Michael Gove attacked by Labour, Tory MPs and Boris Johnson allies over leasehold U-turns

From chief whips to ex-girlfriends, the slew of attacks would have been a bruising watch for the housing secretary.

Jon Craig

Chief political correspondent @joncraig

Wednesday 27 March 2024 19:57, UK

Are Michael Gove's promises to reform the "feudal" leasehold system in tatters? Is certainly looks like it.

In a bruising House of Lords debate on Wednesday over his flagship legislation, he was accused of "shoddy politics" after a series of U-turns, and failing to honour pledges in the Tories's 2019 manifesto.

Nearly 50 Tory MPs are also on the warpath, accusing the housing secretary of failing to outlaw "fleecehold", where developers sell new homes as freehold but force buyers to pay service charges of up to £400 a year.

Another racket that MPs and peers want banned is so-called "forfeiture", under which people can be threatened with the loss of their home over non-payment of just small sums of money.

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It's also emerged that the Treasury is attempting to force Mr Gove to abandon plans to reduce leasehold rents to a "peppercorn" rate to encourage landlords to sell the freehold to leaseholders.

Mr Gove's bill does ban the sale of new leasehold houses, except in exceptional circumstances, but not the sale of new leasehold flats, which make up 70% of properties affected, it's claimed.

In the Lords, Labour peers claimed so much had been removed from the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill by the minister that a Labour government would have to legislate on the issue.

But there was worse, much worse, from the Conservative benches, with wounding attacks on the beleaguered Mr Gove from leading allies of former prime minister Boris Johnson.

And to make the criticism even more painful - and personal - for Mr Gove, one of his Tory critics during the second reading debate was an ex-girlfriend - yes, really! - Baroness Finn.

Simone Finn and Mr Gove were an item when they left Oxford University. More recently, she was a Tory special adviser and eventually became Mr Johnson's deputy chief of staff in Number 10.

She's also one of Carrie Johnson's closest friends, and in 2018 famously hosted her 30th birthday party, which was attended not only by Mr Johnson but also Mr Gove.

In the Lords debate, Baroness Finn declared: "Boris Johnson secured a substantial majority just five years ago on a manifesto which included the promise to implement a ban on the sale of new leasehold homes.

"The government has sought to suggest that banning leasehold houses fulfils this promise. It does not, for the majority of leaseholders are in flats."

And Lord Daniel Moylan, an adviser to Mr Johnson when he was London mayor, also denounced "fleecehold", claiming: "This is the next great scandal approaching the housing market."

The most powerful Labour attack on Mr Gove came from Lord Kennedy, the party's tall, burly chief whip in the Lords, who's a big cricket fan.

Hitting Mr Gove for six, he said: "We've been waiting for years for action and things have been promised, not delivered.

"One of the most frustrating things though has been to watch Michael Gove tour television studios, radio stations, speak to newspapers, give interviews about what he wants to do to end the feudal leasehold system, make promises, make pledges, give assurances, give undertakings, make commitments... and they amount to absolutely nothing.

"If you go around making promises and pledges, with no room to deliver them, it's shoddy politics. And actually, at the end of the day, you'll pay a really heavy price for that.

"You carry on making promises and pledges all the time and then deliver nothing, you've been stringing people along, and it's just not good enough."

But it's not just peers gunning for Mr Gove.

Earlier, nearly 50 Conservative MPs, including six former cabinet ministers and two former housing ministers, wrote to him about "fleecehold" and "forfeiture" and evoked Margaret Thatcher.

The letter, signed by 46 Tory MPs, concluded: "Mrs Thatcher said 'there is no prouder word in our history than freeholder'.

"We should now complete her reforms and fully implement our manifesto pledge to ban the sale of all new leasehold homes."

In the Lords, it fell to junior housing minister Baroness Scott, a former leader of Wiltshire County Council, to defend Mr Gove and his bill. But she promised to listen to the protests.

"The government recognises the issues in the leasehold system and I have heard the concerns regarding a lack of commonhold measures as a meaningful alternative to replace leasehold for flats," she said.

"I want to reassure you that the government remains committed to the commonhold reform and we see it as long-term replacement for leasehold."

But the Lords now looks set to vote for a large number of amendments to the bill, so there could be "ping-pong" between MPs and peers to rival the current limbo on the government's Rwanda legislation.

Michael Gove attacked by Labour, Tory MPs and Boris Johnson allies over leasehold U-turns

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