Addressing Leasehold and Fleecehold, Crawley Observer Column, Wednesday 1st April 2026

I spent last weekend in Forge Wood, speaking with residents about the issues which matter to them. As with every other part of Crawley, you get a real mish mash of topics: highways issues, policing matters, and challenges accessing local services. Yet, in Forge Wood, one issue comes up most of all and that is the issue of fleecehold.

Fleecehold or ‘unadopted estates’ are a relatively recent, but fast-growing problem where developers bring forward new housing, but instead of transferring the infrastructure over to the public sector they cut costs and set up a new company to administer them. Notionally these companies are owned collectively by the local property owners, but in practice they are largely unaccountable. This leaves residents in these communities paying large amounts each month for services which are covered by council tax in every other part of town. It is deeply unfair.

Labour has kicked off a review to determine how best to deal with fleecehold and I have met with the housing minister to urge him to implement a complete ban. This not only would prevent the problem getting worse, but would limit the scale of the cost involved in public bodies adopting existing fleecehold estates.

This review of fleecehold is just one of a package of measures designed to resolve problems for home owners, with the most significant changes being those announced for the several thousand Crawley residents living in leasehold properties. Labour will end the feudal leasehold system by the end of this Parliament, beginning by extending existing leases to the maximum, banning new leasehold flats, capping ground rents at £250 then reducing them to a peppercorn rate, and delivering a more fair system for resolving building repair costs.

There is little which has as much of an impact on all of our quality of life as having secure housing that we can afford to live in. From addressing fleecehold and leasehold, to giving private tenants far greater protections, to the largest plan for new affordable house building in a generation, this is a Labour Government committed to delivering for the British people.