even by those who remain frustrated at the pace of change. ## Key takeaways - The government has committed to making commonhold the default tenure for new flats. - The diagnosis of leasehold harms is right; the pace of delivery remains the problem. - Regulation of managing agents is still unresolved and matters to every block, leasehold or commonhold. - Resident-led buildings that build good governance now will be ready whichever route they take. ## The Diagnosis is Right, the Pace is the Problem The Minister did not pull his punches on the human cost of leasehold. His opening examples, Tara in Woolwich, now paying £4,400 a year in service charges (a 260% increase since purchase), and Andy in East Greenwich, paying £800 annually in ground rent for no service whatsoever are not edge cases. They are the system working exactly as designed, which is precisely the problem. When Pennycook declares that "leasehold is blighting lives" and calls it "an anachronism in the 21st century," he is not exaggerating. The historical framing is forensic: tracing leasehold's roots to the Domesday Book, he makes the case that the system's fundamental principles, third-party landlord control, diminishing ownership rights, and financial extraction, have not changed in nearly a thousand years. ## The Commonhold Case is Unanswerable The centrepiece of this government's agenda, making commonhold the default tenure, banning new leasehold flats, and creating a conversion pathway at 50% leaseholder agreement, is the right structural response. Commonhold is not a British invention being imposed on an unwilling market. It is how most of the developed world already organises flat ownership. The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, published in January 2026 and now under pre-legislative scrutiny, is the most ambitious attempt at tenure reform in decades. The ground rent cap at £250 falling to peppercorn after 40 years, the abolition of leasehold forfeiture, and mandatory leaseback provisions to make enfranchisement affordable these are real, tangible gains. ## The Credibility Gap Remains Yet Pennycook has a problem he cannot entirely legislate away: time. He candidly admitted that the real take-up of commonhold will "ramp up in the next parliament." For a leaseholder currently trapped under an extractive managing agent, watching their service charges spiral, this is cold comfort. The Minister is asking people who are suffering now to trust a multi-parliament process that stretches well beyond the horizon of the current government. His defence against critics calling for immediate abolition is intellectually sound abolishing five million leasehold titles overnight raises profound questions of legality, mortgage market stability, and Land Registry feasibility. "Glib soundbites won't end leasehold," he says, and he is right. But the people paying extortionate charges to companies like Firstport singled out by name as the number-one casework complaint for MPs are understandably indifferent to the legislative timetable. ## The Managing Agents Question is Unresolved The most telling moment came in the discussion around managing agent regulation. Pennycook is still openly weighing two approaches: layering regulations incrementally into the current bill, or holding back for a standalone comprehensive package. This indecision however understandable given the bill's 260 clauses and 20 schedules, is a vulnerability. Managing agents are, as he acknowledged, "the number one issue" for his parliamentary colleagues, yet they operate in a near-regulatory vacuum. The Minister's own insight that "without effective control, managing agent regulation will not do the job" risks becoming a reason to forever defer action rather than a call to urgency. For leaseholders, RTM & RMC directors, this is the most pressing unresolved issue in an otherwise compelling speech. ## What This Means for Your Building The direction of travel is clear and politically durable, Pennycook is right that cross-party consensus makes reversal unlikely. But the transition period is where the real pain lies, and it is likely to last the better part of a decade. The buildings that will thrive are those that act now: exercising the [Right to Manage](https://rightto.manage.management/), pursuing enfranchisement as costs fall, and beginning to prepare their communities for eventual commonhold conversion. The legislative architecture is being built; the question is whether leaseholders will be ready to use it when the doors open. > "Not overnight, not in a single piece of legislation, not recklessly, but decisively and for good." Matthew Pennycook MP, 29 April 2026 History will judge whether that is statecraft or stalling. On balance, the evidence from today's speech suggests it is the former. But the government would do well to remember that for people living inside a broken system, the difference between methodical and slow can be very hard to distinguish. Last reviewed: 29 October 2026 by Franklin Baeza, Manage.Management. This article is general information for England and Wales, not legal advice. Check the current position with a qualified adviser before acting. --- Source: [The Long Goodbye to Leasehold: Matthew Pennycook's Vision for a Commonhold Future](https://manage.management/blog/long-goodbye-to-leasehold-pennycook-commonhold) on the Manage.Management blog.