The Law Commission has recently published its Consultation on possible reform of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Business Tenancies: the right to renew - Law Commission. This was commissioned by the previous conservative Government as part of the levelling-up agenda but reform of the 1954 Act has been mooted for many years, owing to the number of commercial leases which are routinely ‘contracted-out’ of the security of tenure rights which the tenant would otherwise enjoy under the Act.

The Law Commission would like a more accurate picture of the operation of the 1954 Act in the current commercial leasehold market to inform its proposals for reform, and in particular what proportion of business leases are actually contracted-out. So, alongside the Consultation is a Survey: Business Tenancies Survey - Ministry of Justice - Citizen Space.

The Consultation covers options for alternative models of reform:

• mandatory security of tenure
• no statutory security of tenure
• contracting-in to security of tenure
• contracting-out as now

whichever model is pursued there is also the potential to reform the scope and operation of the Act or improve the processes under it.

Responses to both the Consultation and Survey are requested by 19 February 2025. After considering these, the Law Commission will decide on its recommendations for reform. A further consultation is anticipated on the details of the proposed changes before the final report is published.

The Commission has made clear that significant evidence supporting change will be needed to persuade it to recommend departing from the current contracting-out model, and it may be that any significant and potentially controversial reforms to the 1954 Act will struggle to get Parliamentary time. But it is certainly worth interested parties responding to the consultation to highlight and suggest solutions to those practical problems which could be remedied even without wholesale reform.