Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to ensure greater protection and improved redress for consumers where developers of new build homes fail to complete the development infrastructure and in the event that infrastructure utilities refuse to adopt that infrastructure.

The Government is committed to fixing our broken housing market, to ensure we have a housing market that works for everyone. We expect housing developers to deliver good quality housing, on time, and to treat house buyers fairly.

The majority of house builders are covered by an industry-led consumer code or warranty provider scheme which can offer resolution where things go wrong, but these do not always cover all issues. Where applicable, the industry-led Codes offer protection for the pre and post sales process and can include a completion timeframe. Where breaches of the code are evident, consumers can raise a complaint through the independent dispute resolution service. If consumers are unhappy with the warranty provider they can raise a complaint through the Financial Ombudsman Service.

It is right that developers are required to mitigate the impacts of development, and pay for the cumulative impacts of development on the infrastructure in their area. Specifically on the adoption of roads, this is covered under separate legislation (s.38 of the Highways Act 1980).

There are already existing enforcement powers available to local authorities to ensure developers comply with conditions of the grant of planning permission.

Through our package of planning reforms, which includes the revised draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the reforms to developer contributions, we’re putting more rigour into the system so that plans are clear about the obligations expected for infrastructure and affordable housing and developers are held to account in meeting them.

In February, we published the consultation “Strengthening consumer redress in the housing market”, to simplify the redress process so consumers have a clear and simple route to redress This follows the Secretary of State’s commitment from last November to explore options for improving redress in the housing market.