The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 (“Act”) received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. Among its most significant commercial property reforms is the proposed prohibition on upwards-only rent reviews (“UORRs”) in business leases.

Although the relevant provisions are not yet in force, the direction of travel is now clear.

The legislation represents a substantial shift in business tenancies practice and may rapidly begin to influence negotiations, valuation assumptions and asset management decisions.

One immediate consequence is that landlords with pending rent reviews under existing leases are likely to rush their conclusion before the ban crystallises.

Back in October 2025, the High Court firmly dismissed major UK freeholders’ arguments that certain reforms in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 breached their property rights under Article 1 Protocol 1 (A1P1) ECHR in Arc Time Freehold Income Authorised Fund & others v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] EWHC 2751 (Admin).

Yesterday’s King’s Speech confirmed that the Government intends to continue with further leasehold and commonhold reform legislation during the current Parliamentary session.

The speech itself contained only a brief reference to leasehold reform, stating: “My Ministers will bring forward legislation to increase long-term investment in social housing and to reform the leasehold system, including the capping of ground rents.”

However, accompanying Government briefings and subsequent ministerial commentary make clear that the proposed reforms are intended to go significantly further than the measures already contained in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (LAFRA 2024).

The Government has announced new legislation to prevent private residential tenants from being swept into the scope of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on rent as an unintended consequence of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (RRA 2025), which comes into force on 1 May 2026.

The change sits against a dramatic statutory overhaul that substantially strengthens tenant security and increases compliance obligations for landlords.

In Brickfield Properties Ltd v Oakwood Court Blocks 9 & 10 RTM Company Ltd [2026] UKUT 133 (LC), the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has provided welcome clarity on one of the more technical hurdles in multi-block Right to Manage (RTM) claims: whether services can be said to be “independent” for the purposes of section 72(4) of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.

The right to manage is often perceived to be a low-cost alternative to acquiring the freehold collectively by participating flat owners.

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (RRA 2025) shakes up the traditional structure of residential tenancies – fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies will be abolished and home rentals must instead take place as assured periodic tenancies (APTs) from 1 May 2026.

One elusive but significant consequence of this arises from the interaction between the new tenancy model and the existing Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) regime.

However, what looks like just a shift in tenancy structure could, in practice, pull thousands of renters into scope of SDLT reporting and payment obligations for the first time.

The Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (‘ATED’) is a yearly tax mainly payable by non-natural persons (i.e. companies) that own UK residential property valued at over £500,000.

The government has issued the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (Indexation of Annual Chargeable Amounts) Order 2026 (SI 2026/156), which updates the annual ATED charges for periods beginning on or after 1 April 2026. The Order came into force on 24 February 2026 and fulfils the statutory requirement in s.101(5) Finance Act 2013 to uprate the annual charges in line with inflation.

The Government has now opened a consultation in this regard titled “Moving to commonhold: banning leasehold for new flats”.

The consultation forms part of the next phase of leasehold reform and sits alongside the ongoing implementation of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (‘The 2024 Act’) and the recently published draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill (‘The Bill’).

This seeks opinions from leaseholders, landlords and managing agents about how the Bill’s proposed ban on new residential leaseholds should be implemented in practice.

The government announced the introduction of the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill in January 2026. This Bill proposes several reforms to the current flat ownership system, including:

· A ban on new flats being sold as leaseholds – they would need to be sold as commonhold properties, which the Government is pushing to become the default form of flat ownership; and

· A cap on ground rents at no more than £250 pa, which will be reduced to a peppercorn after a 40-year transitional period has passed.

The Housing, Communities and Local Government (‘HCLG’) Committee has now launched a short public inquiry into the Government’s draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill (‘the Bill’), which was published for pre-legislative scrutiny on 27 January 2026.

In January 2026 the Government published the Draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, confirming its intention to cap ground rents in existing residential leases at £250 per annum, with a longer-term objective of reducing those rents to a peppercorn. Another proposal by the Bill is to ban the creation of new leaseholds and instead to make commonhold the default mode of flat ownership.

The Bill has been published in draft form only and is subject to pre-legislative scrutiny, consultation and amendment. It is important for leaseholders, landlords and managing agents to understand the effects of the proposals and the likely timescale for their implementation.