The British Property Federation, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Federation of Private Residents' Associations, the Estate Association and Propertymark have written a joint open letter to the new Housing Minister Angela Rayner, calling on the new Government to legislate the regulation of residential estate agents.
Industry groups believe agent regulation is key to the wider aim of raising standards in the residential property sector.
Please see the letter below.
Open letter to government on raising standards in the residential property sector
Angela Rayner MP
Secretary of State
Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
July 2024
Mr. Secretary of State,
Regulation of real estate agents
Firstly, I would like to offer heartfelt congratulations from our industry on your appointment to this important role. We share your strong commitment to good quality, safe homes in all tenures, well built and managed, sold or rented effectively, and putting residents' interests first in all decisions that affect them, so we are particularly pleased that you are taking up this post.
As we know, housing is a vital part of our nation's essential infrastructure. Good quality housing improves lives and leads to better outcomes for physical and mental health, social cohesion, children's education, crime rates and the economy as a whole. Poor quality housing harms the economy, health, social and education services and our sense of a fair society.
We, the undersigned, share the objective of raising standards across the housing sector to improve the living conditions and experiences of homeowners, renters and occupants.
Within this overarching goal, we call on the new Government to:
Setting standards through a code of conduct for those working in the housing agency industry, introducing mandatory qualifications and competency standards, and introducing regulation of estate agents in line with the above code of conduct and better regulation principles will ensure that individuals and firms raise standards of service.
“This is in line with the outcomes sought by Lord Best and his working group, whose report provides a considered framework that can be legislated into law. Professional bodies have long called for effective regulation in this area and we are ready to deliver it.”
We therefore welcome an early roundtable to discuss the new government’s proposals and its willingness to legislate in a way that has broad support, including from the ruling opposition, which argues that they have only been unable to act because of a lack of parliamentary time.
We look forward to hearing from you and hope to meet with you and your team as soon as your schedule allows.
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