Labour ministers have charged the taxpayer over £74,000 in leasehold costs for their second homes while “dragging their feet” on reforms, The Telegraph can reveal.
and protect homeowners from spiralling service charges and ground rents.
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Now, analysis by The Telegraph shows five ministers have expensed £74,296 in service charges and ground rents on their second homes over the past six years.
MPs – who usually have two homes in both their constituencies and in London – are entitled to expense such charges.
who are forced to cover sky-high service charges themselves.
Sebastian O’Kelly, of fellow campaign group Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, said: “Leaseholders in desperate financial straits are going to be jaundiced by evidence that flat-owning MPs are spared the deep unfairnesses of leasehold because they can shove the service charge on expenses.
“If they [MPs] paid the service charges out of their own pocket, as ordinary mortals do, they might be more eager to press on with reforming this iniquitous and now very well-understood system.”
Sir Chris Bryant, minister of state for media, tourism and creative industries, expensed the largest service charge bill of any minister on a second home – totalling £29,270 over six years.
The Labour MP for Rhondda and Ogmore, in Wales, was followed by his colleague Sir Alan Campbell, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury.
Sir Alan, who is Labour MP for Tynemouth, outside Newcastle, expensed £13,655 between 2019 and 2025.
Over the same period, Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, claimed £12,851. Mr Benn – Labour MP for Leeds South – put parliamentary questions to the previous government about leasehold reform and even attended rallies on behalf of leaseholders.
Other ministers who have expensed their service charges and ground rents are Jo Stevens, Secretary of State for Wales, and Maria Eagle, minister for defence procurement. They expensed £12,538 and £5,982 respectively, between 2019 and 2025.
Campaigners have been crying out for better protections for leaseholders since 2017. At the time, experts had raised concerns about the way developers sold residential properties – prompting a government investigation.
The terms of the contracts often gave freeholders the rights to continue increasing ground rents on the properties, sometimes by as much as 100pc every 10 years.
Leaseholders have also complained of sky-high service charges. Estate agency Hamptons estimates that flat owners now pay a collective bill of over £7bn to freeholders.
The last Tory government brought in the Leasehold and Freehold Bill 2024 but Labour’s housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, has since admitted that the bill needs more “primary legislation”. He has not yet confirmed when this will happen.
In the meantime, his department – the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – has said it will introduce a draft of another piece of legislation, the Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill, at the end of this year.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be appalled to learn that Labour ministers are expensing their service charge bills.
“While the Government drags its feet on reforms to help Britons challenge unfair charges, politicians are leaving the public to fend for themselves. Ministers should lead by example, not leave hardworking taxpayers out in the cold.”
Harry Scoffin, founder of the campaign group Free Leaseholders, said: “Now we know it’s because their ministers are using taxpayers’ money to pay off their own service charges while leaving hapless leaseholders to empty their pockets to cover their own.
A Labour spokesman said: “MPs in every party are required to work in two locations as part of their job.
“For those who do not rent in their second location, the parliamentary watchdog IPSA allows MPs to claim associated living costs. This saves the taxpayer thousands of pounds against renting an additional home.”
Individual ministers and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government were also approached for comment.
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