I actually went to this Labour YIMBY curry event, paid my £50 in a bid to try to speak to the Secretary of State @SteveReedMP on behalf of the 5.3 million households trapped in leasehold. The position is so desperate for us grassroots campaigners that to petition ministers meant to act in the public interest we have to try our luck against well-funded property interests at events like this one. I was sat up in the Gods and managed to corner Mr Reed as he was leaving the venue and being moved on by his handlers. My email request to meet to discuss the issues with him at @mhclg was fobbed off months later. I wonder if they only came back because of the threat of media exposure, although for once I did not place this story. Steve Reed has no time to hear from the leading grassroots campaign to end leasehold for good. Yet in February, he found a slot in his diary to grant an audience to the Residential Freehold Association, a lobby group for Big Freehold. Just last week, I was blocked on X by Reed’s colleague, housing minister @mtpennycook. Why are they running scared? We have a draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill shorn of policies that voters were promised in the @UKLabour manifesto and King’s Speech: the remaining @Law_Commission recommendations on enfranchisement and Right to Manage. The best corporate lobbyists are those which go undetected...