12th July 2025

We understand completely how many people are negatively affected by the current Leasehold system. However, all freeholders are NOT the same. John Lyon’s Charity is not campaigning at the 11th hour, or on a whim. We have been supportive of the majority of reforms, giving substantial written support and other positive suggestions since the Law Commission’s original report in 2018.

To be clear: John Lyon’s Charity is not opposing leasehold reform. We fully support the principle and have worked constructively with governments over the years to help make the system simpler and fairer for leaseholders. What we are doing is asking for a narrow and reasonable exemption for us. We are a charity that happens to have a historic estate. We rely on historic property endowments to fund vital work with children and young people. Our estate is in St John’s Wood. Our analysis shows that 90 per cent of our leaseholders are commercial investors and or/non doms. They are not poor or needy and they are not naïve leaseholders. This would be a transfer of wealth from a funder whose only rationale for being is to fund children and young people’s charities.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 does not currently recognise the unique position of such charities, even though exemptions have been made for organisations like the Crown Estate, the National Trust, and the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. The financial impact of this law would redirect millions from a children’s charity into private wealth – significantly reducing what we can provide to the thousands of young people we support each year.

Many of the charities we support are grass roots community charities. We are facing unparallelled demand for our funding and are already digging deeper into our endowment to fund this demand. A reduction in enfranchisement income will lead to us cutting grants, which will lead to job cuts in the sector we fund.

Our legal challenge is about protecting that future. It is only right that we stand firm in our responsibility to safeguard their long-term interests. To find out more about our stance on leasehold reform, please read our latest blog from our CEO, Lynne Guyton here.