Unadopted Estates and Roads

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Alistair Strathern]

I thank my hon. Friend; she will be a powerful champion for the many residents in her community who are falling on the hard edge of this challenge. Sadly, she is far from alone. Far too many MPs from right across the country have been speaking to me about the issues that their constituents have been facing, too. Indeed, when we drafted a letter to try to challenge some developers about the growing prevalence of fleecehold practices, over 50 colleagues signed up in the first week, and many more have got in touch since to contribute to our work.

The Competition and Markets Authority identified that up to 80% of new homes are now going unadopted as a result of the practice, and far too often it is becoming the default model for new estate delivery across the country.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Unfortunately—or fortunately, whatever way we want to look at it—this is an issue not just in his constituency, but across the whole of the United Kingdom, including in Northern Ireland. Local councils will not go into unadopted housing estates for kerbside collection of bins in Northern Ireland because the roads are unadopted. Instead, residents must bring their bins to the entrance of the estate. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that more must be done to support elderly or disabled residents in new housing areas, to ensure that they are able to avail themselves of those council facilities that they pay the rates for, but cannot access just because they happen to be on an unadopted estate?

[Alistair Strathern]

I thank the hon. Gentleman. Again, he will be a powerful champion for his residents at the hard edge of the challenges with unadopted estates in his constituency. The example he highlights is powerful, because it is testament to the fact that more and more families living on unadopted estates are simply not getting the services that the rest of us who live on historically adopted estates take for granted from our local authorities.

The fleecehold stealth tax is at the heart of some of the inequity that this growing challenge creates. Right across the country, more and more families are on the hook to private management companies, paying fees of typically £350 or more a year for services that every other homeowner pays for through their council tax.