The biggest home improvement that can be easier said than done

The compensation that can be claimed by English freeholders will be much higher.

“It generally works,” Gerber says of Scotland’s current system, which is similar to a commonwealth.

“You always get people who don’t want to mess with their money…that can be a problem,” he says.

Most experts agree that there is no perfect system where multiple people share responsibility for a building.

Regardless of further legal challenges, Hopkins believes a consensus will be reached. “The judicial review failed in the first place and failed completely. A lot of arguments, I think, are really lost.”

He says there is now broad political support for reform.

Former housing secretaries Angela Rayner and Michael Gove both backed the amendment when giving evidence to MPs. The Liberal Democrats and Greens support shared ownership, while Reform UK has stopped short of advocating the abolition of leasehold ownership altogether.

A spokesman for the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government said their reforms would “transform the home ownership experience in England by giving homeowners “more power and control over higher costs”.

Professor Sherry admits that “things can be difficult, but it can be done.”

“Co-living is better because I don’t believe that people who don’t live in the house should own the bottom land and get the benefits that flow from it.”

Whether that vision becomes a reality now depends on the policy.

The next Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has already expressed his support for leasehold reform, but who he appoints as Housing Secretary is important. The draft law, described as “technical and lengthy”, is still a long way from fulfilling the manifesto promises.

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