Under government plans, new leaseholder flats will be banned in a move towards instilling commonhold arrangements as the default.

The government’s commonhold white paper includes new rules that will make it easier to convert leaseholds into commonholds.

New rules are also being introduced to strengthen the management of commonholds, around appointing directors, clear standards for repairs and mandating use of reserve funds.

For the benefit of mortgage lenders, and to protect the solvency of commonholds, the government is also proposing mandatory public liability issuance and greater oversight by commonhold unit owners to keep costs down.

Overall, this has the aim of making commonhold arrangements applicable for all kinds of developments and allowing shared ownership homes within a commonhold.

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“This government promised not only to provide immediate relief to leaseholders suffering now but to do what is necessary to bring the feudal leasehold system to an end – and that is precisely what we are doing,” said housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook.

“By taking decisive steps to reinvigorate commonhold and make it the default tenure, we will ensure that it is homeowners, not third-party landlords, who will own the buildings they live in and have a greater say in how their home is managed and the bills they pay.

A new code of practice will set out how costs should be apportioned in commonhold, and the government is committed to strengthening regulation of managing agents.

A consolidation will soon be launched to ban new leasehold flats, along with a draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill setting out the legal framework for how reformed commonhold will work.