On the horizon – Autumn 2025

In the latest edition of his quarterly column for Estates Gazette, Bill Chandler previews some of the most significant legal developments affecting real estate expected in the coming weeks and months.

Autumn certainly arrived with a bang. Storm Amy battered us over the first weekend in October. The end of British Summer Time has now condemned us to months of commuting in darkness. But what legal developments can we expect before the end of the year, and beyond?

What goes up …

I think it’s fair to say that the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill caused shockwaves when it was introduced into Parliament on 10 July. A gargantuan Bill over 300 pages long dealing mostly with local government matters, the final schedule proposes amendments to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 that would effectively ban upwards-only rent reviews in new business tenancies.

Of course, upwards-only rent reviews have been targeted before. But I don’t recall it ever getting to the stage of being included in a Bill passing through Parliament, so we have to assume that this time it might actually happen.

The Bill is currently undergoing what will presumably be a lengthy committee stage in the House of Commons, so there is every chance that the wording may change before it eventually becomes law, but there are a few interesting points to note about the first draft.

Firstly, the legislation would only apply to new tenancies. Upwards-only clauses in existing business tenancies would be unaffected. This could result in a two-tier market going forward.

Secondly, although widely reported as a ‘ban’, the legislation does not say that business tenancies can no longer include upwards-only provisions. It simply says that such provisions ‘are of no effect’. Tenants negotiating new leases – and lease renewals – will obviously seek to avoid the inclusion of upwards-only provisions at all, but landlords may still prefer to include them because of the next point.

Finally, the ban will only apply to business tenancies within Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (plus licensed premises that are excluded from Part 2). This will not catch every commercial lease. Leases which have been contracted-out of statutory security of tenure are caught, but leases where the tenant is not in occupation for business purposes are not business tenancies within Part 2.

So, for example, where business premises have been sublet in whole, it is therefore entirely possible that identical rent review provisions in the headlease and underlease will operate differently, with the upwards-only aspect ignored in the underlease but taking effect as drafted in the headlease.

Deal or no deal?

Whilst the attack on upwards-only rent reviews may have dominated the headlines, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill also proposes changes to the Community Right to Bid.

The CRB regime allows community groups to nominate a range of premises - such as pubs, shops and even football stadia – as ‘assets of community value’. Registration as an ACV triggers a moratorium on disposal, affording communities an opportunity to negotiate to take them over rather than lose vital community services.

There was much excitement when the CRB regime was introduced under the Localism Act 2011, and there have been some notable successes where communities have managed to secure the property and successfully continue the service, but the limitations of the scheme have also been exposed.

In addition to making changes to the qualifying criteria for an ACV and introducing a new category of ‘sporting assets of community value’ (which will remain on the list ‘indefinitely’), the Bill seeks to convert the Community Right to Bid into something approaching a Community Right to Buy. The proposed legislation stops short of ultimately forcing the owner to sell to the community group, but it will prevent the owner from selling to anyone else if the community group has offered to purchase the asset at a purchase price agreed with the owner or (in default of agreement) set by a local authority valuer.

At first glance, the proposals appear to allow community groups to frustrate a proposed disposal but without ever assuming a legal obligation to purchase, but no doubt the procedure will be clarified and refined as the Bill progresses.

On the home straight

In the event, the Renters’ Rights Bill didn’t obtain Royal Assent before the summer recess. Or before the Labour Party conference. Having cleared both Houses of Parliament before the summer, the ‘ping pong’ match - where the Bill is batted back and forth between the House of Commons and the House of Lords until it is finally agreed – had to wait until Parliament returned in September.

The Bill eventually received Royal Assent on 27 October, becoming the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. But the delay in making it onto the statute book, and the government’s pledge to give the sector fair warning of when the changes will happen, make it unlikely now that any of the headline provisions will be brought into force in this calendar year.

The government has previously indicated that an implementation timetable would be published once the Bill had been passed, so hopefully this will be available soon. It is however entirely possible that we will see the abolition of fixed term residential tenancies and no fault eviction during the first half of 2026. [Update – this has now been set for 1 May 2026].

Coming soon

Some of the other things to look out for before the end of the year include:

• Residential conveyancing - although its use will not become mandatory (for Conveyancing Quality Scheme members) until 30 March 2026, the new 6th edition of the TA6 Property Information Form was released in October and is currently being rolled out by third-party suppliers. We can also expect lots of discussion around the latest attempt to improve the homebuying process. The government consultation on ‘the biggest shakeup to the homebuying system in this country’s history’ closes on 29 December 2025.

• Budget – this has now been set for 26 November. Whilst the rumoured replacement of SDLT with a national property tax is perhaps unlikely to happen (yet), there will undoubtedly be changes that will affect real estate. Rumours abound of attacks on high value homes, through changes to council tax and/or capital gains tax. And the Labour government has not yet implemented its election manifesto pledge to increase the SDLT surcharge for overseas buyers.

• Chancel repair - the Law Commission consultation on removing the uncertainties that have persisted since chancel repair liability lost ‘overriding interest’ status in 2013 closes in November. Personally I’m hoping that the proposed legislative change evolves into something more definite (that unprotected chancel repair liability is permanently extinguished for that property, for everyone, forever). And even then, it will still require a government that is willing to implement the change.

• Business tenancies – following the Law Commission’s interim statement in June (which arrived at the provisional conclusion that the existing ‘security of tenure unless contracted out’ model should continue), the promised second stage of the consultation can be expected in due course, considering how the current lease renewal process and contracting out procedure can be improved.

• Commonhold – the draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill is still expected before the end of the year.

Beyond the horizon

Looking further ahead, into 2026 and beyond:

• Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 – 2026 may well witness the first High Street Rental Auction under Part 10 of the 2023 Act and the launch of the register of contractual controls over land (options, pre-emptions, conditional contracts etc) under Part 11.

• Landlord and tenant – the High Court decision in London Trocadero (2015) LLP -v- Picturehouse Cinemas Limited [2025] EWHC 1247 (Ch) attracted a lot of publicity over the summer months. The landlord was ordered to refund significant sums in respect of insurance commissions unlawfully charged to the tenant over several years. The landlord has unsurprisingly appealed and the Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear the appeal by June 2026.

• 14th programme of law reform – every few years, the Law Commission publishes a new programme of areas it considers ripe for reform. Its 14th programme was published in September 2025. Over the coming years we can expect to see consultations on a number of real estate topics, including the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995, rights of first refusal under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (insofar as it affects commercial premises), ownerless land, the management of housing estates and agricultural tenancies.

An earlier version of this article appeared in Estates Gazette.