Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of service charges for (a) unadopted roads and (b) community spaces in (i) new build housing and (ii) private estate developments.

My Department does not hold data on the level of estate management charges for specific services.

Data was, however, provided by the Competition and Markets Authority as part of their recent housebuilding market study which can be found on gov.uk here.

The government is determined to end the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ entirely and we will consult this year on legislative and policy options to reduce the prevalence of private estate management arrangements, which are the root cause of the problems experienced by many residential freeholders. This consultation will help gather further data on this matter.

The government remain committed to protecting residential freeholders on private and mixed-tenure housing estates from unfair charges. This year we will consult on implementing the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act’s new consumer protection provisions for the up to 1.75m homes that are subject to these charges, and bring these measures into force as quickly as possible thereafter. These include ensuring that homeowners who pay an estate management charge have better access to information they need to understand what they are paying for, the right to challenge the reasonableness at the First-tier Tribunal (in England), and to go to the tribunal to appoint a substitute manager.