Bedford Borough councillors have voted unanimously in support of a motion calling on the government to give local authorities powers to support residents in taking control of estate management companies.
The motion was moved by the Liberal Democrats at Full Council last night (Tuesday) and was passed with unanimous support from the Council.
It comes after the Bedford Independent highlighted the ongoing campaign by councillors across the Borough, including Cllr Jim Weir (Conservative), who has spent the last five years gathering evidence from residents and has recently amassed over 1,000 signatures on his petition calling on the abolition of the current system of charges in favour of a more transparent and fair scheme.
Read: Bedford Independent joins the fight against “unfair” estate management fees
These estate management charges have slowly crept in over the last 20 years and are now the industry norm as successive Governments have failed to act.
Following the meeting, Cllr Weir, ward councillor for Great Denham, said: “I am glad my fellow councillors from all parties agree that this issue has gone on long enough and will work with me to champion our residents’ causes with the Government to get the legislation changed for future developments and a redress system for existing developments already trapped in this dreadful system.”
Bedford Borough will now write as a council to the Housing Minister, Michael Gove, asking that speed is applied to the changes promised by his predecessor, Lucy Fraser.
She told Parliament, “We will be giving owners on these estates new rights to challenge costs and appoint a manager. We will also require private estate management companies to join a redress scheme.”
The Liberal Democrat candidate for Great Denham, Joanna Szaub-Newton said that estate management charges are “completely unfair for local residents” and at Full Council, she asked Mayor Dave Hodgson why the government have not made changes to estate management charges despite saying they would over five years ago.
Mayor Dave said: “The charges are unfair full stop. The government are letting these companies get away with charging residents for services without transparency which sometimes appear to be exorbitant.”
“The government’s problem is they are not talking about stopping these charges but only restricting how high they can go.
“The real problem is the lack of funding in local government to look after these estates and the fact the government continues to give developers the power over finance and governance and precludes residents from meaningful involvement in their own estates.”
Joanna said she would encourage all councillors and residents to put pressure on local MPs and the government to “hurry up and take action, so we can finally put end to these unfair charges.”
Speaking to the Bedford Independent, Cllr Weir said: “The fight goes on to get developers more aware of the reputational damage their brands are getting by not controlling the agents’ unfair and opaque charges and poor service and communication.
“It also goes on with Richard Fuller MP and the push to get primary and secondary legislation in place at speed.
“Richard, Cllr Sarah Gallagher and I have been working together non-stop to gather data which has now been used to raise questions in Parliament.
“Following the latest meetings Richard is pushing for a debate in Parliament and for the issue to be part of the King’s Speech to tackle what he calls Estate Management fees abuse.
“The fight goes on.”
