Corporate Update

RNS Number : 1453A

Ground Rents Income Fund PLC

22 December 2017

 

Ground Rents Income Fund plc

Corporate Update

Ground Rents Income Fund PLC ("GRIF" or "the Company") notes the statement made yesterday by Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid, regarding the leasehold system, the proposed future level of ground rents in England and the release of the Department for Communities and Local Government's consultation responses and the subsequent Government response to the consultation- Tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market.

GRIF welcomes the steps the Government intends to take to stamp out poor practice in the housebuilding industry concerning leasehold houses, to protect consumers in the home sale process and to improve standards and transparency in residential property management sector. The Directors are wholly supportive of the Government's Housing White Paper, 'Fixing our broken housing market', and are aligned in their desire to promote fairness and transparency for consumers.

The Company is committed to working with Government and the Law Commission to appropriately reform the industry and to support existing leaseholders. GRIF has advocated a formal industry code of practice be enacted into legislation, under existing powers of the Secretary of State, in order to drive standards and to regulate managing agents.

In light of these announcements and having regard for the best interests of GRIF's leaseholders, the Company will pause the rollout of its asset management programme in order to digest the statements from the last 24 hours. The Directors remain committed to amending leases' review terms from doubling, to the lesser of doubling or RPI, for those leaseholders affected.

Contacts:

Ground Rents Income Fund plc
Simon Wombwell (Director)	020 7499 6424
Brooks Macdonald Funds Limited
James Agar (Director)	020 7659 3454
N+1 Singer (Broker)
James Maxwell / Liz Yong	020 7496 3000
Tavistock (Media)
Jeremy Carey / James Whitmore	020 7920 3150
Appleby Securities (Channel Islands) Limited
Kate Storey / Danielle Machon	01481 755600

 

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