Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [Lords]

I begin by expressing thanks to the hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) for his words of welcome and by welcoming him to this brief. I also thank the hon. Member for Richmond Park (Susan Kramer) for her welcome and express good wishes to her in her new responsibilities. I endorse what my right hon. Friend the Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr. Clarke) said about the contribution that she has made to debates on the Bill in recent months. The hon. Member for Cotswold explained what new clause 1 would do. I must say to him that it would give the Government a very wide power to amend a central concept that underpins the Estate Agents Act 1979. He said in defence of the new clause that it might never be brought into effect, but it would not be sensible for the House to agree a measure if it did not want it to be enacted. The House would need to be comfortable that this was a reasonable measure before it agreed to its introduction. It would represent a large and, I suggest, ill-advised addition to the regulatory burden. There would be little restriction on how the power could be used. All sorts of activities could be brought within the definition of estate agency work if the Government of the day were so minded, albeit with the affirmative parliamentary procedure as a check. If there were a power to amend the section 1 definition, we would have to consider the implications for other pieces of legislation that rely on that definition such as the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991, the Money Laundering Regulations 2003 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. They all refer back to that definition. The 1979 Act was intended only to apply to those engaged in estate agency work. The controls imposed by the Act would not all be appropriate to impose on the other categories of commercial organisations that he suggested—lettings agents, property developers or other property professionals. We would also have to rewrite the rest of the 1979 Act to make it compatible with a new definition. For example, if lettings work were included in the definition of estate agency work, as the hon. Member for Cotswold suggested, we would probably also have to amend the definition of an interest in land. And if such a power were to be added, we would in effect have the ability to rewrite large chunks of the Act via secondary legislation. That on its own should give hon. Members pause for thought. Let me comment on the three categories to which the hon. Member for Cotswold drew attention. He rather unkindly said that the Government were carrying out some reviews as an alternative to action. I suggest to him and to the House that it is right to proceed on the basis of careful thought. The Office of Fair Trading is conducting a market study of the house building industry. The study will allow the OFT to consider the potential competition and consumer concerns in the market and will focus in particular on the delivery of housing and customer satisfaction. It will follow on from Kate Barker’s review of housing supply, which recommended that the house building industry should demonstrate increased levels of customer satisfaction. She also recommended that if progress was not satisfactory, the OFT should conduct a wide review of whether the market was working well for consumers. That study is now under way and is expected to report by the summer of next year. It is right to await the outcome of that work before we decide whether to take legislative action. We have also committed to undertake a wider property review to examine regulations and redress across a range of sectors, including lettings and whether further steps are needed. That review will be led by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Officials are drawing up the terms of reference for that work and looking at the timing, but it is expected to start in the summer.