Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Lord Sharkey Excerpts

Wednesday 16th January 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Sharkey]

I speak briefly and enthusiastically in support of Amendments 28ZH and 28ZJ. Other noble Lords have spoken eloquently and powerfully in favour of these amendments already and I do not want to repeat all their arguments, but I stress the real importance of this proposed measure to people’s lives. The absence of any kind of ombudsman scheme for letting agents is in itself an odd situation. It is tempting to say simply that if we can have an ombudsman scheme for estate agents surely it is obvious that we should have one for letting agents.

The absence of any such scheme for the private rented sector is not just an unfortunate gap in the regulatory or perhaps the redress landscape; it is an admission that can be the cause of real and prolonged distress. I have some personal experience of this. Two of my children lived in private rented accommodation until recently and for prolonged periods of time. The experience has been on the whole often unsatisfactory and occasionally downright distressing. On frequent occasions the dissatisfactions and distress were caused directly by the incompetence, inattention, procrastination and venality of the letting agent, and these were not always trivial occurrences. That is not surprising because we are discussing people’s homes.

We have heard a careful, well-argued and rational case for requiring letting agents to belong to an ombudsman scheme, but we should not let the rational and logical force of the argument blind us to the fact that the current situation can be and frequently is the cause of real emotional and financial distress. We know that the problem is widespread, with 40% of letting agents not signed up either to a professional body or a redress scheme. We know that it is the less well-off who experience the most dissatisfaction. We can see by looking at the amendments that the problem is easy enough to fix.

The amendment is not simply a tidying-up measure. It addresses a real, widespread, distressing and, above all, completely unnecessary problem. It is very encouraging to see that there is widespread support for the proposal of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, both current and historic. The noble Baroness has listed the current supporters and I would like to add my colleagues in the Commons to that list. Annette Brooke put down an Early Day Motion in the middle of last month calling essentially for the measures that are now before us. As for historic support, the noble Baroness has noted that as long ago as 2007 my honourable friend Mark Prisk argued forcefully in favour in the Commons.

I very much hope that the Minister will see the force in the noble Baroness’s arguments and in those of the other noble Lords who have spoken and of his colleague Mark Prisk. I very much hope that the Minister will be able to revenge Mark Prisk’s defeat at the hands of the previous Administration and accept this important amendment.