Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

My Lords, perhaps I may surprise the noble Earl by supporting his amendment. It is close to the dinner hour, but I like to create a little surprise on occasion. I do so because in Grand Committee the Minister said that the OFT report of 2004 did not deal with this problem, only with its remit of estate agency as then defined in the Estate Agents Act, which did not include the growing field of lettings and property management. I support what the noble Lords, Lord Best and Lord Dubs, in saying that whatever technical difficulties there may be and despite the fact that the OFT did not consider this matter in 2004, a way should be found, either through this amendment or following the Government’s consideration between now and Third Reading, so that this opportunity, as the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, put it, is not missed. There is nothing terribly magical about redress schemes. The scheme that is being proposed in the Bill could easily be extended now, rather than in five, 10 or 20 years, to a related problem in the work of estate agents.