CMA publishes working paper on estate management

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published a working paper on the private management of public amenities on housing estates, with the government department suggesting greater protections for households paying estate management charges.

As part of its housebuilding market study, the CMA is inviting feedback on the private management of public amenities within new housing estates. It said this issue raised the most concerns in its initial statement of scope.

But it stated government action was needed to address estate management challenges, rather than a market investigation “at this stage”.

As stated on August 25 when it gave the areas of housebuilding it intended to address in greater detail, CMA said that over the past five years, public amenities – those not exclusive to residents of the new estate – were increasingly not being adopted by local authorities.

This meant that home owners were being required to pay a private management company to maintain amenities including roads, parks and street lighting, with concerns arising over uncapped charges and work quality.

In its working paper, the CMA, a non-ministerial government department, stated that as well as increasing consumer protections, to …