Neil O'Brien has secured a Westminster Hall debate on so-called 'fleecehold' housing developments, to push for reform to the system.
Under this system (which Neil has written extensively on), the developer retains control of the land the housing is built on, and then is able to charge residents often exorbitant management fees to look after the area. All too often, these fees increase rapidly, and to make things worse, residents often find that the work they are paying for isn’t actually done, and then find that trying to get any redress is impossible: the firm sending the bills is opaque and uncontactable. People are sometimes billed for baffling things, such as one estate in this constituency, where residents were forced to pay to insure a fence against terrorism.
Neil said: "Back in the good old days, when life was simple, developers would build a new estate. Then, when it was finished, and once the council checked everything was up to standard, the council would adopt the roads and common parts, and the developer would make a payment to the council to look after it. The local council would then maintain the roads and paths, trim the verges and so on. If there was a problem, you could complain to them.
"Under fleeceholding it works differently. The developer and council agree that instead of the council looking after the common parts of the estate, a stand-alone company will do this instead. Sometimes the developer plans for this company to be handed over to the residents eventually, and sometimes they keep control of it themselves. The council will get to keep more of the money from the developer, and not have to maintain the estate. The developer pays less than they would otherwise. So the developer and the council effectively split the benefit, while residents of the new houses get shafted, and have to pay a big bill."
In this debate, Neil was able to get a response from the Housing Minister, Lee Rowley, who was keen to say the Government is working on this issue. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill is progressing through the relevant stages, and should grant leaseholders increased rights and protections. Neil will continue to push for the bill to be strengthened.
