Steve Double, Member of Parliament for St Austell and Newquay has welcomed the Government’s response to the ‘Strengthening Consumer Redress in the Housing Market’ consultation, which was published on Friday.
Securing better rights for new home owners is something that Steve has campaigned for since becoming an MP. This has included leading debates in Parliament on the National House Building Council and ways in which the industry could be reformed.
Commenting, Steve said:
“This is good news and a big step in the right direction from the Government in making things fairer for the home buyers.”
“I have often pointed out that currently new home buyers have less legal protection in their contracts than people who purchase a new mobile phone contract.”
“Clearly this needs to change and I am pleased the Government has listened and will be bringing forward a number of positive measures including legislative protection for home buyers, a New Homes Ombudsman and new guidance and codes of practice for housing providers.”
“As ever the devil will be in the detail and I look forward to seeing these proposals fleshed out and put in place for new home buyers in the future.”
The response from the Government commits to:
- Bring forward legislation to underpin a New Homes Ombudsman in statute, following the establishment of an interim voluntary service. Developers of new build homes must belong to the New Homes Ombudsman to participate in the new Help to Buy scheme post 2021.
b) Bring forward legislation to ensure access to redress for leaseholders, private tenants including residents of park homes and students in privately run accommodation, and buyers of new build homes. This includes delivering on the commitment to require private landlords to belong to a redress scheme. This will also include setting new conditions on the standards to which the redress schemes can be held.
c) Work with each housing sector to develop guidance and Codes of Practice setting out the standards to which housing providers, such as landlords and developers, should be held, including complaints handling.
d) Establish a Redress Reform Working Group to work with the relevant sectors and consumers to inform development of the new Housing Complaints Resolution Service, review existing minimum standards for complaints handling for redress schemes and providers, and identify how they could be improved and developed including through legislation where necessary.
The full response can be found via the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/strengthening-consumer-redress-in-housing