Rayner and Gove attack ‘vested interests’ over leasehold reform
2 months ago | 3 comments
Angela Rayner urges Keir Starmer to pick fights with landlords
9:26 AM, 25th March 2026, 1 month ago
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Former deputy leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner has told Sir Keir Starmer to ‘pick more fights’ with landlords and freeholders.
At a fundraising dinner in central London, the former housing secretary said voters feel the system is ‘rigged against them’, the Daily Telegraph reports.
She went on to say that she expects a tougher response from the government, particularly on housing.
Ms Rayner’s intervention follows a warning last week that Labour was ‘running out of time’ to shift direction before May’s local elections.
Pick more fights
She described financial strain among working households, including those in professional roles who are taking on additional jobs yet still struggling to meet monthly costs.
Ms Rayner said: “They feel that nobody understands and cares about the difficulties they go through.
“And this isn’t just people who you would naturally associate with struggling, naturally associate with poverty.
“These are professional people, people that are working really hard, people that have got two, three jobs and they’re still not able to get to the end of the month with their wage packet.”
She added: “And they need to know they’ve got a government on their side, and they’re impatient for change and I understand their impatience.
“So, I think we have to pick more fights, personally.”
Freehold ‘rips off’ people
Housing featured prominently in the speech, with Ms Rayner focusing on the leasehold system and the role of freeholders collecting ground rent.
Plans set out earlier this year would cap ground rents at £250 annually, before reducing them to peppercorn levels after 40 years, without abolishing leasehold entirely.
She said: “Those people that sold the freehold, that are ripping off people for no money … You may as well lob the money in the street, they’re not doing anything for it.
“People have bought flats and are now being absolutely fleeced.
“We should be standing up for them, we should be saying we’re not having that anymore and I think we have to keep doing that.
“We have to do that with some in the private sector that are taking huge sums of money for children’s centres et cetera when, let’s be honest, they’re not delivering.
“That’s what Bridget [Phillipson] is doing with the new Send reforms.”
Call for rent controls
Meanwhile, tenant campaigners have renewed calls for direct action on landlords and housing costs.
London Renters Union spokesperson Jae Vail told the Morning Star: “Labour is haemorrhaging support across the country over its pro-landlord, pro-developer stance on the housing crisis.
“If the government wants to win any of that support back, it must take on landlords and put our right to a good home first.
“That means introducing rent controls that bring down housing costs and investing in the council homes we need to end the housing crisis for good.”
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Angela Rayner landlords, freeholders UK, labour housing policy, Labour local elections housing, leasehold reform ground rent, rent controls debate
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Member Since October 2024 - Comments: 197
3:43 PM, 26th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by Tim Peters at 25/03/2026 – 10:06
Ground rent is ridiculous fees anyway. Ground that has several properties to 100s of properties on the same ground and charging £1,000 per year is ludicrous. If that is how the pension companies make money to pay the pensioners, it is a flawed investment. This needed to be stopped as New Yorkie said when the freeholder lost the battle in the court. Angela Rainer was too scared. She is there only for herself, how she can save some money and not pay her taxes. She is just a hot air.
Leaseholders having to pay high ground rent should be abolished. From end of 2028 it will be a lot reduced amount of £250 per annum. Even this will mean a lot of free money, that does not make any sense. The properties on the ground has been sold many times over and profits have already made. Just to put money for the pensioners pocket is not a good business. The need to use their brain to anaylse the markets and invest in stocks and shares or other investments is needed not sit waiting for the ground rent to continuously land in their account for practically not doing any work. This is big loophole that needs to be closed off. This will take 15 years. So now is the time these beneficiaries start investing elsewhere.
Clearly identified as a joke, that has gone on far too long. No place in the modern world.
Member Since October 2013 - Comments: 1642 - Articles: 3
4:46 PM, 26th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by PAUL BARTLETT at 25/03/2026 – 10:17
You do realise all costs associated with repairs to the fabric of a block are paid for by the leaseholders from their service charge, and are invariably inflated.
Member Since April 2018 - Comments: 374
4:55 PM, 26th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by NewYorkie at 26/03/2026 – 16:46
Leaseholds also pay for the cost of maintaining the ground (ground rent) and what’s under it.So as they do why doesn’t the freeholder at least pay for the garden maintenance , clearance of pipes running under, parking bay and carpark repairs. They do absolutely no work, apart from engaging slick lawyers, for the benefit.
Member Since September 2020 - Comments: 6
5:23 PM, 26th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by Suicide Jockey at 25/03/2026 – 09:40
This government is so spiteful and jealousof anyone who works their ass off to succeed
Landlords are not a charity so therefore if you cant afford the rent your will not get a rental agreement at market value from anyone
Prospective tenants needs to know you will not be allowed to take the piss from landlords by not paying your rent not because you cant but because you wont
The referencing on prospective tenants will be so tight you will have seen nothing like it befre
Even your social media accounts will be investigated
Member Since September 2020 - Comments: 6
5:27 PM, 26th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
This government is so spiteful and jealousof anyone who works their ass off to succeed
Landlords are not a charity so therefore if you cant afford the rent your will not get a rental agreement at market value from anyone
Prospective tenants needs to know you will not be allowed to take the piss from landlords by not paying your rent not because you cant but because you wont
The referencing on prospective tenants will be so tight you will have seen nothing like it befre
Even your social media accounts will be investigated
i will need to se your incoming and outgoing inventory from your last rental
Why you are leaving the property
would your current landlord relet to you
a background search on the property and owner you are currently with
full financial referencing check
How you paid your rent Full bank statment evidence that it was paid in full on time every time
antisocial behaviour and breaches of current tenancy
And on it will go
so maybe iit will not be so much about getting unsuitabkle tenants out but actually letting them in in the first instance
Member Since October 2024 - Comments: 197
8:09 PM, 26th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by DavidM at 25/03/2026 – 12:43
The leaseholder will never be able to sell their property when the ground rnt and service charges gets very high. That is currently a single large factor for flats in cities are not being sold. Prices have dropped anything between 20 and 50% after over 15 years of the development being sold and no chance of they breaking even even after another 3 years. The GR going down to £250 at the end of 2028 may help. In 15 years, it will be peppercorn, which is what should have been. The developers already sell the new properties at a premium prices and no way they go up in value over 16 years. Lucky if the leasholders breakeven.
The government is getting more development but there are no buyers of those properties. Once a opon time the investors or landlords were buying them. Now with the RRB, the landlords will be crucified. The council workign in conjuction with the developers may mean the councils will buy them and and let to homeless and asylum seekers. We have all seen what those new peoperties would look like in 5 to 7 years. The councils cannot look after their tenants or properties. They will be outsourced to other companies who could not care any less.
Member Since May 2024 - Comments: 118
3:46 PM, 28th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
Wow. So apparently Labour are pro-landlord. Who would have thought it. As my tenants leave, so will I. Let’s see who the activists will be shouting at in five years time.
Member Since February 2020 - Comments: 29
5:17 PM, 29th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 25/03/2026 – 09:59
What tax bill, she is appealing it?
She has a new taxpayer funded lawyer……apparently the trusts and covenaces were complex!
https://youtu.be/5a-AzaFqmUg?si=DbwS4hK4BOk0BwCZ
Member Since April 2018 - Comments: 374
8:38 PM, 29th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
No surprise is it.That’s nice , taxpayer funded lawyer, can I get one of those.
Member Since December 2025 - Comments: 49
9:10 PM, 29th March 2026, About 4 weeks ago
Im not defending or supporting Angela Rayner but…”Based on reports from March 2026, the Labour Party—not the taxpayer—covered the costs of a specialist tax lawyer to advise Angela Rayner on her personal tax affairs regarding a property purchase” (Landlord Today., The Times)
Plenty else to attack AR on, without undermining your criticism by using rumours