Property Service Charges

Pam Cox Excerpts

Thursday 30th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Pam Cox (Colchester) (Lab)]

I will see what I can do, Madam Deputy Speaker. Property service charges and the behaviour of the companies that levy them are causing real distress across the country. I thank the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) for her speech setting out those challenges.

In Colchester, I have heard from residents in Orchard Gardens, Colne View and Kingswood Heath who are being charged astonishing amounts—often thousands of pounds a year—for services that are either poorly delivered or not delivered at all. Many of those homes are managed by one company, and the House could guess that that company is FirstPort. When I walked into the Chamber, FirstPort had been named 39 times in the Chamber this year, but I imagine that has doubled in the course of this afternoon. It claims to be an “award- winning property management service” that

“makes sure customers feel safe and happy in their homes.”

I think we all have a little bit of news for FirstPort.

Retired residents in Orchard Gardens showed me demands for payments for services that they never received or for which they had already paid. Residents at the Colne View development have faced a 15-year battle over neglect, overcharging and obfuscation. They have faced extortionate service charges—sometimes doubling in a year—yet their buildings are left mouldy, unsafe and unclean. They feel bullied, belittled and beyond hope that they will ever resolve what has become a living nightmare. I am pleased to say that one of those residents, Chia, was able to come into Parliament last week to give some evidence to a panel of MPs organised by my hon. Friends the Members for Hendon (David Pinto-Duschinsky) and for Cities of London and Westminster (Rachel Blake), who have been working on this issue for some time. I hope the Minister will consider the evidence that was gathered.

[Anna Dixon]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

--- Later in debate ---

[Pam Cox]

I am advised not to, so that we can keep to time. Lord Best, chair of the Regulation of Property Agents Working Group, said in his recent evidence to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee that this “is an unregulated sector”, and his group has called for proper regulation. If property agents cannot behave responsibly, they must be held to account. This is about fairness, restoring trust, and ensuring that nobody in Colchester, or anywhere else, has to pay over the odds for basic services, or fight tooth and nail just to get a straight answer from companies like FirstPort. I urge the Minister to move at pace to implement this new framework.