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I think there is a potential difficulty with changing 50 year leases into 999 year leases by Act of Parliament, in that the freeholder might well have a claim that his property was being appropriated and thus a breach of the Human Rights Act. Although property can be compulsorily purchased, the acquiring authority has to pay compensation. The government is not going to stump up.....

I think a more realistic option is for a new law to be introduced along the lines of if you want to grant any lease of a residential property it can be up to 20 years or 999 years (and nothing in between) and in the latter case at a fixed peppercorn rent. The start date would be publicised in advance, so nobody could complain about losing their Human Rights.

This could create a 2 tier market, but it would act to prevent the perpetuation of the present unfair system.