Written questions by Powell.

Communities and Local Government, when he expects to respond to the home buying and selling reform consultation.

On 6 October, my Department published two consultations outlining reform proposals to transform home buying and selling. They can be found on gov.uk here and here. Both consultations closed on 29 December. We are now reviewing the feedback received. Subject to the outcomes of the analysis being undertaken, we will publish a roadmap setting out further details of our reforms later this year.

Communities and Local Government, when she plans to consult on the valuation rates used to calculate the cost of enfranchisement premiums.

The 2024 Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act sets the method for calculating the price of a statutory lease extension or freehold acquisition, known as the valuation process. The Bill removes the requirement for marriage value to be paid, caps the treatment of ground rents in the valuation calculation at 0.1% of the freehold value, and allows government to prescribe the rates used to calculate the enfranchisement premium. Valuation rates will be set by the Secretary of State in secondary legislation, and we have made clear we intend to consult before determining what the rates should be. Last week the High Court heard challenges to some of the 2024 Act enfranchisement reforms. Leaseholders should be assured that the government is robustly defending those challenges. Following the outcome of the hearing, we will provide further update on the rates consultation. Once the consultation goes live, we want to hear views from a broad spectrum of stakeholders before making a decision, and we invite all who have an interest to feed these in.

Communities and Local Government, when she plans to commence Section 49 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.

The Government intend to act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights, powers, and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. These include the provisions at Sections 49 and 64 of the Act. We will set out details in due course about the extensive programme of secondary legislation needed to bring the Act into force.

Communities and Local Government, when she plans to commence Section 64 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.

The Government intend to act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights, powers, and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. These include the provisions at Sections 49 and 64 of the Act. We will set out details in due course about the extensive programme of secondary legislation needed to bring the Act into force.

Communities and Local Government, when her Department plans to respond to the consultation entitled Modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases which closed on 17 January 2024.

Over the course of this Parliament, the Government will further reform the leasehold system. We will enact remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to enfranchisement and the Right to Manage, tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, reinvigorate commonhold through a comprehensive new legal framework, and ban the sale of new leasehold flats so commonhold becomes the default tenure.The Government has made clear it intends to publish draft legislation on leasehold and commonhold reform in this session so that it may be subject to broad consultation and additional parliamentary scrutiny. We will announce further details in due course.