header-logo header-logo

21 November 2025
Issue: 8140 / Categories: Legal News , Leasehold , Property
printer mail-detail

NLJ this week: Leaseholders stuck in limbo

236044
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ

The Act promised cheaper, simpler enfranchisement, yet key provisions—such as abolishing marriage value and capping ground rents—remain unimplemented or tied up in litigation. Leaseholders and advisers now face a volatile mix of political promises and legal uncertainty.

Ali-Khan argues that government must consult lawyers, surveyors and managing agents to avoid costly mistakes and market paralysis. She urges a pragmatic, evidence-based approach: publish timetables, sequence reform logically, and engage with professionals before mandating commonhold.

Without consultation, she warns, leasehold reform risks creating new problems faster than it solves old ones.

Issue: 8140 / Categories: Legal News , Leasehold , Property
printer mail-details

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Gateley Legal—Jack Kelly

Gateley Legal—Jack Kelly

Gateley Legal expands Midlands residential development team

Gibson Dunn—Richard Surtees

Gibson Dunn—Richard Surtees

Gibson Dunn adds employee benefits and executive compensation practice in London with partner Richard Surtees

Laytons ETL—Alec Cameron

Laytons ETL—Alec Cameron

Laytons ETL appoints new partner and head of intellectual property disputes

NEWS
A series of recent decisions has clarified important principles across property law, from perpetuities to lease renewals and public rights over land
Employers cannot rely on wellbeing services alone to defend workplace stress claims after a High Court decision awarding almost £1m to an overworked employee
Andy Burnham's brand of 'Manchesterism' could offer fresh thinking on legal aid and access to justice if it reaches Westminster, according to Roger Smith, NLJ columnist and former director of JUSTICE
The constitutional fallout from a change of prime minister, rather than the politics, is under scrutiny as questions arise over the limits of executive authority in a leadership transition
The legal profession is undergoing a fundamental shift from selling services to creating technology-enabled products, according to Professor Luke Mason, Head of School of Law at Regent's University London
back-to-top-scroll