The Law Commission has issued an interim statement following its initial consultation on potential reform on the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, with its provisional conclusion there will be no substantive changes to security of tenure. 

The consultation which ran from 19 November 2024 to 19 February 2025 received over 160 responses from various stakeholders and, in summary, the Law Commission has concluded: 

1. The existing “contracting out” model is the right model, which means that landlords and tenants actively choose to exclude a lease from security of tenure. 
2. There will be no change to the list of excluded tenancy types (such as agricultural tenancies). 
3. The six-month threshold which excludes a tenancy from security should be increased. In a second consultation paper to follow, consultees will be asked whether the threshold should be increased to two years. 

It seems that those hoping for wide-range reform will be disappointed, although the general reluctance for change amongst stakeholders is probably not surprising. 

No date has been set for the Law Commissions second consultation paper but it will focus on the technical detail of how the 1954 Act might be reformed, including potential reform to the “contracting out” procedure itself. The Law Commission’s final recommendations for reform will be set out in a report following the second consultation. It will then remain to be seen whether the government will implement any of the recommendations.