Stephen Murphy

Building solutions to the housing crisis in England & Wales. Abolish leasehold and implement commonhold

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Up to Apr 2024 Labour said it would introduce legislation to ban the freehold-leasehold tenure ‘in its first 100 days’ of government - it didn’t.

[Sky News @SkyNews]

Labour's Lisa Nandy says her party will introduce legislation to end lease holding in the first 100 days of getting into government if elected.

#KayBurley: https://t.co/MN45tfGyF1

📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

@Simoncitizen The classic home ownership progression, especially in London and other major urban centres, is buy a leasehold flat as a first step on the property ladder, then upgrade to a freehold house as a second step as life demands (marriage, family) require and higher incomes allow

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Nobody wants to buy toxic leasehold flats. Those who can afford them are buying second-stepper freehold houses which are selling at a premium

[UK Property Insight @ukhpinfo]

Great article… Terrace houses (a typical second step after first step Flat buyers) were typically 10-20% premium to London Flats, it’s now 50%.

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Fact checking isn’t “naysaying”

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Fact checking isn’t ‘naysaying, bad faith commentary or puritanism’ it’s facing reality

[Ipsos in the UK @Ipsos_in_the_UK]

🚨NEW HISTORIC LOW 🚨

Net economic optimism in Britain has fallen to the lowest levels ever recorded since Ipsos began collecting this data in 1978.

78% of Brits expect the economy to get worse over the next 12 months, 12% think it will stay the same, and just 6% think it will improve – giving a net Ipsos economic optimism index score of -72.

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Well said - regulation of managing agents is window dressing that does nothing to resolve the entrenched disenfranchisement of 5mn leaseholders. Only abolishing the freehold-leasehold system will do that

[Liam Spender @LiamSpender]

Whilst well intentioned, regulation of managing agents in the form proposed will not do anything to drive up standards. Regulating managing agents without regulating landlords is also going to leave a glaring gap in any system. Agents will still be able to get out of jail free by saying they are following their landlord client’s instructions.

Landlords like the idea of regulating managing agents, but why have they done nothing to improve the quality of these agents where they control the appointment? How will a regulator succeed where they have failed?

The most effective form of regulation is to give leaseholders control of their service charges and to appoint their own managing agents. For example, sites that qualify for but have not yet exercised it should be subject to regular trigger ballots to take control away from landlords.

The model of regulation proposed is only going to achieve higher costs for leaseholders. The regulator itself will have to be paid for. Its enforcement activity will have to paid for. The cost of obtaining the qualifications will have to be paid for. All of those costs will fall on leaseholders, most likely through increased management fees.

This is the pattern already seen with the Building Safety Regulator, which has imposed costs of thousands on leaseholders for all the paperwork, surveys and reports required.

The TPI model of regulation by qualification is designed to benefit TPI members by driving out smaller agents so they can reduce competition and raise prices. The TPI also boosts its income by providing all these new qualifications. Most TPI qualifications fall out of a box of cornflakes.

Giving rogue operators like FirstPort a pass on years of misconduct simply because they become registered and their staff have qualifications will not change anything. Any regulatory system fails the moment it admits the likes of FirstPort.

The TPI is no friend of leaseholders. All the big name managing agents are members. Many so-called professional freeholders are associate members. FirstPort remains a member despite its appalling practices.

The TPI has intervened to make arguments in support of landlords in both the recent cases heard by the Supreme Court which have reduced leaseholders’ rights over service charges and made it harder to obtain the right to manage. The TPI and its preferred solution for regulation should not be held up as something good for leaseholders.

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

🎯

[nico 🏁 @bombdiggy__]

Shared Ownership need be scrapped and be investigated by an arbitrator. It’s the biggest property scam there is

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Labour are baking in another 40 years - 2 generations - of the freehold-leasehold system in England and Wales - they don’t seem to care about its life changing consequences

[NLC - KATIE KENDRICK OBE - LEASEHOLD CAMPAIGNER @NLC_2019]

Government urged to act on leasehold reform amid mental health fears

* 41% of report having suicidal thoughts
* 95.6% report intense anger linked to their situation
* 89% think about their leasehold situation every single day
@EAToday @mhclg @mtpennycook https://t.co/6XbABZN38f

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

The data doesn’t lie - Labour’s ‘1.5mn new homes in this parliament’ promise is in tatters and impossible to deliver

That’s not ‘naysaying’ it’s fact checking

[Property Insider by Mark Hempshell @PropertyInsidr]

London faces loss of 42,000 homes from development pipeline https://t.co/7HXFhmn49V

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Labour should amend their campaigning slogan to: ShortChange

“We’ll abolish leasehold in our first 100 days” now it’s in 40 years

Throwing reforms under the bus today for “a vision” of change tomorrow to keep freeholders happy

5mn leaseholders pay for every day of delay

[Steve Reed @SteveReedMP]

Labour is changing the country but people aren’t feeling it yet. We will keep working hard until they do.

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Are there any good housing associations? Any at all that deliver housing services to a standard their customers naturally expect and pay for?

[Vicky Spratt @Victoria_Spratt]

Following our expose on the mass eviction of 69 vulnerable social tenants in Islington North, Local MP @jeremycorbyn responds

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

New build homes numbers continue to collapse. Labour housing policy is a not fit for purpose fantasy

[Peter Bill @peterproperty]

CityAm: The number of build-to-rent homes under construction has fallen for the ninth consecutive quarter… https://t.co/xE3cTgNAOl

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

@HenryPryor Both relatable tbh

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Labour’s mid-term performance report on housing - Pass or Fail?

[Henry Pryor @HenryPryor]

There's only one party currently in power so you're also;
Missing your own housing targets
Dragging your feet on leasehold reform
Failing to deal with cladding problems
Not building new social housing
Not being bold enough on infrastructure required.
Thank you for your attention.

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Why does Labour never call out the freeholder lobby - who are actively undermining the sovereignty of Parliament and the King - as “naysayers, purists and bad faith commentators”?

[Free Leaseholders @FreeLeasehlders]

NEWS: FREEHOLDER LOBBY LAWFARE AGAINST 2024 ACT SET TO CONTINUE AS COURT OF APPEAL GIVES GREEN LIGHT 📢

Reports today from industry sources on LinkedIn suggest that the freeholder lobby has been granted permission by the Court of Appeal to proceed with an appeal relating to its judicial review of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, which it lost at the High Court in October.

There has been no official confirmation as of 14:46 on Thursday 2 April 2026.

We believe that what the freeholder lobby is doing is an attack on the will of the people.

They lost in elections, they lost the debate with policymakers, and are now trying to torpedo an Act of Parliament through the courts.

All of the original claimants who were thrashed in October by a comprehensive and devastating High Court decision, bar the John Lyon’s Charity, are involved.

Their continuing judicial review trolling risks having a chilling effect on government as it looks at commencing the 2024 Act, most of which is sat rusting, and considers the new draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill.

We urge the @UKLabour government not to hide behind the judicial review to continue its stalling of the enfranchisement reforms.

The judiciary is not hierarchically superior to other branches of the state.

Parliament is still sovereign.

Government can still govern.

And the freeholders lost at the High Court in October and chances are they will lose again.

Do not give in to the bullying.

Remember your manifesto promise to end leasehold for good.

Local elections are coming up and leaseholders are understandably angry at the foot-dragging as well as the watered down draft Bill shorn of the promised remaining @Law_Commission recommendations on enfranchisement and Right to Manage.

Get on with the public consultation on the enfranchisement rates promised in November 2024 for last summer, which we are all still waiting for.

Leaseholders are being left to be looted.

The government will not be allowed to hide behind this judicial review to continue its stalling of the enfranchisement reforms in the 2024 Act.

Show politics is a force for good, as you promised @Keir_Starmer.

Otherwise the people will continue to think democracy is controlled by Big Money, not voters.

By letting the freeholder lobby call the shots, you are abandoning Labour’s historic mission of taking on rentier interests for a fairer society.

Your namesake Keir Hardie would be raging right now.

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Labour should immediately revise down their new homes target to what is deliverable. Persisting with a 1.5mn target is misleading the public it’s achievable. It may as well be a billion new homes

[Noble Francis @NobleFrancis]

A useful bit of recent information from housing expert Neal Hudson in his FT piece on issues facing housing: "even the government’s own modelling for the Future Homes Standard shows it will miss its 1.5 million housebuilding target by 400,000".
#ukhousing #ukconstruction

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Result

[martinboyd @martinboydlkp]

The first of the ground rent investors to be arrested on suspicion of blackmail and fraud. The leaseholders in Sheffield and Bolton will be happy.

Congratulations to the Sheffield leaseholders for helping gather the evidence.

@LKPleasehold @NLC_2019

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

What self-harm at nation scale looks like

[Ashley Osborne | PRSim | AngelBrics | LEXIT 🇦🇺 @proptechpioneer]

Share prices of UK major housebuilders and developers (Berkeley) are in decline principally due to major structural issues in the English housing market.

Developers will not build if they cannot sell, if they don't build ultimately it has an impact on profits.

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

Shared ownership should be phased out and replaced

[Sky News @SkyNews]

🏡 Shared ownership is the main type of publicly subsidised house building under the Conservatives.

But the scheme is “desperately failing” according to a recent report by a cross-parliamentary group of MPs, as residents face soaring costs 👇

[Stephen Murphy @scmurphy]

@proptechpioneer Amazing how politicians never take credit for rates going up