What's coming up in the property world? Natalie Hunter and Lauren King in our Property Litigation team consider some of the key reforms expected across the commercial and residential property spheres this year.
Residential
Renters' Rights Bill
The Renters' Rights Bill is completing its final legislative stages, with the Third (final) Reading in the House of Lords scheduled for 21 July 2025, just before Parliament pauses for the summer recess on 22 July 2025. There may still be some "ping pong" between the Houses after the Third Reading, so it appears more likely that the Bill will receive Royal Assent in late summer or autumn.
Once the Bill receives Royal Assent – and becomes the Renters' Rights Act – there will be a period before the provisions of the Act begin to take effect. Once it takes effect, the new system will apply to all new and existing assured tenancies in one stage.
This legislation will bring about a generational change to the private rented sector, with the abolition of fixed term tenancies (all new and existing assured tenancies will be month-to-month periodic tenancies), the abolition of so-called "no fault" section 21 evictions, significant changes affecting the payment of rent, tenants' ability to keep pets, a new national landlord register, a Private Rented Sector Ombudsman, and a new Decent Homes Standard, to name a few.
The Government wants to implement the Act "in a responsible manner" and acknowledges that there is a lot of preparatory work to ensure that landlords, tenants, letting agents and the courts are prepared for the new regime. The Government will announce the commencement date of the Act's provisions in regulations following Royal Assent and we would expect the commencement date to be several months after this, so perhaps even 2026.
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 - Service charge reform
On 4 July 2025, The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Welsh Government published a new consultation called "Strengthening leaseholder protections over charges and services".
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 includes measures to improve the rights of residential leaseholders by increasing transparency of service charges so that leaseholders are better able to scrutinise and challenge costs if they consider them to be unreasonable. The Act also includes provision to scrap the presumption for leaseholders to pay their landlords’ legal costs, thereby removing a significant barrier to challenging poor practice. These measures will be implemented through secondary legislation, which is still to be drafted and enacted. To inform this process, the Government considers it is essential to engage comprehensively with managing agents, leaseholders, freeholders, insurers, legal representatives and all other interested/impacted stakeholders as to how best they believe that the service charge and legal costs measures in the 2024 Act should be implemented.
The consultation closes on 26 September 2025, and we would expect the necessary secondary legislation to be enacted fairly swiftly, having regard to Matthew Pennycook's statement that he is "acutely aware that leaseholders currently subject to unfair and unreasonable practices need urgent relief".
Our industry body, the Property Litigation Association, is surveying its members and collating a response to this Consultation.
Commercial
Law Commission consultation on the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954
On 4 June 2025, the Law Commission issued an Interim Statement following its first consultation on the future of security of tenure for business tenancies under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 ("the 1954 Act").
The key provisional conclusions that will shape the next phase of its consultation are:
Contracting out model
The existing "contracting out" model (by which business tenants have the right to renew their lease unless they "contracted out" of the 1954 Act security of tenure provisions) should be retained because it strikes a good balance between landlords and tenants and has broad support among consultees. Changing the model could disrupt the commercial leasehold market.
Types of tenancy
The consultees generally support the existing list of excluded tenancies (e.g. tenancies of agricultural holdings, farm business tenancies, mining leases, certain leases of licensed premises), and the Commission provisionally agrees with the consultees.
Duration of tenancy
Currently, tenancies granted for six months or less are generally excluded from the Act, so cannot benefit from the security of tenure afforded by it. There is support for increasing the current threshold of six months to provide more flexibility in short-term lettings. The Commission is considering consulting on increasing this threshold to two years.
Next steps: The provisional conclusions will inform a second consultation paper, focusing on technical details and potential reforms to the contracting-out procedure. The final recommendations will be made in a subsequent report.
Impact: These conclusions aim to ensure the 1954 Act remains relevant and effective for the modern commercial leasehold market. Once concluded, the Law Commission will present its findings to the Government, who will then decide whether to implement the Law Commission's recommendations.
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill – banning upwards-only rent reviews
On 10 July 2025 the Government introduced the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill to the House of Commons. The Bill includes measures that fall under three broad sections: (1) devolution of powers for mayors and authorities; (2) changes to local authority governance; and (3) more power to local communities and reforming commercial leases.
As part of reforming commercial leases, the Bill proposes a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in business tenancies across most sectors (exempting some very limited areas such as agricultural leases). The ban "aims to make commercial leasing fairer for tenants, ensure high street rents are set more efficiently, and stimulate economic growth".
This proposed reform (with no pre-warning or public consultation) could have a significant impact on the commercial leasehold market. We provide more information on the relevant provisions and a detailed Q&A in this recent article.
Martyn's law
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, known as Martyn’s Law, aims to enhance public venue preparedness for terrorist attacks. Named after Martyn Hett, a victim of the Manchester Arena bombing, it mandates venues with a capacity of 200 or more to have a formal response plan.
Key provisions
- Implementation: The Act received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025, with a two-year implementation period. The Home Office will provide guidance to help duty holders comply without needing specialist advice.
- Qualifying premises: Venues used for public-facing activities, such as retail, food and drink establishments, sports grounds, and more, must comply if they meet capacity thresholds.
- Tiered duties:
- Standard tier: For venues expecting 200-799 people. These venues are required to notify the Security Industry Authority and implement basic public protection procedures.
- Enhanced tier: For venues expecting 800+ people. These venues are required to appoint a senior person to oversee public protection measures, document procedures, and report to the Security Industry Authority.
Impact
Martyn’s Law, once enacted, will require those in control of premises or public events to implement necessary safety measures. Property owners and business operators must determine their responsibilities or delegate them to a third party. A 'responsible person' must be appointed to manage compliance, and registration with the Security Industry Authority is required. Non-compliance could result in fines ranging from £500 per day and a £10,000 maximum penalty for standard tier premises, to up to £18 million or 5% of worldwide turnover for enhanced tier premises.
The Act establishes control measures by making non-compliance with any received compliance or restriction notices a criminal offence. It places the burden on the responsible person to demonstrate that they took all reasonably practicable steps to prevent the offence.
Telecoms
The Government recently closed its consultation on draft secondary legislation concerning the renewal provisions of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022.
The renewal provisions make changes to Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, specifically to tenancies whose primary purpose is to confer Code Rights on telecommunications operators relating to telecommunications infrastructure.
When commenced, the changes will alter the financial terms on renewal of relevant leases. They do this by replacing the valuation frameworks contained in the 1954 Act with provisions that mirror those in the Electronic Communications Code. Also known as the "no network" assumption, the valuation methodology in the Code disregards the use of the site for telecommunications purposes, which means that another alternative use must be found to achieve a higher rent. For the average city centre rooftop without a valuable alternative use, this would likely be no more than £6,500 per annum.
The next step is for the Government to determine whether the draft regulations require any amendment to give effect to its intended aims, publish a response to this consultation later this year, and then to make regulations bringing the renewal provisions into effect shortly afterwards.