Hi, Southwark are our freeholders. We didn't have any problems in the conveyancing process but we've got some repairs that they, as freeholders, are liable to carry out and it's an absolute nightmare trying to get them to do anything about it. There are pluses in terms of having a large public body with elected representatives as the freeholder as at least there is someone you can get hold of to complain to etc and there are elected bodies, such as the Home Owners Council, to represent the views of leaseholders to the council. In my opinion, this is better than an absentee landlord who lives in another country who you can't get in touch with when something goes wrong. However, Southwark Council is a massive bureaucracy - so you've got that to contend with if you want to get anything done - and they're also in a large amount of debt and massively behind with their housing stock renovation programme (about 10 years behind is the last I heard) so I don't think leaseholders are high on their priority list in terms of repairs etc. Hence our situation. My advice would be, try and find a flat where you own a share of the freehold. It may be more expensive but at least you're in control!
