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Harry Scoffin writes:

Last month, the government triumphed when the High Court backed its approach to leasehold reform, a devastating 167-page blow to the rich freeholder lobby trying to sabotage democracy, after having lost the debate with Parliament and in elections. Yet, Number 10 refuses to seize its win.

The freeholders’ target was the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, passed by the last Conservative government but only made possible by Labour authorisation.

In unleashing lawfare to torpedo this legislation, they probably sought to scare Starmer’s administration into abandoning its manifesto commitment to end leasehold for good via commonhold.

The elite landowners weaponised the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights to save a property system that makes England and Wales international pariahs and gifts outside landlords, or freeholders, the whip hand over flat owners who are mere tenants in the law.

The High Court ruled that Parliament has great sway over matters of social and economic policy, even suggesting it was an odd idea that freeholders should never lose money, highlighting that changing tax policy in a democratic society is a constant risk to the value of people’s investments.

Given the government’s unpopularity and desperation to prove its ruthless focus on the people’s priorities, including putting more money in our pockets, it is eyebrow-raising that Starmer and ministers have been silent on their impressive win that could free 5.3 million households from financial servitude in England and Wales.

The freeholders may have lost at the High Court, but their lawfare is working. As Parliament closed for summer, the government quietly confirmed it was postponing a consultation on enfranchisement reform that would make lease extensions and freehold acquisitions cheaper.

The freeholders have predictably sought permission to appeal, according to an announcement on Wednesday at the Commons Housing Select Committee.

This could drag on for years, taking us all the way to Strasbourg. The government may choose to be paralysed until the next general election in 2029, punishing leaseholders who have already waited decades.

The silence is telling. Perhaps Starmer’s administration is embarrassed about its High Court victory since the plan all along was to throw away the tournament.

Starmer needs to remember that Parliament is sovereign, and he leads a Labour government with the second-largest majority in the party’s 125-year history after promising “change” to desperate voters.

On leasehold, he must press home the advantage and dribble the ball into the next net. If he keeps dithering, he’ll be replaced for fresh legs on the pitch.