[2025] EWHC 2751 (Admin)

The claimants also relied upon the conclusions which it was said could be drawn from the prior history of leasehold enfranchisement legislation, which it is said was initially intended to address a particularly disadvantaged category of owner-occupier tenants and, to the extent it was expanded beyond that initial category, was done on the basis that a fuller measure of compensation was to be given.

We conclude that the history of the legislative reforms between 1967 and 2008 does not support the claimants’ arguments as to the objects of the LFRA 2024. This is for three reasons.

First, that prior history does not, on closer analysis, support Ms Wakefield’s overall theme. Whilst the original LRA 1967 regime (at least from the 1969 reform) involved a more favourable measure of compensation for a particular class of owner-occupiers identified by reference to the rateable value of the house, no similar benefit was conferred for owner-occupiers of flats under the LRHUDA 1993. The value thresholds were significantly attenuated for leasehold houses and removed for leasehold flats by the HA 1996. The residence requirements were removed by the CLRA 2002, with both owner-occupier and other tenants outside the original LRA 1967 paying the same measure of compensation. The 2008 Act removed the “low rent “ test for leases granted on or after 7 September 2008. The measure of compensation to be paid was not linked to any intention that the legislation was to benefit owner-occupiers solely. Plainly it was not.

Second, the continuity approach does not assist the claimants. The true objective which runs through the history of enfranchisement legislation from the LRA 1967 and James onwards, is to address the inherent unfairness and imbalance in the landlord and tenant relationship which arises from the wasting asset problem. That has been tackled by Parliament in a number of different ways, but the simple point is that in 2024 the legislature decided that previous interventions had not gone far enough to achieve that objective, for all tenants and not just owner-occupiers.

Third, it is necessary to the claimants’ argument to assume continuity with previous legislation at a much more granular level, relating to the specific means, by which and subject to which, that object has been pursued over time. But in any event, the Law Commission stressed the width of their review of the law of leasehold enfranchisement in the Consultation Paper ([1.7]), and the ToR were expressed in terms unlimited by any alleged settled features of previous enfranchisement legislation. The Ministerial statement of 11 January 2021 announcing the Government’s decision to seek the enactment of the Law Commission’s valuation recommendations said the reforms would “fundamentally enhance the fairness of English property rights” and marked “the beginning of an even more fundamental change to English property law.”