Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to introduce legislation to require all property managing agents to be suitably qualified.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is committed to ensuring that those living in the rented and leasehold sectors are protected from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous property agents.
Property agents must already belong to a government-approved redress scheme. This legislative requirement is currently enforced by local authorities and National Trading Standards’ Lettings and Estate Agency Team, who have the power to issue warnings and banning orders to rogue estate and letting agents.
The redress schemes publish data on the number of complaints they receive, the amount awarded to consumers, and maintain a public list of agents that have been expelled from their respective schemes.
Managing agents play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates. Their importance will only increase as we transition toward a commonhold future, and so we are looking again at Lord Best’s 2019 report on regulating the property agent sector, particularly in light of the recommendations in the final Grenfell Inquiry report.
Many leaseholders face persistent delays and high costs when trying to sell their properties. Currently, freeholders and managing agents are responsible for providing essential sales information, but they often have little incentive to do so efficiently. Homeowners living on private or mixed tenure estates, who contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of communal areas, can face similar challenges when trying to obtain relevant information from their estate manager. The government will take forward measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (LFRA) which will speed up the provision of information for leaseholders and homeowners on private or mixed tenure estates who wish to sell their property, and protect sellers from unreasonable fees when requesting this information.
The previous government committed to regulate the property agent sector in 2018 and asked a working group Chaired by Lord Best to advise them how to do it, yet it failed to respond to their findings from 2019. Managing agents play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates, and their importance will only increase as we transition toward a commonhold future, and so we are looking again at Lord Best’s 2019 report on regulating the property agent sector, particularly in light of the recommendations in the final Grenfell Inquiry report.
On 4 July 2025, we launched a wide-ranging consultation on proposals to hold landlords and managing agents to account for the services they provide and the charges and fees they levy. This included the introduction of mandatory qualifications for managing agents and estate managers on freehold estates. This consultation closed on 26 September 2025, and we are analysing responses.
On 6 October 2025, the government announced the biggest shake-up to home buying in this country’s history, including proposing a future consultation on mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents. We also propose introducing a code of practice setting out the minimum standards expected of all residential property agents including estate, letting and managing agents.
We will set out our full position on regulation of estate, letting and managing agents in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 21 November (HLWS240), whether their consultation on the consumer protection provisions to ensure that homeowners paying estate management charges have better access to information will cover housing associations’ leaseholders.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As set out on 21 November, the Government intends to consult next year on implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 on service charges and on legal costs, bringing these measures into force as quickly as possible thereafter. These include measures to drive up transparency and will apply to housing associations who charge leaseholders service charges unless specifically exempted.
With regard to the question about the regulation of managing agents, I refer the Noble Lady to the answer I gave to HL2579 which was answered on 28 November 2024. The Government has committed to introducing a Competence and Conduct Standard for registered providers of social housing and will set out next steps for implementing the standard in the coming months.
Registered providers of social housing are required to deliver the outcomes set out in the Regulator of Social Housing's regulatory standards, including the requirement to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of tenants in their homes and associated communal areas.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 21 November (HLWS240), whether their plan to strengthen the regulation of managing agents including mandatory professional qualifications, will include landlords, including housing associations, which self-manage their estates rather than appointing independent agents.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As set out on 21 November, the Government intends to consult next year on implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 on service charges and on legal costs, bringing these measures into force as quickly as possible thereafter. These include measures to drive up transparency and will apply to housing associations who charge leaseholders service charges unless specifically exempted.
With regard to the question about the regulation of managing agents, I refer the Noble Lady to the answer I gave to HL2579 which was answered on 28 November 2024. The Government has committed to introducing a Competence and Conduct Standard for registered providers of social housing and will set out next steps for implementing the standard in the coming months.
Registered providers of social housing are required to deliver the outcomes set out in the Regulator of Social Housing's regulatory standards, including the requirement to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of tenants in their homes and associated communal areas.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to regulate housing associations with regard to obligations regarding their leaseholders, to ensure multi-occupancy buildings are properly managed in regard to fire safety, transparency of service charges, and compliance with lease requirements.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As set out on 21 November, the Government intends to consult next year on implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 on service charges and on legal costs, bringing these measures into force as quickly as possible thereafter. These include measures to drive up transparency and will apply to housing associations who charge leaseholders service charges unless specifically exempted.
With regard to the question about the regulation of managing agents, I refer the Noble Lady to the answer I gave to HL2579 which was answered on 28 November 2024. The Government has committed to introducing a Competence and Conduct Standard for registered providers of social housing and will set out next steps for implementing the standard in the coming months.
Registered providers of social housing are required to deliver the outcomes set out in the Regulator of Social Housing's regulatory standards, including the requirement to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of tenants in their homes and associated communal areas.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the qualifications that private property managers must hold before taking on the management of (1) private residential buildings and (1) mixed-tenure residential buildings.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Managing agents perform a critical role in managing and maintaining buildings, so it is vital that they provide a good service and are accountable to leaseholders for their actions. Many agents do so and with a high level of professionalism. The Government has not undertaken a specific assessment of the qualifications that managing agents must hold but we welcome the work of the industry itself to drive up standards across the sector. This includes ongoing efforts to encourage greater take up of professional qualifications and the development of Codes of Practice.
The Government will act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights, powers, and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, including those designed to increase service charge transparency.
Over the course of this Parliament, the Government will further reform the leasehold system. We will enact remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to enfranchisement and the Right to Manage, tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, reinvigorate commonhold through a comprehensive new legal framework, and ban the sale of new leasehold flats so commonhold becomes the default tenure.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether photo ID will be required for any recall petition and any subsequent by-election.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This is set out in legislation, in the Elections Act 2022, (Commencement No. 6 and Savings) Regulations 2022 and the Voter Identification Regulations 2022. Voters will be required to show photographic identification in order to vote at a polling station for any UK parliamentary by-elections or to sign the petition in person at any recall petitions.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on 18 October 2022 (PBC Deb 18 October 2022 col 789) where he stated that "the Government and I will engage in discussion with RICS about this in the coming weeks before further stages of the Bill", how many meetings have taken place between ministers and the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (RICS); what subjects were discussed at those meetings; and what steps they took as a result of those discussions.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Details of ministerial meetings are set out quarterly on gov.uk.
Further to those publications, senior officials and I met with the Earl of Lytton, the Chief Executive and the Chair of RICS on 7 February 2023 to discuss RICS' concerns regarding the clause.
Subsequently senior officials have met with RICS to discuss this further.
The Secretary of State also met with the CEO of RICS on 23 November 2022 as part of a wider meeting which included mortgage lenders. This meeting related to opening up the mortgage market for property affected by building safety.
I am happy to meet with the noble Baroness to discuss this further.