Leasehold scandal play hits the Camden Fringe

The National Leasehold Campaign’s (NLC) heroic journey to get reform of the controversial tenure type on the statute book has hit the stage.

Playwright Michele Sheldon has written a political comedy called Fleecehold that is being performed at the Camden Fringe this weekend that highlights the journey to leasehold reform.

She wrote the play out of frustration of being a leaseholder and as a tribute to all the reformers including popular Folkestone-based Louie Burns, who died in 2020, as well as for all leaseholders trapped in their houses and flats. 

It was delightful to watch a play that brings to life a subject I have written about since 2018 and to see the human element behind the political campaigning and hours of select committee hearings and parliamentary debate.

Think Christmas Carol crossed with The Big Short, the play brilliantly brings to life how NLC founders Katie Kendrick, Cath Williams Jo Derbyshire - played by three talented actresses - and hundreds of thousands of other leaseholders have become trapped by onerous terms, permission fees and so-called “legalease”. This has made leasehold homes expensive to live in and hard to sell.

In the play, Katie, a nurse, is furious the developer has sold the freehold to her home to a viscount who owns 200,000 freeholds and now wants her to pay nearly £14,000 to buy hers back. Despite being mute as a child and badly bullied because of a bad stammer, Katie decides she must speak out.

She is soon joined by fellow leaseholders Cath Williams and Jo Darbyshire who take inspiration from leasehold campaigners Sebastian O’ Kelly, Louie Burns and the ghost of 19th century leasehold reformer MP Henry Broadhurst. They set up the NLC on a Facebook page. Meanwhile, the ghosts of greedy landowners and aristocrats hinder and pour scorn on their attempts at reform alongside modern day freeholders and developers.

The play includes select committee inquiry evidence to document the leasehold reformers’ journey up to helping draft the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill 2023 making its way through Parliament.

There is plenty of comedy, portraying the ridiculousness of how permission fees are decided and the serious side, such as the useless housing ministers and the impact of the shock death of Louie Burns and Katie’s own late dad.

These are aspects you can’t always put into news stories but they work well on stage.

It ends with an important point that there is still work to do on ground rent caps and exemptions on developments such as retirement homes, but the real campaigners and supportive journalists and MPs can hopefully carry on this work.

Fleecehold stars Lucille Ferguson as Katie Kendrick, Sasha Ravenscroft as Jo Darbyshire and Debbie Christie as Cath Williams Supporting actors include comedy actor James Holmes, best known as Clive in popular BBC sitcom Miranda, Alex Halsall and Tristan Pretty. Fleecehold is on at The Cockpit from 22 to 24 August at 7pm as part of the Camden Fringe.

Find out more: https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/fleecehold